Plateau (1/15/2014)

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GilaMonster (1/15/2014)

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Oh, and turn boost priority OFF. It's a setting that should almost never be enabled

Will do Gail, would you mind explaining this?

Not being argumentative just wanting/trying to understand

priority boost Option

Use the priority boost option to specify whether Microsoft SQL Server should run at a higher Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 scheduling priority than other processes on the same computer. If you set this option to 1, SQL Server runs at a priority base of 13 in the Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 scheduler. The default is 0, which is a priority base of 7.

Caution:

Raising the priority too high may drain resources from essential operating system and network functions, resulting in problems shutting down SQL Server or using other operating system tasks on the server.

The “Boost SQL Server Priority” Instance Setting. This setting is like a shiny piece of candy that seems to attract many people. After all, who would not want to boost the priority of SQL Server and hopefully get better performance. Just like the Turbo button on ancient personal computers, right? It turns out that this setting does not help performance, and can actually destabilize the operating system, since the OS can be starved of CPU resources because of the priority given to the SQL Server process.

Based on actual support experience, you do not need to use priority boost for good performance. If you do use priority boost, it can interfere with smooth server functioning under some conditions and you should not use it except under very unusual circumstances. For example, Microsoft Product Support Services might use priority boost when they investigate a performance issue.

IMPORTANT Do not use priority boost for clustered servers that are running SQL Server 7.0 and later.