I have a VMWare SQL 2000 Standard SP4 on Windows 2003 Server SP2 test box and I am looking for ways to speed it up. It has 4 cpu's and 4GB RAM. Granted it's only test however I have recently moved a 480GB database on it and I am performing some intensive queries and need to check the index fragmentation and possibly rebuild them, plus backup and restore VLDB's.

What steps can I take to speed this instance up - or is it just the nature of the beast ie - VMWare?

would 'Boost SQL priorty on Windows' help any?

Many thanks

qh