If we're going this route then the advice should be to move to 64bit where std 2005 has unlimited memory ( well actually to o/s limit )

But it's all very...

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yes this is a way and should work for defined queries but maybe of less help where the query varies. I've not used this technique so I guess I should...

as always it just depends, however, if you have the window then daily. If I have the window and it doesn't cause issues I will re-index every day, I'll always...

yes table valued functions are one way around this, although you have to be a bit carefull when you use them inside a complex join.

you really have to examine the query plan to see if there are any possible improvements. If you're struggling with indexes then the tuning advisor may just confuse you further.

Queries...

we seem to visit this question with unfailing regularity. If queries run different then there will be a reason.  To be honest I've never really encountered this type of problem...

I agree - you need to find out what is expected of you. I work with production systems but at many levels so as I specialise in application and server...

however 2005 std follows o/s memory so can use more than 2gb.

You may find the differences between std and enterprise significant, remember many features run single threaded in STD edition...

hmm, it appears US summer time would have started a week after the uK but will now start two weeks before. The servers I watch over are in an outsourced...

licensing is per socket - the number of cores doesn't count. ( I'm not so sure about HT however )

as to what you choose - most DBA's go for the...

this may help  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933508

sp4 has some problems ( so I'm told ) which are resolved with the 2187 rollup. You must apply the awe patch if you apply sp4. I personally haven't seen...

Turning off parallelism for the entire server is not a good thing as many other things may go slow, backups, index rebuilds, reports etc. etc. I have one server where...

well I never did sp4 without the awe patch, which shows as version 2040, but i've mostly rolled up to 2187 of late, so no I never had any awe...