>>>I am ordering a Compaq server that will run MS SQL Server. To upgrade from 256 to 512 pipeline burst cache costs $1000, so I'm told. Is it worth it? I'm not even sure what pipeline burst cache is. >>> >>>Thanks, >>>Ross >> >>Funny, it cost me about $50. But I don't use a Compaq. I have been told that with EDO RAM pipeline cache is not as important as it was. I have not confirmed this but they seemed pretty confident. If you have a non-EDO RAM memory PC and the Compaq pipeline is < $100 (like it should be -- or you can search for a better outlet) then it is worth upgrading to. >> >>Tom >I am no hardware guru, so someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the pipeline cache, buffers I/O to/from the CPU. If you are using the machine as a server and are interested in moving lots of data, I would recommend that you focus on the controller and hard drive. A PCI SCSI Caching Controller with 4 or 8 MB RAM (or more) attached to a good fast SCSI drive will do much more to increase throughput than worrying about the pipeline cache. Your absolutely right about mass data transfer. But the PLB Cache will cache instructions. This means instead of the CPU having to fetch from main memory the CPU first will check the faster PLB Cache to see if what it needs is there. Especially in older PCs (what is old? (s)) increasing your PLB Cache from 256 to 512 can be "like" going from 16 to 32 Megs of RAM. I don't think it is quite as important in the brand new PCs but for the price of around $50 (last I heard) it may not be a bad idea to get it. I think it helped my server. Tom