SQL Server 2008 Snapshot or NOLOCK hint for reading tasks?

Question

I've tried googling and MSDNing a lot but I don't find a concrete answer for this.

I have a database with some tables that are heavily written and almost no read, and another tables that are heavily read and less written in a about a 200:15 ratio.

I'm thinking in making a snapshot of the database each 15 minutes. Then I'd change the application to make all the heavy reading on the snapshot (I can tolerate data aged 15mins), and the writes (as well as any read needed for that write) on the main database.

Also I'd put the snapshot and the database in different physical disks.

Would this be more benefitial than to do the SELECTs with a NOLOCK hint?

What do you think would be a good solution to achieve more performance and avoid any locks on the heavy reading tasks?

The database is quite large (~4GB).

Thank you Luis

Answer 1

Nevermind. I just found an excellent article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187054.aspx explaining Snapshots and I see that they're not entirely physical, specially not for the reads.

I'm pointing to a complete different purpose.