title: MySQL performance bottlenecks
body: <p>I have a rather simple query</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT col1 FROM table1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This command outputs about 300K+ entries per second, which sounds reasonable, yet other methods for mass decoding of saved data (e.g. array deserialization) works at the limit of what the hard drive enables, i.e. 40-50 MB/s, compared with 2-3 MB/s with MySQL.<br></p>
  
  <p>I see that my MySQL machine is CPU bound, and I reckoned there must be a simpler solution to continue to use MySQL and enjoy double figure speed throughput (for queries complex in the same order of magnitude, of course) without spending a fortune on hardware</p>
  
  <p>Any ideas how to fiddle with the server to make this happen?</p>
  
  <p><br></p>
  
  <p>EDIT: I use the MyISAM engine
  <BR><BR><BR>
  EDIT: The server is already a decent machine so I'm not trying to pinch my pennies here...</p>