title: Fastest way to save and load a large dictionary in Python
body: <p>I have a relatively large dictionary. How do I know the size? well when I save it using <code>cPickle</code> the size of the file will grow approx. 400Mb. <code>cPickle</code>  is supposed to be much faster than <code>pickle</code> but loading and saving this file just takes a lot of time. I have a Dual Core laptop 2.6 Ghz with 4GB RAM on a Linux machine. Does anyone have any suggestions for a faster saving and loading of dictionaries in python? thanks</p>