Here's some timings of some of these tests at various machines. sourceForge: the source forge site. _Very_ slow. You can't wget the files from it without the connection breaking and resetting several times. limeconcepts: Steve Benz's machine at home connected via a cable modem hgwdev: local UCSC machine, the one running the browser genomebrowser.wustl.edu: Ting Wang's machine in Washington University, St. Louis. s3.amazonaws.com: Amazon cloud. Cheap S3 storage. 174.129.3.246: Amazon cloud. Storage on genome browser mirror there. After some experimentation I saw that bedGraphToBigWig files were in practice faster than wigToBigWig. Attributing this to the zoom levels starting earlier in bedGraphToBigWig I changed wigToBigWig to begin the zoom levels sooner. This is what the sineSineFixed2 and sineSineFixed3 are, with sineSineFixed3 beginning earlier than sineSineFixed2, which is earlier than sineSineFixed. sourceForge:sineSineFixed.bw: Initial create - <1 second 100k new chrom 0.796 1.005 fail 1.376 sourceForge:sineSineFixed.wig.gz: Failed http://www.limeconcepts.com/sineSineFixed.wig.gz Initial create - started at 1:16 Timed out after 10 minutes http://hgwdev.cse.ucsc.edu/~kent/sineSineFixed.wig.gz Started at 1:46 Initial draw of 100K window 0.033 Redraw same window 0.032 Scroll right 0.033 0.041 0.051 Scroll left 0.033 0.037 0.038 Initial 1M window: 0.088 Scroll right: 0.077 0.085 0.194 Scroll left: 0.198 0.088 0.070 Initial 5M window: 0.111 Redraw same window: 0.524 Redraw same window: 0.130 http://genomebrowser.wustl.edu/twang_stuff/sineSineFixed.bw Initial Create < 1 sec Initial 100k window 1.808 Redraw same window 0.067 Scroll right 1070 1380 1053 Scroll left 89 66 89 Initial 1 M window 4.496 Scroll right 6.028 5.963 5.418 Initial 5M window 1.402 Redraw: 0.023 http://genomebrowser.wustl.edu/twang_stuff/sineSineFixed3.bw Initial Create < 1 sec Initial 100k window 1321 Redraw same window 0.032 Scroll right 0.597 0.654 0.976 Scroll left 0.036 0.031 0.034 Initial 1 M window 1.771 Scroll right 0.746 1.641 1.680 Scroll left 0.008 0.008 0.008 Initial 5M window 1.437 Redraw: 0.004 http://genomebrowser.wustl.edu/twang_stuff/sineSineFixed3.bw Initial Create < 1 sec Initial 100k window 1040 Redraw same window 0.034 Scroll right 0.500 0.572 0.572 Scroll left 36 34 28 Initial 1 M window 0.919 Scroll right 0.467 0.469 0.368 Scroll left 0.007 0.008 0.007 Initial 5M window 0.382 Redraw: 0.004 http://genomebrowser.wustl.edu/twang_stuff/sineSineFixed.wig.gz Started at 2:07 Timed out after 10 minutes http://genomebrowser.wustl.edu/twang_stuff/sineSineBed.bw Initial Create < 1 sec Initial 100k window 0.612 Redraw same window 0.026 scroll right 0.504 0.578 0.576 scroll left 0.046 0.034 0.027 Initial 1 M window 1.029 Scroll right 0.713 0.692 0.685 Initial 5M window 1.048 http://s3.amazonaws.com/genome.ucsc.edu/gbdb/hg19/bbi/sineSineBed.bw Initial create < 1 sec Initial 100k window 1.067 Redraw same window 0.026 Scroll right 0.685 0.730 0.598 scroll left 0.025 0.040 0.026 Initial 1 M window 1.365 scroll right 0.824 0.684 0.679 scroll left 0.012 0.012 0.011 Initial 5M window 1.180 Redraw same window 0.007 http://s3.amazonaws.com/genome.ucsc.edu/gbdb/hg19/bbi/sineSineFixed.bw Initial create < 1 sec Initial 100k window 1.595 Redraw same window 0.092 Scroll right 1.414 1.680 1.420 Scroll left 0.123 0.074 0.091 Initial 1 M window 2.298 Redraw same window 0.350 scroll right 3.269 2.974 4.662 Initial 5M window 1.221 Redraw same window 0.032 http://s3.amazonaws.com/genome.ucsc.edu/gbdb/hg19/bbi/sineSineFixed.wig.gz Initial create - started 5:07 - timed out after 10 minutes, but track succeeded http://174.129.3.246/testFile/sineSineBed.bw (amazon) Initial create < 1 sec Inital 100k window 1.005 Redraw same window 0.035 Scroll right 0.627 0.628 0.525 Scroll left 23 34 31 Initial 1M window 1.009 Redraw same window 0.010 Scroll right 0.716 0.716 0.715 Scroll left 0.011 0.010 0.011 Initial 5M window 1.1110 Redraw same window 0.007 http://174.129.3.246/testFile/sineSineFixed.bw (amazon) Initial create < 1 sec Initial 100k window 1.728 Redraw same window 0.076 Scroll right 0.978 1.298 0.980 Scroll left 0.121 0.063 0.077 Initial 1M window 2.798 Redraw same window 0.311 Scroll right 2.825 2.734 2.676 Scroll left 0.332 0.372 0.339 Initial 5M window 1.220 Redraw same window 0.030 http://174.129.3.246/testFile/sineSineFixed.bw (amazon) after 2x change Initial create < 1 sec Initial 100k window 1.012 Redraw same window 0.076 Scroll right 0.971 1.284 0.965 Scroll left 0.099 0.051 0.074 Initial 1M window 2.787 Redraw same window 0.309 Scroll right 2.807 2.815 2.791 Scroll left 0.338 0.374 0.317 Initial 5M window 1.220 Redraw same window 0.030 http://174.129.3.246/testFile/sineSineFixed2.bw (amazon) after 2x change Initial create < 1 sec Initial 100k window 1.723 Redraw same window 0.065 Scroll right 0.973 1.299 0.972 Scroll left 0.115 0.058 0.068 Initial 1M window 1.319 Redraw same window 0.039 Scroll right 0.835 0.847 0.846 Scroll left 0.046 0.042 0.036 Initial 5M window 1.110 Redraw same window 0.011 http://174.129.3.246/testFile/sineSineFixed3.bw (amazon) after 2x change Initial create < 1 sec Initial 100k window 1.005 Redraw same window 0.046 Scroll right 0.640 0.545 0.544 Scroll left 0.037 0.046 0.044 Initial 1M window 1.114 Redraw same window 0.048 Scroll right 0.750 0.749 0.750 Scroll left 0.049 0.046 0.039 Initial 5M window 1.210 Redraw same window 0.015 http://www.limeconcepts.com/sineSineFixed.bw Initial create - <1 second Initial draw in brwoser of 100k window: 1.356 Redraw same window: 0.108 Scroll right: 1.012 1.014 1.113 Scroll left: 0.071 0.071 0.111 Initial 1M window: 14.093 Scroll right:9.340 9.295 9.482 Scroll left: 0.281 0.326 0.373 Initial 5M window: 1.044 Redraw same window: 0.024 http://www.limeconcepts.com/sineSineFixed.bw (after 2x oversampling reduction) Initial create - <1 second Initial draw in browser of 100k window: 1.330 Redraw same window: 0.063 Scroll right: 1.005 1.114 0.980 Scroll left: 0.075 0.056 0.052 Initial 1M window: 9.732 Redraw same window: 0.311 Scroll right: 9.272 9.240 9.207 Scroll left: 0.364 0.358 0.305 Initial 5M window: 1.167 Redraw same window: 0.029 http://www.limeconcepts.com/sineSineFixed2.bw Initial create < 1 sec Initial 100k window 1.349 Redraw same window 0.070 Scroll right 1.002 1.125 0.982 Scroll left 0.095 0.056 0.069 Initial 1M window 1.045 Redraw same window 0.040 Scroll right 0.806 0.764 0.808 Scroll left 0.033 0.033 0.031 Initial 5M window 0.668 Redraw same window 0.011 http://www.limeconcepts.com/sineSineFixed3.bw Initial create < 1 sec Initial 100k window 0.943 Redraw same window 0.044 Scroll right 0.262 0.183 0.219 Scroll left 0.022 0.024 0.027 Initial 1M window 0.749 Redraw same window 0.026 Scroll right 0.412 0.452 0.478 Scroll left 0.030 0.025 0.036 Initial 5M window 0.712 Redraw same window 0.011