SQL Server 2005 maximizing performance

Our customer has a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 on Windows 2003 Server Enterprise, R2, SP2, 32bit. Running on Intel Xeon X5560 @2.80GHz, with 8 GB of RAM.

Occasionally, the users complained that the access to the server was slow. Although, that might be affected by other factors like workstation hardware, antivirus, etc.

But, I am thinking of maximizing the SQL Server itself.

I read about the "SQL AWE" option which could increase the memory allocation that can be used on the 32 bit OS.

Right now, the AWE is not enabled, I checked using "dbcc memorystatus", and I got result:

Memory Manager:
VM Reserved = 1694984 KB
VM Committed = 1691528 KB
AWE Allocated = 0
Reserved Memory = 1024
Reserved Memory In Use = 0

As I understood correctly, this 8GB of RAM is not being used optimally due to the 32bit OS.

Am I in the right direction here? I meant, if I enabled the SQL AWE, it will improve the SQL performance.

Note that I cannot change the hardware, and I cannot change the OS to 64 bits (not supported by our application).

Thanks.

Occasional end user complaints about "slow" isn't an indication of a SQL Server performance issue.

However, enabling this will improve caching of data but adds some small overhead of managing PAE. AWE requires PAE too.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#17887, answer score: 7