Swap on Linux

[Agent]

Well Debian, if it makes a difference.

Few questions:

If I add another disk to the computer, set it all up as swapable, in addition to the existing swap space on the root OS drive, will it use them both for maximum performance, or just the one?
(and kinda related)
Is it a case of more drives = always better, no matter their speed, or is it more complex that that?
The reason I ask is that I could make swap space on a USB drive, ala Readboost style.....but the USB is only 1.1, which I suspect is going to be useless.

Secondly, am I wasting my time as both of these drives would be on the same IDE channel?

Adding more RAM to the machine is not an option. It is simply not possiable. If there is any other ways of extending its usable amount / speeding things up (as a huge amount of swapping is going on for what I'm trying), please speak up

Cheers

[aidanjt]

Use swap mount option pri=1 on both entries in /etc/fstab, and the kernel will try to use both/all swap partitions equally.

Kinda, but not really, one 7,200 RPM disk can't fully saturate a PATA (assuming ATA-5 mode) channel, so a fair chunk of data should go to both disks at the same time.

[aidanjt]

Did you get that swap 'striping' sorted out, Agent?

[Agent]

Not yet, got a few things to sort out. Will give it a shot soonish

Thanks