performance of rootdbs in non-raw file

I have a client who created their rootdbs in a Unix file instead of a raw device. I'm wondering what kind of hit this is going to be performance-wise. The rootdbs only contains whatever system files Online created there - no user databases are there. Is it worth it to move the file to a raw device or is all the administrative info stored in there pretty much read into memory when Online starts up (the DB doesn't have many tables)??? My guess would be that this administrative info wouldn't have to be accessed too frequently, since most action is seen on actual data chunks. But this guess conflicts with the recommendations of moving the Physical and Logical log files to dbspaces other than the rootdbs - why is that?? Thanks. -- * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Blah Blah Lounge - "Do You Have Something Smart To Say?" Cosmo Lee email: cosmo@echonyc.com Brooklyn, NY * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *