  I compare various popular and unpopular techniques for simulating large
collisionless stellar systems. I give a quantitative comparison of the raw cpu
times required for five separate codes, including tree codes and basis function
expansions, which demonstrate that grid codes are most efficient for large
numbers of particles. Since efficiency is only one consideration when choosing
a code, I discuss other strengths and weaknesses of the various methods. While
some applications may require the maximum possible number of particles, I argue
that quiet start techniques can often permit reliable results to be obtained
with moderate particle numbers. I suggest a quiet start procedure for spherical
stellar systems and show that it leads to a significant reduction in the
relaxation rate. The combination of efficient codes and quiet starts allows
many galactic dynamical problems to be tackled without the need for
supercomputers.
