partitioning hard drive

[caldera]

Would having AH on a separate partition help map rendering speed or FPS at all? 

[Butcher]

Not that I know of, but having useless things in the background shut down help - like Windows for example, if you shut down certain details you can improve FPS, or turn your graphics from Quality to Performance.

Just find the best median for 40+ FPS

tell me your FPS and what settings in game you have on, also what settings on your video card do you have on? what programs?

[guncrasher]

cal I partition my hd into 3 parts for simple reason is if windows crashes all I would have to do is delete the partition where windows is location.  I have ah  in it's own partition and even though I would have to reinstall the game, I wouldnt lose all my data.  I also have a 3rd partition where I keep some programs that I installed but just to find it easier to delete rather than trying to figure out where in the windows directorty the folder is.   I have thinks like wot, fraps, speed fan, things that really arent part of windows.

of course I also have 2 hd's and that makes it 6 partitions, but it makes it easier to organize stuff.  all my ah movies are in one, songs on another.....


semp

[caldera]

Not that I know of, but having useless things in the background shut down help - like Windows for example, if you shut down certain details you can improve FPS, or turn your graphics from Quality to Performance.

Just find the best median for 40+ FPS

tell me your FPS and what settings in game you have on, also what settings on your video card do you have on? what programs?

Have only 30-31 programs running (windows7-64) and frame rates usually in the 50s but have the detail sliders halfway and stuff like enemy skins off. 
video card is a 9800GTX+ running things "application controlled" and "quality" on the Nvidia control panel, as well as one notch of AA in the AH video settings.

Nothing to complain about, but smoke and big crowds sometimes slow things down.  I've also noticed that for a few years now, the film viewer takes a lot longer to load a film (and has stuttering that never occurs in-game) but that may be another issue.

When I first built this machine, it ran the game with everything maxed out at 59 FPS on a 27" monitor but now that isn't possible.  Trying to make the most of what there is to work with.  Not sure what my hard drive speed is (WD 300gb) but the performance rating in windows is only 5.9.  Still have a ton of room on it (267 gb iirc) so no issue there.

cal I partition my hd into 3 parts for simple reason is if windows crashes all I would have to do is delete the partition where windows is location.  I have ah  in it's own partition and even though I would have to reinstall the game, I wouldnt lose all my data.  I also have a 3rd partition where I keep some programs that I installed but just to find it easier to delete rather than trying to figure out where in the windows directorty the folder is.   I have thinks like wot, fraps, speed fan, things that really arent part of windows.

of course I also have 2 hd's and that makes it 6 partitions, but it makes it easier to organize stuff.  all my ah movies are in one, songs on another.....


semp

My system is rock solid and never crashes (well knock on wood  ). 

[guncrasher]

mine has a couple of times.  but it makes the difference between spending 20 min reinstalling windows or hours trying to figure out where your back up is .

the only thing you may have to do is upgrade the video card.  that card was one of the best 3 years ago but with the new eye candy you may want to update.  assuming you have at least an e8400 cpu.


semp

[caldera]

My system just so happens to be an E-8400 (3.0 ghz).  I also just so happened to order a new card yesterday - after seeing that Stuka video that HiTech posted.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-127-566&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=3#scrollFullInfo


Does the hard drive have anything to do with game performance or is it mostly GPU or CPU power?  Also have 8 gb of 1066 ddr2 if that means anything.

[Chalenge]

I dont think there is any benefit from using partitions because OS operations and program operations have to occur through the same hardware controllers and it cant be good. I dont think it does much for the cache efficiencies either. Probably you are better off getting a hard drive controller card as well but separate drives are the first step (OS and programs). With programs like Premiere and video editing it helps to have two drives off of the OS drive (not partitions of the same drive) where one is for video and one for audio. Personally I would like to be able to use more than a single drive for AH (sounds and textures) but we have it as it is.

[morfiend]

When is the last time you defragged your HD?

  This is 1 reason to put AH in it's own partition,so you can defrag that partion quicker.



   

[caldera]

I dont think there is any benefit from using partitions because OS operations and program operations have to occur through the same hardware controllers and it cant be good. I dont think it does much for the cache efficiencies either. Probably you are better off getting a hard drive controller card as well but separate drives are the first step (OS and programs). With programs like Premiere and video editing it helps to have two drives off of the OS drive (not partitions of the same drive) where one is for video and one for audio. Personally I would like to be able to use more than a single drive for AH (sounds and textures) but we have it as it is.

Don't more drives = more heat and more blockage of the front fan?  What's your opinion on SSDs? 

When is the last time you defragged your HD?

  This is 1 reason to put AH in it's own partition,so you can defrag that partion quicker.



   

The system gets defragged every week from the task scheduler thingy.




Thank you all for the help, btw. 

[zack1234]

I had a virus on my pc other month, some search engine Blekko would appear as a search engine and could not be deleted. Also microsoft essentials and firwall was corrupted.

I have partitioned my HD into 3 and have i installed windows 7 onto drive C.

Can this new partition be infected by the other moody partition?

Is better to fit in another physical drive as my pc has carriages to slot in 3 other drives?

[Chalenge]

Don't more drives = more heat and more blockage of the front fan?  What's your opinion on SSDs? 

Depends on the case you use at to what happens with heat. My case has a giant fan at the front pushing air for the hard drives.

I think SSDs are a complete waste of money; a gimmick which I define as a feature that makes something standout but without relevance.

The real question you need to ask yourself is whether your specific space requirements agree with your budget concerning the price for an SSD and whether that requirement will change as time goes by. SSDs are not likely to come down in price for a while (probably years) but right now is not a bad time to buy larger hard drives. In fact the next breakthrough will probably give you even more space on a HD while the SSD will remain as it is.

[gyrene81]

Depends on the case you use at to what happens with heat. My case has a giant fan at the front pushing air for the hard drives.

I think SSDs are a complete waste of money; a gimmick which I define as a feature that makes something standout but without relevance.

The real question you need to ask yourself is whether your specific space requirements agree with your budget concerning the price for an SSD and whether that requirement will change as time goes by. SSDs are not likely to come down in price for a while (probably years) but right now is not a bad time to buy larger hard drives. In fact the next breakthrough will probably give you even more space on a HD while the SSD will remain as it is.

amazing, seems the real world isn't listening to you, ssd prices have decreased to very competitive levels in the past 12 months. without the limitations of mechanical drive technology,  they are hardly a "gimmick" or "waste of money", welcome to the 21st century.

[guncrasher]

amazing, seems the real world isn't listening to you, ssd prices have decreased to very competitive levels in the past 12 months. without the limitations of mechanical drive technology,  they are hardly a "gimmick" or "waste of money", welcome to the 21st century.

you can get at least 10x's the space for the same price with regular hd as oposite to ssd's. 


semp

[Chalenge]

amazing, seems the real world isn't listening to you, ssd prices have decreased to very competitive levels in the past 12 months. without the limitations of mechanical drive technology,  they are hardly a "gimmick" or "waste of money", welcome to the 21st century.

Irrelevant. Your bending of the word "competitive" seems a bit strained in reality. My space requirements on my boot drive are for at least 400GB. With a little spare room thats somewhere between 450 and 500 which will cost $500. I can get a 1TB HD for $100. Gimmick + waste of money = bling.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Irrelevant. Your bending of the word "competitive" seems a bit strained in reality. My space requirements on my boot drive are for at least 400GB. With a little spare room thats somewhere between 450 and 500 which will cost $500. I can get a 1TB HD for $100. Gimmick + waste of money = bling.

Says the man who has tri-sli. Classic 

SSD is like turbocharging the computer. I/O increases so much that any operation depending on it will improve vastly.