Deputy Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 iThere seems to be a lot of disagreement about how to make your comp (and IL-2) run faster and better. From the looks of things it boils down to having a "balanced comp" where there are no bottlenecks slowing things up. The common suggestions are faster (or multiple) video cards with overclocking and gobs of onboard RAM, a faster processor, and more computer RAM. Those are all good suggestions, BUT, one thing people often overlook is their hard drive. If you are running an IDE hard drive that is spinning at 5400 RPM, then this can be a major bottleneck that can slow down your whole comp. At the very LEAST, you should be running a hard drive that spins at 7200 RPM. IDE and SATA hard drives are available that spin at that speed and they aren't very expensive. Next step up are the new ultra high speed SATA drives that run at 10,000 RPM. These are a bit pricey, so you'll have to shop around. But the difference they make from the slower 7200RPM drives is very impressive. First thing you'll notice is bootup times for WinXp will drop dramatically. And sims like IL-2 will perform MUCH better. I would suggest, if you buy a hard drive of this type, that you get the boxed non-OEM version. It costs a little more, but the OEM drives all seem to be arriving with bad sectors. And the boxed version will include all the cables and software to set the drive up. If you are running an older comp that doesn't have SATA connections, you may have to buy an adapter card to run a SATA drive. So check first before plunking down the cash. Also, some of these hard drives are not compatible with computers that use an enclosed box (or bay) to mount the hard drive. So be careful about what you buy. Finally, we have the SCSI drives. These are the kings of speed. Some of them spin at 15,000RPM!!! Unfortunately, they are pretty pricey, and in the less expensive versions, don't hold a lot of data. But if you want the ultimate in speed and data accees, SCSI is the way to go. Again, you may need to buy an adapter card and do some configuring to make it work. If you have all the "right stuff" put together in your comp, you should see some spectacular performance. But don't overlook the hard drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadTrooper Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 HI Deputy, Thanks for your advise. I'll take good not of that. I'm planning of upgrading my comp in the spring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deputy Posted December 29, 2008 Author Share Posted December 29, 2008 Your welcome Mad. I will need an upgrade on the HD on my comp. I'd like to go with either the 10K SATA or a SCSI. But the SCSI may be out of my price range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quazi Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 I have found that running two 7200rpm HD's in a Raid 0 is nearly as fast as running a Raptor. Allot of m8s steer clear of Raid 0's but I have run a Raid 0 array since March of '05 and have never had a problem, and this is with older HD's that do not have the newer technology called TLER that makes running Raid 0's a bit safer supposedly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deputy Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 So far the hard drive I have in the one comp seems to be able to handle things okay. If I go to a new one, I am looking at the Western Digital Velociraptor Model: WD3000GLFSRTL. It has good size (300GB) and good RPM (10,000). http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=459 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stingray Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 I would love to get a 10k rpm drive and just put FSX, DCS:BS,Lockon, Il2 and other games on it, I am sure the load times would be dramatically improved. Stingray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stingray Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 So far the hard drive I have in the one comp seems to be able to handle things okay. If I go to a new one, I am looking at the Western Digital Velociraptor Model: WD3000GLFSRTL. It has good size (300GB) and good RPM (10,000). http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=459 Those look awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perfesser Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Read times are around 8ms for a 7200 drive, 4-5ms for a 10K. Dunno the read times for the 15K Hard drives fail folks. Everyone needs a second as a spare. So 2 smaller drives are better than one big one. I have 2 in my system, a 75G Raptor as well as a 35G Raptor, had em both for a few years now. Even when you have unrecoverable issues with one drive you can often transfer data off it before it becomes unusable either from hardware failure or a corrupt OS. Install your Operating System on both drives, it will only boot from the primary and ignore the OS on the second drive. If you ever have a problem you just swap the wires and it boots off the second drive keeping you and your data safe. Even if you are one of those who feels the need to re-format regularly you can clear one drive to the other(documents, pics, dowloaded programs), do the format, and swap data back fast without all that downloading...looking for disks... Whatever drive you have now, get a small 10K RPM drive(or faster), run your programs off that as your primary, any drive is fine for storage...anything but games really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD_Brando Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Yes, I agree with the advice here in this thread. I've been using Raptors since their introduction, and the improvement in function is definitely noticeable. Western Digital have been upping the space on them too, so that, for example, multiple installations of IL2 are quite possible without clogging up the works. I shifted my old install of IL2 off to my secondary drive recently, so that I could make a vanilla rebuild using the 352nd's version of the game. I've since tried flying the version now residing on my 7,200 rpm Caviar and, although it functions fine, the seek time and game initialisation seem much slower than what I've gotten used to. I got used to games loading quickly. In fact I'm now saving up for the new 150GB WD Velociraptor. With a bit of luck the price will drop a bit as my pennies increase. Next to a SCSI set-up this has to be the best deal, and a very effective way to make "your comp (and IL-2) run faster and better" B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1. DDz Quorum B16Enk Posted January 23, 2009 1. DDz Quorum Share Posted January 23, 2009 Hmm. I have 8 18.2GB UW SCSI drives and a Compaq Smart Array controller, I wonder if my mobo has a 64bit slot...now that would make a fast drive setup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD_Brando Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Hmm. I have 8 18.2GB UW SCSI drives and a Compaq Smart Array controller, I wonder if my mobo has a 64bit slot... ...and a small power station? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1. DDz Quorum B16Enk Posted January 23, 2009 1. DDz Quorum Share Posted January 23, 2009 ...and a small power station? Close...I have a rather large UPS and the disks are currently in an HP server hooked up to it. Talking of power stations, you should see the power infrastructure at Reuters, the cables are as thick as a mans arm. I'm sure the building glows at night the amount of power going into it to run 5000+ servers... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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