How to speed up GWX loading times?

[Bosk]

Hi guys,

I'm a long time sub sim player, first time poster.


I've been playing SH3 for a few months and have recently installed the latest version of GWX.
It's amazing how it improves the game but the loading times are sssllllooooowww!

Since I plan on upgrading some of my PC components over the next few weeks I figure I'd ask what areas I should look at to speed up those loading times?
If software tweaks exist they'd also be great to know!


Right now I'm running-

E6300 @ 1.86ghz cpu
Asrock 775Dual-VSTA motherboard
2x512MB DDR2 667 ram
36GB 10k RPM Raptor hard drive
Generic 400W power supply
Geforce 8600GT 256MB


Any ideas what I can do to speed up my load times?
Thanks!

[Mikey_Wolf]

Well the main thing I used to do before we got the upgraded to AMD x2, was to disable all the background things running like anti-virus etc etc, to free up as much space as you can. Also defragmenting the hdd can help. Penelope did ours not so long back, I never defrag, I'm just too slothlike for that, and that helps a bit too.

Other than that not a great deal I think.

[JU_88]

Other than having more RAM (2GB is ideal), There is only ONE component that will significantly speed up loading times, that is your hard drive, CPU will make very little if any difference here, when a game or program loads, data is being transfered from the Hard drive to the RAM, the hard drive is the weakest link here, so when you see that loading bar, your CPU and RAM are basically 'waiting' on the hard drive to pull up all the data they need to run the game.

I see you have a 36GB Raptor drive!, whats your knowledge like on RAID?
Because you could create a RAID 0 Array, for this you willl need a RAID compatible motherboard and a second 36GB Raptor.

Raid 0 (striped) Two drives work in tandum, so when ever a chunk of data is sent to them it is split in half, so each drive each contains half of your data, The advantage is speed! its much faster than a single drive, the down side is protection, if one drive fails then all is lost as the second drive will be unreadable.
Capacity example: 2x 36GB drives in Raid 0 = 72GB total!

Raid 1 (mirrored) The opposite of Raid 0 instead of dividing the data, the second drive will be an exact copy of the first, so if one drive fails you have an instant backup, the down side is perfomance, in some cases its slower than having a single drive.
Capacity example: 2x 36GB drives in Raid 1 = 36GB total!

Then there is RAid 5 which is the best of both worlds but you will need at least 3 drive for this.

I strongly recomend that if you use Raid 0 for your C: drive (windows and programs), then use a larger single drive (or a RAID 1 array) for all your valuble data.
One thing I will add to this, Raid wont double your loading times but it will increase them significantly.

Oh -and get your self another 1GB or RAM too!


Hope this helps

[Mush Martin]

Hi Bosk, I dont have a way to speed up load times for career campaign
games, however I you look on My FF there is a mission builders
fast loading mod that will significantly speed up single mission
loading times and will also remove random units from your single
mission play.

on my FF it goes by the title MBFL mod.

http://hosted.filefront.com/MushMartin

I dont know if its what your looking for but it does what
it does well enough

Warning if MBFL mod is active in JSGME your campaign will ctd. however
once you disable MBFL in JSGME your campaign will be restored
unharmed.
MM