SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post

JU_88 · 09-01-07, 04:23 AM

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

09-01-07, 04:23 AM	#3
JU_88 Silent Hunter Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: UK Posts: 3,803 Downloads: 11 Uploads: 0	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 Last edited by JU_88; 09-01-07 at 04:42 AM.