I need help and advise regarding partitions and performance!

[Dark_Placebo]

a question… and i need advice… i have 2 HDD, 80gb and 250 gb…

the 80 gb.. partitioned into two… 20 and 60… (20 for win xp and 40 for vista)

Everytime i install games… i put it in the 250 GB hdd (no partitions)….not on the 20 gb partition (Windows xp is installed here)…

Is that advisable ? or stick with the norms…..install the games in the partition where OS is also installed...


(ive read that it performs better instead of installing the games in different PHYSICAL DRIVE)… thanks a lot !!!!

 

[coronaz]

For good performance store your page file on the 250gb drive, not the on a partition with os installed.

 

[Dark_Placebo]

what do you mean by page file ? can i raid the two drives and is it advisable ?

 

[coronaz]

page file is windows virtual memory.. it's what programs use when RAM is unavailable.. can be changed via right click on my computer -> properties -> advanced tab -> performance settings -> advanced tab -> and you can change virtual memory in there. This can improve performance.. as when running programs the hd is always accessing os files, if the page file is on a seperate disk the hd doesn't need to compete between program files and page file...

As for RAID.. the max you will get out of your 250gb drive is 80gb as it takes the min size x2.. i.e. 80gb x 2 = 160gb.. which would waste the 170gb of your 250gb drive. Ideally for RAID0 drives should be of equal spec, ie size, rpm and cache size..

 

[Dark_Placebo]

okay, let me clarify....

install the OS and ALL OF THE PROGRAMS... on the 80 gb hdd....

then put the page file on the 250 GB ?

all other important files should go to the 250 gb ?

is that correct ?

what would be the setting for the page file ? can you kindly walk me through ? (basic steps)

and also....

would you recommend having a RAID ? ill buy another 80 gb if needed...

is the performance boost really evident ?

thank you very much !!!!!

 

[coronaz]

Yeh, I would put the os and your basic apps on 80gb.. and then install perhaps games on the 250gb.

To set up page file:
1. Go to system properties dialog
2. Click on Advanced tab
3. Click on the settings button in performance options
4. Click on Advanced tab
5. Click on the change button in virtual memory options
6. You will see a list of your drives, e.g.

c: (80gb drive)
d: (250gb drive)

7. Set c: to not use a page file and click on set.
8. Set d: to use custom page file, I use:

min 50000mb (5gb)
max 50000mb (5gb)

Click on set.

9. Click ok.. you will then need to restart.

As for RAID0 there is definately an improvement in performance, but mainly in loading times. E.g.

If you had 2 7200rpm drives in RAID0 mode, you basically now have 1 x 14400rpm drive.. windows splits the files over two drives so it can access them twice as fast.

In vista my single 250gb 16mb cache 7200 rpm drive had a vista score of 5.3, in RAID0 with 2 of these I get a score of 5.9(max score). If you go for raid0 you will need to format the drive and reinstall everything.

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[samsayit]

RAID0 is, as it is being pointed out, very fast since it is data striping. That means files are striped across both disks, and when reading and writing it can be done on both disks at the same time, thus giving you a theoretical twice the performance.

Be aware however that this is on behalf of greater risk! If one disk fails, ALL data is lost since it is not redundant like RAID1.

 

[Dark_Placebo]

w00t w00t !!! thanks alot guysz !!!

 

[Detson]

As has already been stated, he cannot use RAID because that would limit his space to that of the smallest of the two drivers. Note: many games assume that they've been installed to the C:\ drive, and placing them somewhere else can cause incompatibility. Just something to consider. Why not use one OS, XP, for games, and the other for office apps etc.?

 

[Twisted_Sister]

Yeh, I would put the os and your basic apps on 80gb.. and then install perhaps games on the 250gb.

To set up page file:
1. Go to system properties dialog
2. Click on Advanced tab
3. Click on the settings button in performance options
4. Click on Advanced tab
5. Click on the change button in virtual memory options
6. You will see a list of your drives, e.g.

c: (80gb drive)
d: (250gb drive)

7. Set c: to not use a page file and click on set.
8. Set d: to use custom page file, I use:

min 50000mb (5gb)
max 50000mb (5gb)

Click on set.

9. Click ok.. you will then need to restart.

As for RAID0 there is definately an improvement in performance, but mainly in loading times. E.g.

If you had 2 7200rpm drives in RAID0 mode, you basically now have 1 x 14400rpm drive.. windows splits the files over two drives so it can access them twice as fast.

In vista my single 250gb 16mb cache 7200 rpm drive had a vista score of 5.3, in RAID0 with 2 of these I get a score of 5.9(max score). If you go for raid0 you will need to format the drive and reinstall everything.

Hope this helps a bit.

How much space does the page file need? Is 5gb a proven number? Also, would it be better to create a seperate partition on D (call it E) for the 5 GB that is exclusively for paging?

Thanks

 

[samsayit]

How much space does the page file need? Is 5gb a proven number? Also, would it be better to create a seperate partition on D (call it E) for the 5 GB that is exclusively for paging?

Thanks

Usually the pagefile is recommended to be 1.5 the size of your physical memory, but there are many opinions of that. It should however at least be the size of your physical memory, not less.
The best is to set it to a static size (= the same amount for minimum and maximum), this way the pagefile size won't have to be calculated runtime.

 

[Twisted_Sister]

How much space does the page file need? Is 5gb a proven number? Also, would it be better to create a seperate partition on D (call it E) for the 5 GB that is exclusively for paging?

Thanks

Usually the pagefile is recommended to be 1.5 the size of your physical memory, but there are many opinions of that. It should however at least be the size of your physical memory, not less.
The best is to set it to a static size (= the same amount for minimum and maximum), this way the pagefile size won't have to be calculated runtime.

Is 20GBs overkill? (2GB physical ram... moving up 6gb in a few months). I'm a heavy photoshop user. And will the partition idea make it run even faster (giving it an exclusive partition to the exact size).

 

[samsayit]

[
Is 20GBs overkill? (2GB physical ram... moving up 6gb in a few months). I'm a heavy photoshop user. And will the partition idea make it run even faster (giving it an exclusive partition to the exact size).

Yeah I would say 20 gigs is too much, don't think you would ever need it. So you're saying you will total 8 gigs of physical memory? In that case maybe between 8 and 12 gigs pagefile, but I'm curious if anyone has some opinions here about this when we're talking this much...

 

[firemist]

Is 20GBs overkill? (2GB physical ram... moving up 6gb in a few months). I'm a heavy photoshop user. And will the partition idea make it run even faster (giving it an exclusive partition to the exact size).

What OS are you running on (XP, Vista, 32/64)? 'Cause there is no one correct answer to this. There is a good article on this for XP here:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Since you are a heavy photoshop user there may be articles specific to large memory systems and photoshop on the Adobe support sites.

 

[Twisted_Sister]

Is 20GBs overkill? (2GB physical ram... moving up 6gb in a few months). I'm a heavy photoshop user. And will the partition idea make it run even faster (giving it an exclusive partition to the exact size).

What OS are you running on (XP, Vista, 32/64)? 'Cause there is no one correct answer to this. There is a good article on this for XP here:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Since you are a heavy photoshop user there may be articles specific to large memory systems and photoshop on the Adobe support sites.

Vista 64 (btw - runs great so far)