Hello all, I'll try to make this easy to read!
Intro/Specs:
I currently have a PC that I built roughly a year ago. Here are the specs off the top of my head (I'm at work, I forget all the exact parts):
■Core 2 Duo 2.4(6?)ghz OC'ed to 3.0ghz on a nice Zalman cooler. (E6600(?) Conroe)
■Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (rev. 3.3) motherboard. It turned out very nice for learning how to OC. Unfornataly the FSB temp limits my OC. The CPU can go 3.2ghz+ but the FSB goes over 60 degrees C.
■8800GTS 620MB stock cooler and speed.
■4x 1GB GIEL Ultra DRR 800 ram (I believe it's slightly underclocked because of my CPU OC and multiplyer. I also set the latency pretty tight from memory). However 4 of these sticks next to each other gets HOT to touch. Very hot. Actually, I initially had only 2x 1gig but added another 2x 1gig sticks a few months ago.
■320GB Seagate 7200.9. Thats all. I need more space!
■No sound card.
■Antec 900, and an Antec NEO something or other PSU, plenty of watts (considering one video card).
The Problem(s):
I need to drop Vista 64 and go back to XP 32! This is for various reasons. Also I know the issues with 32 bit OS's and 4gig RAM. If i had 8gig I'd get a 64bit OS, but I dont need 8gig ram for what I do. And I still have my Vista DVD and key for when I eventually get a new mobo and 8gb of ram.
I also need more storage! I would like to FRAPS things.
The Solution?
So I wanted to tackle both of these problems at once: Use my old drive as a backup drive or in my old PC, and get some new drives and install XP.
So what drive combinations do people recommend, and what would be the best way to install the OS on this drive configuration? I'm under the impression RAID0 is not at all worth it for gaming. Loading times do not worry me much either, just smooth gaming and the highest FRAPS performance in World of Warcraft as possible.
I assume something like this:
Smallish (150gb?) drive for Windows.
750 drive where I install software, games, etc?
750 drive that stores all my files, movies, music, and record fraps to this drive?
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Oh, and in terms of performance, all I really care about is World of Warcraft performance. I can run Crysis and other games very well at high settings, but WoW chugs along quite slowly (from 45fps to 20fps depending on the area and amount of people around me, and frapsing is all but impossible). I'm told Vista 64 bit does not handle WoW very well, likewise with fraps.
Thanks again,
Michael.
Intro/Specs:
I currently have a PC that I built roughly a year ago. Here are the specs off the top of my head (I'm at work, I forget all the exact parts):
■Core 2 Duo 2.4(6?)ghz OC'ed to 3.0ghz on a nice Zalman cooler. (E6600(?) Conroe)
■Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (rev. 3.3) motherboard. It turned out very nice for learning how to OC. Unfornataly the FSB temp limits my OC. The CPU can go 3.2ghz+ but the FSB goes over 60 degrees C.
■8800GTS 620MB stock cooler and speed.
■4x 1GB GIEL Ultra DRR 800 ram (I believe it's slightly underclocked because of my CPU OC and multiplyer. I also set the latency pretty tight from memory). However 4 of these sticks next to each other gets HOT to touch. Very hot. Actually, I initially had only 2x 1gig but added another 2x 1gig sticks a few months ago.
■320GB Seagate 7200.9. Thats all. I need more space!
■No sound card.
■Antec 900, and an Antec NEO something or other PSU, plenty of watts (considering one video card).
The Problem(s):
I need to drop Vista 64 and go back to XP 32! This is for various reasons. Also I know the issues with 32 bit OS's and 4gig RAM. If i had 8gig I'd get a 64bit OS, but I dont need 8gig ram for what I do. And I still have my Vista DVD and key for when I eventually get a new mobo and 8gb of ram.
I also need more storage! I would like to FRAPS things.
The Solution?
So I wanted to tackle both of these problems at once: Use my old drive as a backup drive or in my old PC, and get some new drives and install XP.
So what drive combinations do people recommend, and what would be the best way to install the OS on this drive configuration? I'm under the impression RAID0 is not at all worth it for gaming. Loading times do not worry me much either, just smooth gaming and the highest FRAPS performance in World of Warcraft as possible.
I assume something like this:
Smallish (150gb?) drive for Windows.
750 drive where I install software, games, etc?
750 drive that stores all my files, movies, music, and record fraps to this drive?
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Oh, and in terms of performance, all I really care about is World of Warcraft performance. I can run Crysis and other games very well at high settings, but WoW chugs along quite slowly (from 45fps to 20fps depending on the area and amount of people around me, and frapsing is all but impossible). I'm told Vista 64 bit does not handle WoW very well, likewise with fraps.
Thanks again,
Michael.