[Jazino]

Hey I'm doing a partial rebuild now and upgrading other stuff later. 64 3000+, chaintech mobo with nf3 250, ocz ram etc. But I need to use some legacy stuff from my dell. I have an 80 gig hd and a 40x cdrw. My question is do I get a 36 or 74 gig raptor or will a new sata dvd drive help more for loading games apps etc. Right now I wait for about 60-90 seconds to load far cry and an awful 30+ seconds sometimes for hl2. Or another way to put my question, which is better, sata hd, sata cd/dvd drive or raptor? Thanks. It looks like about $100 for either a raptor 36 gig or a new sata dvd:http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...131-329&DEPA=0

 

[Crashed]

I would say go for the dvd driver.. the raptors are nice, but not really necessary

 

[Xavier1421]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderer26 Hey I'm doing a partial rebuild now and upgrading other stuff later. 64 3000+, chaintech mobo with nf3 250, ocz ram etc. But I need to use some legacy stuff from my dell. I have an 80 gig hd and a 40x cdrw. My question is do I get a 36 or 74 gig raptor or will a new sata dvd drive help more for loading games apps etc. Right now I wait for about 60-90 seconds to load far cry and an awful 30+ seconds sometimes for hl2. Or another way to put my question, which is better, sata hd, sata cd/dvd drive or raptor? Thanks. It looks like about $100 for either a raptor 36 gig or a new sata dvd:http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...131-329&DEPA=0

Chances are your older gear from the dell is ATA33...which explains the super high load times.

A new HD, be it SATA or ATA133, will greatly reduce the loading...

A 36gig raptor and an ATA 100 or ATA133 (IDE) CD/DVD should be PLENTY fast.

 

[Jazino]

Ok, i was thinking of going with the raptor. I still dont understand what the cd rom actually does while im playing say far cry. Is the read speed most important, or will sata help games run better on cd-rom also?

 

[Xavier1421]

a SATA cd will help with load times and installing, but not by much.

Speed is the important part, and seek time.

If you're playing on a relatively new CD, with 52x speeds...you're close to maximum bandwidth anyways.

 

[Jazino]

One more here while were at it. Can you make an image of a game on your hd and play w/o cd. Thanks.

 

[DigitalPhreak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderer26 One more here while were at it. Can you make an image of a game on your hd and play w/o cd. Thanks.

Yup. 7200 rpm SATA hard drives are about 65 bucks and well worth it. Check em out.

 

[Lando95]

Raptors in raid is the way to go, IMO. But if you cant afford it, seriously consider a single SATA hard drive. I am using Raptors in raid, and all levels of Far Cry load in about 15 seconds, sometimes less. Actually, almost all games load that quick if not quicker. I think the longest I ever had to wait was about 30 seconds for a level of Splinter Cell that had a lot of textures.

 

[FragTek]

Go with the SATA hard drive option, get a 74gb raptor, or a pair, or a pair of 36's. You will see a noticable difference in load times on most every program, including your OS. Raptors have half the seek time of other SATA and ATA hard drives with a high transfer rate. Stick with ATA for your legacy drives.

 

[blob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderer26 One more here while were at it. Can you make an image of a game on your hd and play w/o cd. Thanks.

I dunno if this treads on copyright issues, but yes, you can. As long as you bought the program, you can go out and buy DAEMON tools or Alcohol 120% to create an image onto your hard drive.

I will edit if it's 'bad'

 

[SpookedJunglist]

IMO the major factor to game loading is your harddrive. Your cdrom time isnt a factor well not much of a factor... and in half life 2 it doenst require the CD to play

i have noticed a huge difference sense i got rid of my raptor after it started making noises i didnt like.. so now i have a PATA harddrive and i saw a big difference... but i am happy with it for now