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decreasing load times on games

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doubledc

Member
what is the biggest factor in reducing long load times, I was looking at a ata 66 control card to give my hard drives a boost but Anandtech articles seem to point out that the drives barely reach the ata 33 levels so what part of my system needs to be upgraded for the most improvement, within reason as so far this has been a fairly low budget gaming rig. I think I picked a good time to build as P3 based parts are dropping in anticipation of P4
Abit BF-6
cel 2 533@800
winfast geforce 2 mx
256mb generic pc100
Wester Digital caviar 13.6gb 5400rpm
Western Digital caviar 17gb 5400rpm
sound blaster live value
Pine 48x CD-Rom
Sony 8x4x32 CDRW
Creative Modem Blaster 56k ISA
I like to play at 1024x768 with everything on for single player and have been playing Rune and am happy with performance but just want to get faster load times it its as easy as getting 1 7200rpm hard drive to see noticable improvement that would be cool since I'd like to keep it close to $100
 
A 7200rpm drive would be the solution. Just avoid Quantum, unless you enjoy SCSI-HD noise levels.
 
I found a healthy amount of RAm does wonders for many load times, including Windows startup. RAM is becoming more and more important as the standard goes up and up. (Though honestly, I havce not noticed any differences when running Win98se with more than 256 MB PC150, the only time that I had notced an improvement with more than 256 MB is when I was running Win2k server) So I wouls suggest getting At least 256 MB of RAM. I have 150, but I would imagine that you would get similar results, if a bid watered down, with other types.
 
That would help too... But since he is on a Abit Bf6 his ide drives are limited to 33, and it would do him no good to buy a more expensive 100 drive if he cannot utilize the speed. Ram would be a much cheaper way to up his system prformance than buying new motherboard and drive. Especially if he just wants faster game play on RA2. Though, I would suggest a new motherboard, hard drive and a PIII 700 chip(great Overclocker!) as a good start.
 
well I dont really want to get a new motherboard just to stick a P3700 in it since I could put that cpu in my current board and plan to once they hit around $125-$150
my motherboard has been extremly stable which I would have taken for granted if not for a few friends that seem to have trouble with even different models of Abit boards(BE-6 ver 2) so what would I get out of a new board? the only thing I can see would be 4x agp which would be nice but my 3d performance is adequate and ata66/100 which I can do with an add-on card but the point of my post was that the articles I've read on this site downplay the performance gain over ata33
anyway I would like this system to last me 2 years and then see whats out on the market so unless the P3700 would have an effect on load times or another 128mb of memory it looks like a 7200rpm hard drive it is but I still have no idea if I should bother with ata66/100,has anyone just upgraded that and seen an imediate improvement,and can I keep my 5400rpm drives on different channels and just run my operating system and install my games to the 7200rpm drive and use the slower drives for storage although I,ve got about 10-15gb of room now that I never have used and really shouldnt have to since I have CDRW

 
Dont forget that the IBM 75GXP offers excellent performance as compared to its competitors on a similar level. Also, getting a Ghz cpu would help things too.
 
All the quantum HD i've had (IDE) are really quiet. Alot quieter then the WD and Seagates hard drives that I have.

My IBM 18.2 gig SCSI really makes a loud screaming noise.
 
jsbush, did you own 5400 or 7200rpm models?

I don't think a P3-700 will do much for load times over a Cel2-800. And 256MB RAM is overkill for pretty much everything (I'm enjoying that luxury right now 🙂), so no need for more of that.

As for ATA-33/-66/-100--who cares. Most IDE drives peak at around 40MB/s (I think--haven't checked SR lately), so you're not losing much.

A quick search at shopper.com showed Maxtor 30GB going for as low as $130, 45GB for $180 (and, for the ultimate in storage overkill, the Maxtor 80GB 5400rpm for $260 🙂). IBM's go for $130 and $163 for the 30 and 45GB models, respectively. Basically you're spoilt for choice in this crazy market. You'll have to decide if the Quantum's 25% savings after rebate over rival's models is worth the added noise (BTW, their rebate is solid--they even sent me a card to asssure me they received my request, very nice).
 
As for your extra storage space, you could always sell one. No matter how much you pay for a HD now, it will always be cheaper in a few months.
 
I have both. The only 7200rpm I have is 20.5gig LM. The fuguistu are the quietest HD's I've owned but they seem to be made cheep.
 
doubledc - based on your current system specs and your goal of faster load times the choice for you is clear get the fastest 7200RPM drive with the highest areal density that falls within your price range. Right now if you can find a IBM 75GXP in your price range it is probably the drive to get. The rational for this suggestion is based on the fact that you have 256MB ram so more won't really help. Your current drives are relatively slow. I realize you only have ATA33, but don't worry about it. Load times are most heavily related (assuming you have enough ram) to sustained drive throughput. Since current drives don't really deliver a true susatained throughput in excess of ATA33, lack of anything higher won't really hurt you that much. Since sustained throughput is mostly the result of areal density x rotational speed, the best solution is the drive with the most areal density spinning at the most rpms. So get a 7200rpm drive (since you don't need the space size is not a huge issue) and make it your boot drive and load your games on OS on it. Keep your existing drives as additional storage.

I hope this helps

ChrisL
 
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