HDD size and system speed

TheNiceGuy

Golden Member
Dec 23, 2004
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Hi guys
I have my upgrade hardware coming to replace the gear in my sig: i5 CPU, B75 MB, 7870 GPU, 8GB RAM. To save $, I'll use my olde hard drives. I was using my smaller 120GB as the C: (system) drive, as I heard that its faster than using the larger 320GB, especialy if the system drive has a lot of stuff on it. Is this true, or is the gained speed negligible? I would prefer to use my larger 320GB, as programs are much larger these days, and I was always near capacity.
BTW, I mainly upgraded just to play BF3, and I realize the load screens will be longer than using an SSD. Just don't want to possibly increase it to silly levels by using my larger 320GB as a system drive.
Thank you
 

TheNiceGuy

Golden Member
Dec 23, 2004
1,569
3
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Awesome, thanks man.
If I fill it up with programs and store data on it, will it become horrendously slow (especially for bf3), or will the speed drop be minimal?
 

Phynaz

Lifer
Mar 13, 2006
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You shouldn't have a problem. I would recommend installing both drives and putting your temp files and page file on the second drive. More spindles = more performance.
 

TheNiceGuy

Golden Member
Dec 23, 2004
1,569
3
81
You shouldn't have a problem. I would recommend installing both drives and putting your temp files and page file on the second drive. More spindles = more performance.

Thanks. Does that create any complications? Significant boost in performance? I've never done it and will have to research what its all about. Can they be moved in the future without issues, or must it be done at install?
 

Phynaz

Lifer
Mar 13, 2006
10,140
819
126
Nothing to it. Getting your page file off the same spindle as your OS/programs can be significant depending upon how much memory you have.