How do I optimize my Cheetah 15K.5 for games that requires good sequential read performance

[Qianglong]

The main drive in my system is a trusty Seagate 15K.5 partitioned into C drive (100GB) for Windows 7 and 200GB for applications. All the games are installed in the second partition which is defragged often. The hard drive is attached to a LSI megaraid 8344ELP SAS Controller. There is a game that I play (armed assault 2) which requires loading of very large textures on the fly in order for the game to run smoothly. Several other people resorted to SSD drives to make the game smoother.

The game still stutters using my drive but I think it should not be that bad but rather there is something wrong with my settings. For example using Passmark Performance test, I only get about 29MB/sec for sequential read speed which is way lower than the max of this drive. Can someone please help me to optimize this drive's performance?

My system is up to task for the game and the only culprit is the HD:

Phenom II 940 @ 3.6Ghz
4GB RAM
5870 Crossfire

I am also very sure that it is not the lack of RAM as this is a 32 bit application and I've assigned it the full 2GB to use.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

for real? a game taxes that taxes disk IO so much that it stutters?

 

[mcveigh]

4GB ram and a 15K cheetah and it can't load a texture fast enough????
is ALL you are doing is gaming at the time? no file downloads or anything else?

I'm not a gamer though I just wouldn't think a 15K scsi drive would be slow. I used to have one and loved it.

 

[mmntech]

What happens when you turn Crossfire off? Some games actually do perform worse with it on. Make sure you have the latest Catalyst drivers too.

There's no possible way a 15,000rpm SAS drive could be too slow for gaming. Try updating the controller drivers if you haven't already done so. Failing that, I guess SSD would be the best route.

 

[videogames101]

No, there is no way the drive is the problem, lol.

 

[0roo0roo]

yea sounds dubious. even fake factorys halflife 2 v10 mod which is so excessive that it requires 64bit os because of texture sizes doesn't hit the drive that hard. sounds like that games just poorly coded

 

[mmntech]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
yea sounds dubious. even fake factorys halflife 2 v10 mod which is so excessive that it requires 64bit os because of texture sizes doesn't hit the drive that hard. sounds like that games just poorly coded

It has to be. Even games that use an optical drive (360, PS3) aren't that bad for loading textures.

 

[Pessimism]

You folks pointing the finger at the game are missing a critical fact:

"For example using Passmark Performance test, I only get about 29MB/sec for sequential read speed which is way lower than the max of this drive."

It is an issue with his SYSTEM.
Have you checked the drivers for the SAS Controller? Seeing as Windows 7 is barely released it could very well be a driver glitch. What were you running on this box before Windows 7?