Optimal Setup for Windows? Separate HD for OS?

[Sinnerx96]

Hi guys,

My new system is on the way. You can see my sig for my current system, and the new one that I'll have shortly.

I'd like some help as to an optimal config for installing windows, programs, games, etc.

I'm getting an 80gb WD Caviar SE, and a 500gb Samsung SpinPoint. Both SATA. I'm going to try Vista Home Premium Retail for this build, although I do have XP Home OEM on my current system.

I know I should install Vista on the 80gb HD, and use the 500gb drive for storage. What about Programs? Should I just install them in the default C: drive Programs folder? Or make another partition for them? What about games? Separate Partition on the 80gb drive? How big should the Partition for Vista be, and what else should I be concerned with?

I'm also not too sure about the Page File. I have another 80gb IDE HD with 8mb Cache that I can use. Would it be beneficial to put the Page File on that IDE drive with nothing else on it?

I'll be using this system for Gaming, Audio Production/Editing, and some Video Editing. Any help would be much appreciated. Links to other helpful sites would be great too.

Thanks guys.

 

[Nothinman]

If you're going to use the 80G for Vista I'd just give it the whole thing. The only benefit you might get out of putting the programs on a separate partition is a small image if you use something like Ghost to image the thing regularly. Personally I'd just make one initial image after the base install and then use System Restore from then on. Games are another story because a lot of them run fine without reinstallation so you could get away with installing them once and not having to worry about that again.

Messing with your pagefile won't likely give you any appreciable benefits unless you're doing a lot of paging and then it's usually a much better idea to just get more memory instead of trying to apply bandaids to fix the problem.

If your A/V editing is going to need any type of close to real-time response you'll probably want a dedicated scratch disk just for that.

 

[imported_djnes]

You aren't going to see any benefits of moving anything off the C drive to a secondary drive. I prefer to have everything installed on C, and then keep a weekly ghost image of the entire drive stored on my storage drive. You could also use something like SyncToy to easily backup important data, like e-mails, favorites, game saves, etc to your storage drive.

 

[Sinnerx96]

Thanks guys. I just had the impression that this would increase performance somehow. I remember following directions for setting up my current build for Audio Production/Editing. It was some web site I found. That's why I have Windows XP Home on it's own small Partition. Then another partition for Programs, Codecs, Games, etc,... Then the storage drives hold the music, video, etc. But I guess this was a waste of time.
I thought I read somewhere that Vista/XP would run quicker if it was on it's own small partition by itself. Something about not having to search the entire disk for needed files? I don't know. I'm clueless.

Nothinman: I'd get more Ram, but I don't think I'll go 64-Bit until I'm sure there will be no issues with all the games, and apps I'll be using. (I'm already hearing bad reports of some of the apps with Vista32 as it is). So the extra ram will be wasted. And I do plan on getting another large HD for dedicated A/V eventually. I just want to stick with this for a while, until I figure out exactly what else I'll need.

Thanks

 

[Nothinman]

I thought I read somewhere that Vista/XP would run quicker if it was on it's own small partition by itself. Something about not having to search the entire disk for needed files? I don't know. I'm clueless.

If anything you'll likely end up increasing seek latency because everytime something is needed from one of the other partitions you have to perform a seek to get to the other MFT then another one to get to the file itself if it's not stored in the MFT.

So the extra ram will be wasted.

You only have 1G and 2G in your systems now so depending on what else is in your system you could probably get up to 3G. As long as you don't get a PCIe video card with an insane amount of memory or SLI you'll probably be fine.

I just want to stick with this for a while, until I figure out exactly what else I'll need.

That's the best thing you can do, wait and see what's slow and then fix that instead of buying a bunch of hardware and hoping it's right.

 

[Sinnerx96]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

If anything you'll likely end up increasing seek latency because everytime something is needed from one of the other partitions you have to perform a seek to get to the other MFT then another one to get to the file itself if it's not stored in the MFT.

Gotcha. I'll just install everything like normal, without partitioning the 80gb OS drive.

Does this also hold true for the storage drive? My storage drive will consist of Audio for Audio Production/Editing, some video for Video editing, Movies & Video Clips, and Music. I think I'll move my documents to the storage as well.

Originally posted by: Nothinman
You only have 1G and 2G in your systems now so depending on what else is in your system you could probably get up to 3G. As long as you don't get a PCIe video card with an insane amount of memory or SLI you'll probably be fine.

I'm getting a 8800GTS 320mb card.
I can not use the 1gb(2x512) from my old system, with my new one. The old Ram is outdated PC3200 DDR1, and is cheap value ram. My new system will have DDR2 PC6400 Crucial Ballistix.

I could get another 1gb(2x512) Crucial Ballistix. But I'm not sure it would make much difference. And it would piss me off that I could've just got another 2gb kit for not much more. I'm just worried about people having problems when installing 4gb's in a 32-Bit Vista/XP. Claims of bugs and other issues, no? 64-Bit would be a good option if I won't have problems running my programs.

Thanks again.

 

[Nothinman]

Does this also hold true for the storage drive? My storage drive will consist of Audio for Audio Production/Editing, some video for Video editing, Movies & Video Clips, and Music. I think I'll move my documents to the storage as well.

Unless it's solid state it'll still have to seek. The thing you need to determine is if your usage patterns produce too much latency for what you need to do with the data.

I'm just worried about people having problems when installing 4gb's in a 32-Bit Vista/XP. Claims of bugs and other issues, no? 64-Bit would be a good option if I won't have problems running my programs.

The only thing I've seen people complain about is the missing memory you get from running 32-bit Windows with 4G of memory. But I don't run Windows or have 4G of memory so I don't have any direct experience.

 

[Sinnerx96]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Unless it's solid state it'll still have to seek. The thing you need to determine is if your usage patterns produce too much latency for what you need to do with the data.

Ok. Now you're talking a different language. I wouldn't even know how to find that out. Ha.

Originally posted by: Nothinman
The only thing I've seen people complain about is the missing memory you get from running 32-bit Windows with 4G of memory. But I don't run Windows or have 4G of memory so I don't have any direct experience.

Awesome. Maybe I'm crazy then. I could have sworn I was reading about issues like I mentioned, on this forum no less.

Another thing has recently came to my attention. Vista is going to be a bigger pain in the ass than I thought. One BIG problem, is my Sound Card has NO drivers for Vista. No ETA either.

It's a M-Audio Delta 1010 PCI card. It's for Audio Production/Editing. I can only assume that this card will have better playback quality than the onboard sound(and many other aftermarket soundcards). By far. It cost me $600 when I got it.

This causes a big problem for me, as I bought Vista along with this build so I can play the new games. I'm considering setting up a dual boot. Vista/XP.

How should I partition the 80gb HD? Should I split it right in half? Or would it be better to install my old PATA Drive so I have Vista on a separate Physical drive? It's a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80gb w/8mb cach. A bit outdated, I know. I could buy another SATA drive, if it's better to put Vista on a separate HD.

Thanks again!

 

[Insomniator]

I'm actually in the same situation, just bought the SATA 400gb WD off newegg and also have a
160 gig PATA WD. Thinking about installing vista on the old drive and usin the new one for storage, or just making like a 20 gig partition for vista on the new drive and use everything else for storage.. maybe just getting rid of the other drive all together.

hmm...

 

[Nothinman]

Depends on how slow the PATA drive really is, if it's fairly recent and performs alright you probably wouldn't have any problems running the OS off of it.

 

[Sinnerx96]

It's a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80gb w/8mb Cache Ultra ATA100. It is at least 5 years old. I might give it a try. But I might just forget about Vista all together for a while. It seams like it will just cause a headache for me. Issues with a few programs that I use, no drivers for my soundcard, etc. We'll see.

 

[idiotekniQues]

i run my os and proggies off one physical drive, and all my data, including my documents, on different physical drives, backed up weekly to another separate physical drive.

if you game, you need a lot more room than a 20gb partition for the OS if you want to have anything more than 1 or 2 games installed at a time. i try to keep my hard drives with 75-80% max usage at any given time.


my OS drive is 120gb. i have the full adobe creative suite installed, office 2003, cs:s, hl2, bioshock, bf2142 & f.e.a.r installed right now and i dont have to worry about performance hits on space or unisntalling to play another thing.

depends what you do.