Partioning

[Ages]

Folks, I have two new SATA hard drives to set up, a WD Raptor 150GB for gaming and a WD 640GB for every day stuff, web site building and video editing. For now I'll be running XP. I think I'll be moving to Vista 32 or 64 within a year.

How do I partition these drives. How should I partion these drives for optimal (speed) performance? Does it make sense to create a partion for each game?

Where is the best place to put my OS, on the Raptor or on the 640? Does it make sense to put an OS on each of them?

As you can see I don't know much about partitioning. 🙂

 

[Tweakin]

Which WD 640 do you have? If it's the new 6400AAKS, that drive is faster then your Raptor.

I like to setup a OS partition that is only 200GB or so in size that occupies the fastest portion of my fastest drive. I then use the remainder for the other partition. Make sense?

 

[SickBeast]

That pair of drives is an interesting setup.

I guess install Windows on the Raptor, then put the swap file on the 6400AAKS. Then, put things that take advantage of the seek times on the Raptor (games and some apps), and everything else on the 6400AAKS (MP3s, videos, all of your documents and user profiles, plus any backup files if you use those).

I suppose if you really want to max out your speed, only put windows on the Raptor, and basically use the 6400AAKS for everything else.

You have to be careful with partitions; if you want to "short stroke" your drives, you have to sacrifice part of your capacity. Say, for example, you make a small partition for Windows, and use the rest for your apps, you're essentially bypassing the short stroke by forcing the actuator arm to fluctuate all over the place from the front of the drive all the way to the end (which will also wear it out sooner).

With your drives I don't think I would bother with partitions. If you want to get *really* fussy, short stroke the Raptor down to say 20GB, and install Windows there. Then, create say a 10GB partition on the 6400AAKS, and put your swap file there. Finally, make a partition using up the rest of the 6400AAKS to keep all of your stuff on.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i have a similar setup with a 150gb raptor + 320gb Seagate 7200.10
i currently have OS + all programs on Raptor and all Media/documents/misc on my 7200.10

if you OC, u should partition out like 5-10gb of the Raptor for a seperate WINXP install (so now you'll have 2, one on the 10gb, one on the rest) the purpose of this would be to put WINXP + benchamarking/stability/monitoring tools on that partition to use ONLY WHEN BENCHMARKING/TESTING FOR STABILITY. this would yield better results + less chance of corrupting your other windows OS with data corruption. (i'm waiting till my next reformat to do this with my drives)

 

[Ages]

Its the new WD 6400 AAKS! 🙂

How do I assign the swap file? Should I put all of my multiplayer games on the Raptor?

Should I go with Vista now? I believe SP1 is out?

Thanks in advance for your help. 🙂

 

[Tweakin]

Originally posted by: Ages
Its the new WD 6400 AAKS! 🙂

How do I assign the swap file? Should I put all of my multiplayer games on the Raptor?

Should I go with Vista now? I believe SP1 is out?

Thanks in advance for your help. 🙂

Keep it simple. The diference between your two drives is not that much. I would still use the WD 640 for the boot OS as the burst and average throughput kill the Raptor, and I would use the Raptor for the swap file as the access times are really low. After that, it's all good......

 

[Ages]

Originally posted by: Tweakin
Keep it simple. The diference between your two drives is not that much. I would still use the WD 640 for the boot OS as the burst and average throughput kill the Raptor, and I would use the Raptor for the swap file as the access times are really low. After that, it's all good......

Are you saying use the Raptor for nothing but the Swap File? Or should I put my games and some apps on the Raptor as well?

I'm building a new system and upgrading a very old system at the same time. Both will have Sata 150 GB Raptor and WD 6400AKKS. I'll probably get laughed at here but my old system is running a 3 Ghz Northwood Oc'd on an ABIT IC7-MAX3, 3GBs Corsair XMS PC 3200 Ram (Just upgraded from a 2.4c, hoping to push this board a bit more).

The new system will be an E8400 on an ABIT Ip35-e, 4 GBs Ram.

On a side note: Tweakin did you have any problem getting your RAM to run on your IP35-e? Did you have to do anything outside of just sticking it in and turning it on? Also Did you have to Modify that G92 to fit the IP-35E? What CPU Cooler are you using on the IP35-e board?

 

[Tweakin]

Originally posted by: Ages

Originally posted by: Tweakin
Keep it simple. The diference between your two drives is not that much. I would still use the WD 640 for the boot OS as the burst and average throughput kill the Raptor, and I would use the Raptor for the swap file as the access times are really low. After that, it's all good......

Are you saying use the Raptor for nothing but the Swap File? Or should I put my games and some apps on the Raptor as well?

I'm building a new system and upgrading a very old system at the same time. Both will have Sata 150 GB Raptor and WD 6400AKKS. I'll probably get laughed at here but my old system is running a 3 Ghz Northwood Oc'd on an ABIT IC7-MAX3, 3GBs Corsair XMS PC 3200 Ram (Just upgraded from a 2.4c, hoping to push this board a bit more).

The new system will be an E8400 on an ABIT Ip35-e, 4 GBs Ram.

On a side note: Tweakin did you have any problem getting your RAM to run on your IP35-e? Did you have to do anything outside of just sticking it in and turning it on? Also Did you have to Modify that G92 to fit the IP-35E? What CPU Cooler are you using on the IP35-e board?

Here is the thing...no matter what you do with those drives, you will probably not be able to notice any difference in the "seat of your pants" snappyness...they are both really fast drives. To keep things simple, I would load the OS on the 640 on a partition about 250GB in size. Once in windows, I would create a partition on the Raptor about 10GB and place the swap file there. I would load all windows applications on the 640, but I would load the games from the Raptor. The additional partition on the 640 would be for storage and downloads, etc.

For your other questions, I've had no problem with my memory on this board, and I have tested it both slots. The G92 slid right in nice and cozy and my heatsink is a Scythe Ninja that has been lapped to match the cpu. Here is a Pic of the inside of my case.

 

[Ages]

Thanks for your help folks! Tweakin great pic! I think you helped me find my case and PSU for the new system too!

One last stupid question, how do you lap the heatsink? Ok one more, would you use the same heatsink on an E8400? 🙂

Thanks again for all your help! 🙂

 

[Tweakin]

Originally posted by: Ages
Thanks for your help folks! Tweakin great pic! I think you helped me find my case and PSU for the new system too!

One last stupid question, how do you lap the heatsink? Ok one more, would you use the same heatsink on an E8400? 🙂

Thanks again for all your help! 🙂

I would. I've got a couple of TR 90's, 120's and the Scythe Ninja. By far the Ninja is the biggest pain in the a$$ I've had to work with inside of a case, bit it is the best performing from all my home tests by a few c.

As for lapping, it's the process of sanding your processor and heatsink to a equal finish that is flat and true with regards to each other. It helps in lowering the operating temp of the cpu, BUT IT VOIDS THE WARRENTY!

If you look around the forum, I know there is a lapping guide in there somewhere.

 

[lopri]

I know there are varying opinions on pagefile. I personally like to have a fixed size (big enough) pagefile. As for having more than one OS, consider installing one OS per one physical drive. I know this might incur waste of space, but it's whole lot easier to maintain such configurations than traditional dual-booting. In other words, install one OS in HDD 1. Make sure you disconnect the HDD 2 while installing the OS. Once that's done, do the opposite for the other OS. Now all you have to do is to change the boot sequence in the BIOS to the OS you want to boot to. So it'd be something like this.

HDD 1: OS A
HDD 2: OS B
HDD 3: Data (which can be accessed by both the OS'es)