ULTIMATEDEFRAG

[John_HR]

Hello all you loyal flight-simmers:

Has anyone out there ever tried "ULTIMATEDEFRAG" offered by Robert Ferraro?  Apparently its a hard drive file placement optomizer.
It claims hard drive performance in excess of 300% of the average performance.

I have such poor performance with FSX in my machine, I'm tempted to buy that optomizer in the hopes that it will do what it says.

Here's my machine:   Asus P4 Motherboard
                               Intel Pentium 4  3.0 GHZ CPU
                               1 Gig PC3200 Memory
                               2 x Seagate 120 GB 7200 8MB Cache in Raid 1 Config.
                               BFG OC Geforce 6800 256 MB AGP Card
                               Onboard 32 Bit Sound Card
                               Gig onboard LAN
                               CD & DVD drive R. W.
                               ATX Case w/400W Power Supply
                               Windows XP Home Edition
                               DELL 21" Monitor

If you have this optomizer, what have your experiences been? Is it worth buying?  Any help, suggestions, recomendations will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys.    John HR

[macca22au]

I use ultimate defrag and find it good.  There are a number of defraggers on the market and I understand that one called Perfect Disk, or similar is rated amongst the best.

NickN one of the gurus in these forums uses O&O.

I use Ultimate Defrag becuase the presentation is so graphical - it shows a round disk shape and you can see where the files are, and where they are being moved to.

First run a Consolidate defrag - it will take time.  Leave it alone, go drink coffee, and don't use your computer at the same time.   Reboot.

Then run FILE/NAME.   It takes time, so let it do it overnight.  Reboot. NickN suggests first up, do this twice.

The difference is phenomenal.   It can do more for smoothness than most tweaks.  The head of the reader on your HDD is no longer flailing around tracking out of place files that have been dumped all around your disk.

Just imagine an old vinyl disk, with the music tracks dumped at random, and the pickup head having to chase them around the disk in sequence.

Once you have got it done, then just use the quick defrag feature on UD after a long session, and maybe once a week do a FILE/Name.

If you have Vista do not use any registry mechanics or optimisers - they really aren't up to it yet.  Also I found that free optimisers, registry cleaners, download accelerators come with advertising, pop-ups etc that eat up CPU time.  Most run in the background as well if you don't shut them down.  I got rid of the lot and I reckon I got my computer back!

[John_HR]

Thank you very much  macca22.

I will purchase it and try it, for sure.

Thanks again.  :)

John HR

[X-EAL]

[quote]Thank you very much

[macca22au]

Yes you can download the trial version, and we'd be nuts if we didn't.

I notice Computer Pilot magazine is giving UD away with a subscription or renewal.  I get Computer Pilot, so I am going to go for the freebie when I renew.  

But no matter a good defrag programme is necessary and is worth paying for.  The built in defraggers are only basic, these are very complete.

[John_HR]

Thanks RampRat, for that link, I'll downloaded, install it and give it a try,  Thanks again acca22.

By the way, are you 2 guys flying FS2004 or FSX?

John HR

[Ashton Lawson]

i use it too.  u wont believe the performance increase i got, just by moving all my major programs to the out sections of the drive.  FS9 used to be okay on my machine, now, its way better!

btw, taking the specs below into account, do u believe i can play FS9 at full settings with a steady 13-15FPS?

[macca22au]

I fly FSX only.  I have uninstalled FS9.  9 was great and in some ways was certainly better set-up.  But in the end I have chosen FSX because it is still a large leap ahead.

I have a high end system (Intel 6700, nVidia 8800 GTX, 4 gigs of 800mhz RAM and I have the game running well.

But you must compromise on the settings - more AI less autogen, more autogen, less water and so on, and so on.

There is a great thread on this forum FSX and SP1 with great hints as to adjusting the config file, and the settings to get the best outcome.

No member of Simviation forums should ask any questions about performance until they have read that thread.

Also one of the game designers Phil Taylor has  a great blog on FSInsider... its a must read.

By the end of next year the hardware will be so much faster that everything can be max-ed.  But not now, and don't believe all you read about sliders to the right, and 100fps.  That's probably over the middle of the Atlantic.