XP & Raptor installation

[ramsa329]

Hi,

I have been asked to respond to this post.

There is a lot of very technical talk going on here so I'll try to reduce it to less technobabble and more reality.

When dealing with a Raptor drive it should always be the primary drive with Windows updated to SP2 and the sim installed to its default location with the patch installed "correctly".

Generally speaking it is always more efficient to use the larger of two drives as the primary.

But in the case of raptor drives no matter the size they should always be the primary drive.

1) This is not an  issue of performance you will not see a "jump" in FPS and it cannot be "measured" by benchmarks. This is done in order to increase the efficiency of the machine and reduce the load on other hardware elements.

2)  When applied correctly this in turn allows the video card more "room" to deal with other issues.

The law of HDDs is that the larger the drive with the smaller amount of info the more efficient the drive. If you get this than you get that "partitions" are the absolute worst idea possible.

To illustrate this a RAID 0 array of say 2x75 Gb for a total of 150 with say 50 GB of used space will be much more efficient than say a 75 GB SATA drive with 40 GB used irregardless of the speed of the drive. Of course a faster drive (Raptor) will be even more efficient

In order to use RAID you must have two identical drives in all aspects

RAID 0 is the most efficient level of throughput unless it is overloaded. Once it is overloaded it is no more efficient than anything else is.

The reason that Fs9 should always be installed into its default location is twofold.

1) reduce seek time on the HDDs

2) stop "arguments" with windows which you cannot ever win.

I would never advise a client to install more than two interior drives on any machine.

If the client needs more storage space than it would be much more advisable to use an "exterior" USB HDD.

1) This is both a "safer" and less "stressful" condition.

2) It is wise to always remember that the higher the impedence (load) the greater the heat.

3) Heat is your enemy.

To those of you who "envision" themselves as "techies" I am sure that what I have said here is insufficient........  

It is the ability to think beyond the box which can make the real difference when dealing with each individual and their machines.

It is never a good idea to just "hand out" advise unless you are willing to take the client through each and every step and to take full responsinility.

A session with Fs-Gs can take between 4-5 hours and possibly longer. It can extend over days when clients encounter really difficult situations.

Hope this helps,

Michal Greenblatt

Fs-Gs

[Harold]

This is great insight for me Michael! Thank you very much for replying! Your answer is very helpfull indeed and I'm now considering a complete system rebuild as far as partitions go ...

I asked Michael to reply to this post as I was asking questions about partitions earlier on and wanted to have his view as I'm considering his services. It's obvious to say that Michael knows 'his stuff' and I believe that we all can benefit from his answers in general and specifically the one above, whether you envision yourself as 'techie' or not

[NicksFXHouse]

This is great insight for me Michael! Thank you very much for replying! Your answer is very helpfull indeed and I'm now considering a complete system rebuild as far as partitions go ...

I asked Michael to reply to this post as I was asking questions about partitions earlier on and wanted to have his view as I'm considering his services. It's obvious to say that Michael knows 'his stuff' and I believe that we all can benefit from his answers in general and specifically the one above, whether you envision yourself as 'techie' or not

Like tha man said... keep it on the same install and I/O controller and make sure the I/O's are equal spec


People are free to try different things and I think everyone here is smart enough to know that they should always rear on the side of caution when reading a free and open forum for advice.

Although hardware use and optimizing is common (good) tech knowledge what is CORRECT in settings on one system, may NOT be correct for another. Setting advice may not produce anywhere near the desired results because it is close to impossible to tweak a system through a forum post or thread. As Michael says, it take hours of direct diagnostic with the user in real time response to the technican to set up a system correctly.

I don't 'envision' anything and neither should anyone else about what is posted in a forum.

[flyingbart]

Wow Guys ive re-installed my OS onto my raptor and have spent 4 nights putting back on my fs9. What a difference everything is so smooth even with vfr. Thanks for all your help
all the best flyingbart