Computer Hunting Questions

jkinzel said:
Is your area coated in a layer of ice? It might arrive wearing ice skates. ;)
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Actually the area I live in was spared from all the ice...but I'm not sure about the southern part of the state. I did receive a call from Fed Ex a few minutes ago...the computer will be delivered tomorrow!
 
BlackDiamond1964 said:
Actually the area I live in was spared from all the ice...but I'm not sure about the southern part of the state. I did receive a call from Fed Ex a few minutes ago...the computer will be delivered tomorrow!
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That's good news.

Doh. Wyoming, PA not the state. I should have looked more closely at your location! My uncle and aunt live not too far from you in Blandon.

John
 
JCitron said:
We have a Wyoming where I live too and people get that mixed up as well and sometimes a lot of chuckles too!


Did your new machine arrive yet? :)

John
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Yes, the machine arrived today but it's not set up yet. I did notice that the system speakers are not with the computer. Instead they sent some kind of gaming headset. So much for Digital Storms quality checks. :hehe: I've already contacted them and my speakers are being sent along with a shipping return label for the headset.
 
I managed to get the this new computer up and running last night. Boy, it is fast! I plan to reformat it over the weekend. I do have a speaker in the monitor that I can use until the system speakers get here so it's not completely soundless.

I am a bit curious about the drives. The operating system is on the SSD drive. This drive appears to be 232 GB. Then there is the regular drive, which is empty at 931 GB. What is the best way to utilize both of these drives?

That 232 GB will fill up fast with all the music and games I plan on adding to the system. Is there a way to operated across both drives?
 
Keep them on the HDD for the most part, bar perhaps very frequently used games. Personally I keep Steam on my SSD and opt to install games to the HDD through Steam.
 
LNERlover5 said:
Keep them on the HDD for the most part, bar perhaps very frequently used games. Personally I keep Steam on my SSD and opt to install games to the HDD through Steam.
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Does the performance of a game change depending on what drive you install it to? I'm not really concerned about most of the games... but what about Trainz?
 
BlackDiamond1964 said:
Does the performance of a game change depending on what drive you install it to? I'm not really concerned about most of the games... but what about Trainz?
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You'll get better performance on the SSD when the data gets loaded, but for the most part, there's very little disk access once this is done.

For TS12, I recommend installing on your larger drive because all the data that goes with the program. Being a platter/hybrid drive, I believe you can defragment it which does help performance.

For TANE you can install the application on the SSD and put the data on your platter drive, which means there is less to worry about regarding the wear on the SSD.

John
 
JCitron said:
You'll get better performance on the SSD when the data gets loaded, but for the most part, there's very little disk access once this is done.

For TS12, I recommend installing on your larger drive because all the data that goes with the program. Being a platter/hybrid drive, I believe you can defragment it which does help performance.

For TANE you can install the application on the SSD and put the data on your platter drive, which means there is less to worry about regarding the wear on the SSD.
John
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Thanks for the information John. I never used an operating system that spanned two drive. I've had two drives before, but one was always used for backup. So basically it is correct to say that any operational parts (Windows 7 & Steam) of the system should be on the SSD. The games and music should be on the storage drive. I need to get all my ducks in a row before the commencing with the system wide format this weekend.
 
BlackDiamond1964 said:
Thanks for the information John. I never used an operating system that spanned two drive. I've had two drives before, but one was always used for backup. So basically it is correct to say that any operational parts (Windows 7 & Steam) of the system should be on the SSD. The games and music should be on the storage drive. I need to get all my ducks in a row before the commencing with the system wide format this weekend.
Click to expand...

I never span disks either and use one separately for the OS and the other strictly for data and for programs that require lots of space such as Trainz. I took it one step further and put my documents, pictures, and music on my data drive. It took a bit of fiddling with the folders to get this to work properly, but it was a worthy investment in time. It's one of those things that you need to do carefully, though not very difficult because you'll end up with messed up folder links. This will then require a reformat and a do over all over again, which has happened in the past.

I highly recommend that you backup anything prior to your rebuild so you don't lose any data. It's always better to be safer than sorry later in situations like this.

John
 
I do have one more question for all you computer literate folks. When I comes to graphics cards...is it worth it to install all the programming that comes with a graphics card? Or is it best just to install the drivers only?
 
BlackDiamond1964 said:
I do have one more question for all you computer literate folks. When I comes to graphics cards...is it worth it to install all the programming that comes with a graphics card? Or is it best just to install the drivers only?
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If you are talking about utilities, I suggest installing those. For EVGA video cards, for example, their PrecisionX has the capabilities of controlling the video card fan speed, which is really helpful when the system is under heavy use. I increase my fan speed automatically as well as manually when I am doing heavy graphics work, which causes the video card temperature to rise a bit too high for my liking. I try to keep things in the maximum of 60c range, but this isn't always possible with the automatic adjustments.

John
 
JCitron said:
If you are talking about utilities, I suggest installing those. For EVGA video cards, for example, their PrecisionX has the capabilities of controlling the video card fan speed, which is really helpful when the system is under heavy use. I increase my fan speed automatically as well as manually when I am doing heavy graphics work, which causes the video card temperature to rise a bit too high for my liking. I try to keep things in the maximum of 60c range, but this isn't always possible with the automatic adjustments.

John
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Ok, thanks...I'm now ready for format time. See you all on the flip side.
 
I'm finished with the format and I'm installing the last of the games. My system's speakers were delivered today...It looks like I'll be looking for a good speaker system for the computer as the one's Digital Storm sent me are horrible sounding speakers. I guess I a bit more picky about sound due to all the music I listen to. Anybody got some good suggestions for speakers I can look into?

I also uploaded all my music and games to my secondary drive. Steam make this process easy to cross drives. When the new Trainz program gets delivered, I'll add that to the SSD drive since I'll be spending most of my time there.
 
Most computer companies supply cheap speakers unless you specify, if you can that is. If you can afford them, go with the Bose computer speakers. They're at the top regarding quality, but come with a price too. Other than that I can't help you. I have a set of Sony speakers I got over 20 years ago. They have great sound, but sadly are no longer manufactured. I paid $150 back then in 1995. I hate the day when these die because they work great and have great sound.

I'm glad you got your software sorted out. Have you tried anything to see how the performance is. I'm curious?

John
 
JCitron said:
I'm glad you got your software sorted out. Have you tried anything to see how the performance is. I'm curious?

John
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Not yet, still installing games...some of the bigger games like TS2015, Trainz and Civilization 5 take some time to install.

So far I have noticed that it is much faster then my old computer. Boot time is cut in half!
 
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