Gaming and 10k RPM Harddrives

[ZtyX]

I'd like to know what sort of benefits I will get from using a 10.000 rpm harddrive as opposed to a 7200 rpm harddrive in a game like Star Wars Galaxies.

I have read that I will get faster loading times, but what about when actually playing an instance of the game? Will I be able to see improvements in massive PvP or other situations where there is a lot of processing going on?

Are there any reviews out there putting up 10k rpm harddrives against 7200 rpm ones in games? I haven't been able to find any myself.

May I see increase in frame rates?
Is it possible to get a 15k RPM harddrive for a gaming computer and will I benefit from that?

I really want my new computer to run SWG well.

How do I setup harddrives in RAID 0 and what is RAID 0? Is it just linking them with a cable? I don't understand this. Is it easy to do?

I'd appreciate any help.

Thankx

 

[Rubycon]

GPU, CPU, and Memory have the biggest influence on gaming. HDD is really the last thing to consider IMO. The new WD and Samsung offerings with 333GB platters offer the best capacity/performance price ratio period. 10k and 15k excel in multi user performance which is mostly irrelevant when it comes to gaming.

 

[ZtyX]

What do you mean by multi user performance?

Also, what about loading times?

 

[DSF]

When I was building my new computer, my brother was bragging to me that his Raptor was faster than my Samsung Spinpoint, which meant that he'd load TF2 levels faster and be the first one into the map. In reality, I'm the first one in at least as often as he is. It's a bit of a toss-up.

A fast hard drive might improve loading times but it's not going to have any meaningful effect on FPS. That's far more heavily influenced by CPU, GPU and memory as Rubycon said. The relatively low capacity of 10k RPM drives makes it hard to justify their expense in my opinion, especially given that their lead in the performance area is dwindling.

I would go with a large, speedy new drive like the WD 640GB or Samsung Spinpoint 750GB. Spend the same or less as a Raptor, get nearly the same performance, and 4-5x the space.

Edit: And forget RAID 0, especially if you haven't done much research on it. It takes more than linking the drives with a cable. With only two drives in the array you aren't going to see any noticeable performance increase anyway. The extra setup hassle also comes with an increased chance of drive failure. (If you lose either of the two drives you lose all of your data.)

 

[ZtyX]

Oh, this is valuable information..
Alright, I will forget the RAID 0.

Hm, also.. What about SSD drives? If I get a drive like that, do you think I would then experience a boost in a game like TF2 or particularly Star Wars Galaxies.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: ZtyX
Oh, this is valuable information..
Alright, I will forget the RAID 0.

Hm, also.. What about SSD drives? If I get a drive like that, do you think I would then experience a boost in a game like TF2 or particularly Star Wars Galaxies.

Why don't we start with the other components that are going to be in your system? A current processor and video card along with any decent hard drive are going to run games like TF2 and SWG just fine.

If we know what other parts you're working with we'll be much more capable of helping you determine how to maximize your performance. The answer might not be buying a better hard drive, but upgrading your video card for example.

 

[ZtyX]

Okay I can do that. Here is a list of what I have planned so far!

Chassi: NZXT Lexa Redline
PSU: OCZ GameXstream 700W
Motherboard: 750i
CPU: E8400
Ram: 4gb OCZ Gold http://edbpriser.dk/Products/Listprices.asp?ID=378162
(Still wavering on this one... I don't know what RAM to get. PC2 6000 or PC2 8000) There is this website for searching for ram: http://edbpriser.dk/Products/S...ory.asp?Parent=2&ID=37
Maybe you can find the best ones for me!)
Harddrive: Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD753LJ 750 GB (I was told to go with this one, but I'm afraid of the defrag sessions taking really long.. And I think I need to defrag a lot so I can play SWG at the best performance. Am I wrong about this?
VGA: Asus 8800 GTS 512mb
Screen: VW222u 22" TFT
OS: Windows Xp Pro


O.K. Did I leave anything out? Can you please help me now?

 

[DSF]

From what I've read recently, defragging is often overrated.

Where are you getting this information about SWG being so tied to hard drive performance? I'm not saying that it's necessarily wrong - I don't know much about the game - but I think you're probably making a bigger deal out of it than it is. Do you have a link to where you got the information?

You should be just fine with the setup you listed above. I'm not sure why you're going with an SLI chipset but only one graphics card though.

 

[ZtyX]

Now I don't know why I am doing that either.. But, I thought I was going to get SLI, but have decided not to. Since I don't know much about the other motherboards I thought I would just go for this one!
Can you tell me what chipset to get instead if not the 750i?

 

[ZtyX]

I have searched on the SWG forums for it and some people claim to be loading planets quicker. Here is just one post about it.. http://forums.station.sony.com...list.m?topic_id=214202

And if you just make random searches for 10k rpm or something similar then you will often find a lot of people who adore their 10k RPM drives.
You can search from here: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/search/filters.m