I'm building a gaming / poker PC, I need help! - Page 2

TBag · #11 12-02-2005, 10:06 PM

Thanks for the swapfile tip, I just switched mine to my D: drive, I'll give you a trip report on that later.

About watercooling though. Is it relatively easy to do? How much does it cost and how much of an improvement is it over fans? Also, how much would it cost?

oreogod · #12 12-03-2005, 08:17 AM

how the heck do I get my swap file onto the other drive? Just give me a run down on how to do it.

Also, tbag, Corsair's water cooling kit has recieved some really good reviews. I belive it retails for 150 or something like that. Pretty easy to install to.

Here is a review and basic rundown of the corsair water kit.

Link

oreogod · #13 12-03-2005, 08:19 AM

Also whats the cost on your set up so far?

C-Dog · #14 12-03-2005, 10:07 AM

Dont go water cooling, it is really unnecesary.

Just buy good silent style fans from Thermaltake or something.

C-Dog

TBag · #15 12-03-2005, 06:43 PM

[ QUOTE ]
how the heck do I get my swap file onto the other drive? Just give me a run down on how to do it.

[/ QUOTE ]
Right click on my computer, go to properties - advanced - performance - advanced - change button.

Set it to your desired drive, make sure to hit "set" and it will require a reboot.

So far the set up is about 2k. If anyone has some input on maximizing some cost efficiency rather than telling me I suck at it, that'd be awfully keen.

#16 12-05-2005, 12:23 PM

So it would be best to put that "swap file thing" on a 10,000rpm Raptor? And then to have a 200-500 GB drive for storage?

I know nothing about this swap file...but I did know that when memory gets full, the computer uses your Hard Drive temporarily...
will this really noticably speed up performance/reduce any lag?

Thanks!

Rick Nebiolo · #17 12-05-2005, 06:50 PM

[ QUOTE ]
how the heck do I get my swap file onto the other drive? Just give me a run down on how to do it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Getting the swapfile on another drive is described elsewhere in this thread but you might want to partition the D: drive so the swap file has it's own slightly larger partition. If this is the first partition on the drive it will also be accessed more quickly (the drive's R/W heads don't have to move so far). A dedicated partition on the second physical drive is also the best place to store a Norton Ghost image of your WinXP and Programs partition as described in this post. The Radified link within also describes the swap file partition.

~ Rick

obsidian · #18 12-05-2005, 08:37 PM

Maybe a sound card? For normal use the onboard sound will be fine but for gaming you might want something more like Creative's X-fi. I think those harddrives are overrated. Just get some nice SATA drives. Both Seagate and Maxtor have some nice ones with 16MB cache atm. Although having two harddrives is nice. I mainly use them for backing up data I would be screwed without (like my PT db's), so maybe getting one raptor and one large drive would be a good idea. Raid 0 is overrated just for the mere fact that it doubles your risk to drive failure.

You may also want to get an aftermarket CPU cooler and some nice quiet fans for the case. Thermalright makes nice cpu coolers (both the XP-90 and XP-120 are great). I hate loud computers. It wasn't much of a problem when I was only gaming with headphones on but playing poker I would hate having a loud computer now. A good brand of fan when looking for something quiet is Nexus. Both Jab-Tech and End PC Noise sell them. Don't go by the dB specs most manufacturers give you though. They are almost always wrong or lies.