New User, New Computer, Need Expert Advice Need estimated results on a setup and overclocking
Hello Everybody!

I am a new user to the forums as well as being new to high end PC gaming. I have a few questions concerning a new computer I am receiving and the results I should get out of it. Here are the specs:

CPU: i7 2600-k OC 4.5 ghz
RAM: 16 Gigs 1600mhz Corsair Vengeance
GPU: Sli 570 Gtx Nvidia brand
SSD: 120gig
HDD: 1 terabyte
PSU: 800 watts(?)
Motherboard: Asus P67

So here are my questions:

1. Should I overclock anything and is it necessary? If so, how should I go about doing it?
2. What results should I get from demanding games in 2D and 3D? Metro 2033, Crysis 2 (DX11), Batman Arkham City, etc...
3. Anybody recommend a good gaming headset?
4. I purchased an Acer HN274H for my display, good choice or should I return it?

Thanks! Any help would be appreciated!
Hello Everybody!



I am a new user to the forums as well as being new to high end PC gaming. I have a few questions concerning a new computer I am receiving and the results I should get out of it. Here are the specs:



CPU: i7 2600-k OC 4.5 ghz

RAM: 16 Gigs 1600mhz Corsair Vengeance

GPU: Sli 570 Gtx Nvidia brand

SSD: 120gig

HDD: 1 terabyte

PSU: 800 watts(?)

Motherboard: Asus P67



So here are my questions:



1. Should I overclock anything and is it necessary? If so, how should I go about doing it?

2. What results should I get from demanding games in 2D and 3D? Metro 2033, Crysis 2 (DX11), Batman Arkham City, etc...

3. Anybody recommend a good gaming headset?

4. I purchased an Acer HN274H for my display, good choice or should I return it?



Thanks! Any help would be appreciated!

#1
Posted 12/21/2011 06:46 AM   
Well I can only help on the points I am qualified to answer:

1) Absolutely. If it ain't smokin' then you haven't OC'd it enough! lol... You really should go to a specific site for overclocking info and not this one. Try you MB manufacturer forums, or Tom's Hardware. Overclocking can be dangerous business if you don't know what you are doing. It is probably not necessary to OC though, just always nicer to squeeze out that extra performance.

2) Just remember that playing in 3D will drop your framrates by 1/3 to 1/2 of what you get playing in 2D. So obviously the more power you have the better. Batman Arkham City has been very demanding at the highest settings - Most people are getting 30 - 45 FPS average with systems like yours, myself included. Every other game I have runs just fine with no discernable drop in performance. My other most recent games purchases that are relatively demanding have been Alice: Madness Returns, and The Witcher 2, just to give you a reference point.

3) I don't know

4) I don't know

Curious, how do you like the SSD? My Western Digital is failing and I'm installing my first SSD tonight.
Well I can only help on the points I am qualified to answer:



1) Absolutely. If it ain't smokin' then you haven't OC'd it enough! lol... You really should go to a specific site for overclocking info and not this one. Try you MB manufacturer forums, or Tom's Hardware. Overclocking can be dangerous business if you don't know what you are doing. It is probably not necessary to OC though, just always nicer to squeeze out that extra performance.



2) Just remember that playing in 3D will drop your framrates by 1/3 to 1/2 of what you get playing in 2D. So obviously the more power you have the better. Batman Arkham City has been very demanding at the highest settings - Most people are getting 30 - 45 FPS average with systems like yours, myself included. Every other game I have runs just fine with no discernable drop in performance. My other most recent games purchases that are relatively demanding have been Alice: Madness Returns, and The Witcher 2, just to give you a reference point.



3) I don't know



4) I don't know



Curious, how do you like the SSD? My Western Digital is failing and I'm installing my first SSD tonight.

|CPU: i7-2700k @ 4.5Ghz
|Cooler: Zalman 9900 Max
|MB: MSI Military Class II Z68 GD-80
|RAM: Corsair Vengence 16GB DDR3
|SSDs: Seagate 600 240GB; Crucial M4 128GB
|HDDs: Seagate Barracuda 1TB; Seagate Barracuda 500GB
|PS: OCZ ZX Series 1250watt
|Case: Antec 1200 V3
|Monitors: Asus 3D VG278HE; Asus 3D VG236H; Samsung 3D 51" Plasma;
|GPU:MSI 1080GTX "Duke"
|OS: Windows 10 Pro X64

#2
Posted 12/21/2011 11:14 PM   
1. Looks like your CPU is already OC'd quite a bit, shouldn't need to touch that. The 570s in SLI are already plenty fast, if you want to OC a 10% OC or so should be reasonable.
2. Metro 2033 in DX11 and 3D will be tough on that system, I had to drop to DX9 High with similar performance graphics cards. Crysis 2 you can max out np, although VRAM may be a bit of an issue if you use high-res pack. Batman Arkham City you can max out with DX9 and max PhysX, DX11 demands a lot more performance for not much more graphical benefit. Generally I would recommend shooting for 50-60FPS in 3D, so while you may still be able to get 30-40FPS in Metro and Batman with DX11 and 3D, I personally prefer to drop settings down a bit (DX9) and get 50-60FPS. Pretty big difference in those extra frames, imo, but you can see what you prefer.
3. If you are looking at USB headsets, the Logitech G930 and G35 are well regarded.
4. That Acer is highly regarded, there's a new Asus 27" that is technically better as it features Lightboost, but also appears to have some quality control issues. An updated version of the Acer is expected that also supports LightBoost but I don't know if its out yet.

@SnickerSnack: SSDs are awesome, load your OS on it, then selectively load the games you're currently playing onto it. Move anything else non-performance intensive off to a mechanical drive. I'm installing one right now for my gf too actually, she's going to love it.
1. Looks like your CPU is already OC'd quite a bit, shouldn't need to touch that. The 570s in SLI are already plenty fast, if you want to OC a 10% OC or so should be reasonable.

2. Metro 2033 in DX11 and 3D will be tough on that system, I had to drop to DX9 High with similar performance graphics cards. Crysis 2 you can max out np, although VRAM may be a bit of an issue if you use high-res pack. Batman Arkham City you can max out with DX9 and max PhysX, DX11 demands a lot more performance for not much more graphical benefit. Generally I would recommend shooting for 50-60FPS in 3D, so while you may still be able to get 30-40FPS in Metro and Batman with DX11 and 3D, I personally prefer to drop settings down a bit (DX9) and get 50-60FPS. Pretty big difference in those extra frames, imo, but you can see what you prefer.

3. If you are looking at USB headsets, the Logitech G930 and G35 are well regarded.

4. That Acer is highly regarded, there's a new Asus 27" that is technically better as it features Lightboost, but also appears to have some quality control issues. An updated version of the Acer is expected that also supports LightBoost but I don't know if its out yet.



@SnickerSnack: SSDs are awesome, load your OS on it, then selectively load the games you're currently playing onto it. Move anything else non-performance intensive off to a mechanical drive. I'm installing one right now for my gf too actually, she's going to love it.

-=HeliX=- Mod 3DV Game Fixes
My 3D Vision Games List Ratings

Intel Core i7 5930K @4.5GHz | Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5 | Win10 x64 Pro | Corsair H105
Nvidia GeForce Titan X SLI Hybrid | ROG Swift PG278Q 144Hz + 3D Vision/G-Sync | 32GB Adata DDR4 2666
Intel Samsung 950Pro SSD | Samsung EVO 4x1 RAID 0 |
Yamaha VX-677 A/V Receiver | Polk Audio RM6880 7.1 | LG Blu-Ray
Auzen X-Fi HT HD | Logitech G710/G502/G27 | Corsair Air 540 | EVGA P2-1200W

#3
Posted 12/22/2011 12:45 AM   
[quote name='chiz' date='21 December 2011 - 06:45 PM' timestamp='1324514704' post='1345533']


@SnickerSnack: SSDs are awesome, load your OS on it, then selectively load the games you're currently playing onto it. Move anything else non-performance intensive off to a mechanical drive. I'm installing one right now for my gf too actually, she's going to love it.
[/quote]

Thanks for chiming in. I hate to derail the topic, but I've got a couple questions/concerns about SSDs. I only had enough time to install windows last night and that's it. I'm a little dissappointed with the amount of space I actually have left over. I read in two places that windows 7 takes around 8-10gb of room, but after installing I found that it took 35gb! Plus my 128gb drive was actually only good for 119gb, so I'm guessing I will only be able to load 3 to 5 games tops.

That said, what about other programs that are invariably needed? Antivirus, firewall, Flash plug-ins, browsers, STEAM... Can those things be installed on my second (larger) drive which will not the OS on it? I'm guessing at the very least that Steam would need to be installed on the SSD since I will want my games on it.

Sorry for the noob question, it's just been a long time since I had a computer with disk partitions and I've kind of forgotten what the limitations & possibilties are. (I know I'm speaking of two hard drives, but the SSD is so small it kind of feels like a disk partition to me.)
[quote name='chiz' date='21 December 2011 - 06:45 PM' timestamp='1324514704' post='1345533']





@SnickerSnack: SSDs are awesome, load your OS on it, then selectively load the games you're currently playing onto it. Move anything else non-performance intensive off to a mechanical drive. I'm installing one right now for my gf too actually, she's going to love it.





Thanks for chiming in. I hate to derail the topic, but I've got a couple questions/concerns about SSDs. I only had enough time to install windows last night and that's it. I'm a little dissappointed with the amount of space I actually have left over. I read in two places that windows 7 takes around 8-10gb of room, but after installing I found that it took 35gb! Plus my 128gb drive was actually only good for 119gb, so I'm guessing I will only be able to load 3 to 5 games tops.



That said, what about other programs that are invariably needed? Antivirus, firewall, Flash plug-ins, browsers, STEAM... Can those things be installed on my second (larger) drive which will not the OS on it? I'm guessing at the very least that Steam would need to be installed on the SSD since I will want my games on it.



Sorry for the noob question, it's just been a long time since I had a computer with disk partitions and I've kind of forgotten what the limitations & possibilties are. (I know I'm speaking of two hard drives, but the SSD is so small it kind of feels like a disk partition to me.)

|CPU: i7-2700k @ 4.5Ghz
|Cooler: Zalman 9900 Max
|MB: MSI Military Class II Z68 GD-80
|RAM: Corsair Vengence 16GB DDR3
|SSDs: Seagate 600 240GB; Crucial M4 128GB
|HDDs: Seagate Barracuda 1TB; Seagate Barracuda 500GB
|PS: OCZ ZX Series 1250watt
|Case: Antec 1200 V3
|Monitors: Asus 3D VG278HE; Asus 3D VG236H; Samsung 3D 51" Plasma;
|GPU:MSI 1080GTX "Duke"
|OS: Windows 10 Pro X64

#4
Posted 12/22/2011 01:35 PM   
Regarding your ssd. Get rid of files that are leftover from windows 7 install. Something like "windows.old". My 120ssd has 40gig used with windows and BF3. All of your downloads(drivers, and setup files) should go to the hdd. Is the ssd in IDE or AHCI mode? It can be changed without formatting, and should be AHCI(you have to edit the registry, before you try this). On overclocking the processor: do it in bios, and monitor your temperature with realtemp or similar. I run my 2700k at 4.6, and nothing I do, in my everyday computing puts it over 70°c.
I use the wireless logitech headset, mentioned above, love it.
Regarding your ssd. Get rid of files that are leftover from windows 7 install. Something like "windows.old". My 120ssd has 40gig used with windows and BF3. All of your downloads(drivers, and setup files) should go to the hdd. Is the ssd in IDE or AHCI mode? It can be changed without formatting, and should be AHCI(you have to edit the registry, before you try this). On overclocking the processor: do it in bios, and monitor your temperature with realtemp or similar. I run my 2700k at 4.6, and nothing I do, in my everyday computing puts it over 70°c.

I use the wireless logitech headset, mentioned above, love it.

i7-2700k, ASRock z68ext7gen3, OCZ 120gb, 16gb ddr3, GTX680

#5
Posted 12/22/2011 01:55 PM   
[quote name='Bonefish' date='22 December 2011 - 07:55 AM' timestamp='1324562100' post='1345810']
Regarding your ssd. Get rid of files that are leftover from windows 7 install. Something like "windows.old". My 120ssd has 40gig used with windows and BF3. All of your downloads(drivers, and setup files) should go to the hdd. Is the ssd in IDE or AHCI mode? It can be changed without formatting, and should be AHCI(you have to edit the registry, before you try this). On overclocking the processor: do it in bios, and monitor your temperature with realtemp or similar. I run my 2700k at 4.6, and nothing I do, in my everyday computing puts it over 70°c.
I use the wireless logitech headset, mentioned above, love it.
[/quote]

Thanks for the input. I changed to AHCI in bios before I installed windows, so I'm good there. I think "windows.old" is simply a directory to an original windows install on an old HDD that's created when you installed a new windows on a new HDD... but I'll check. But just so I'm clear, Nvidia drivers, antivirus, etc... can all be installed and operational on the non-OS drive?

Also, my SSD didn't come with any sort of mounting hardware. Right now I have it sitting on a thin peice of foam and taped to the top of one of the HDDs. Any ideas on where you put these things?

My 2700k is OC'd to 4.2 and temps are around 40-50c. But to OP, what chiz said, your processor is already OC'd. You would probably only want to mess with the GPUs. I have MSI Afterburner software installed on my new machine for such purposes, but I haven't messed with it much yet.
[quote name='Bonefish' date='22 December 2011 - 07:55 AM' timestamp='1324562100' post='1345810']

Regarding your ssd. Get rid of files that are leftover from windows 7 install. Something like "windows.old". My 120ssd has 40gig used with windows and BF3. All of your downloads(drivers, and setup files) should go to the hdd. Is the ssd in IDE or AHCI mode? It can be changed without formatting, and should be AHCI(you have to edit the registry, before you try this). On overclocking the processor: do it in bios, and monitor your temperature with realtemp or similar. I run my 2700k at 4.6, and nothing I do, in my everyday computing puts it over 70°c.

I use the wireless logitech headset, mentioned above, love it.





Thanks for the input. I changed to AHCI in bios before I installed windows, so I'm good there. I think "windows.old" is simply a directory to an original windows install on an old HDD that's created when you installed a new windows on a new HDD... but I'll check. But just so I'm clear, Nvidia drivers, antivirus, etc... can all be installed and operational on the non-OS drive?



Also, my SSD didn't come with any sort of mounting hardware. Right now I have it sitting on a thin peice of foam and taped to the top of one of the HDDs. Any ideas on where you put these things?



My 2700k is OC'd to 4.2 and temps are around 40-50c. But to OP, what chiz said, your processor is already OC'd. You would probably only want to mess with the GPUs. I have MSI Afterburner software installed on my new machine for such purposes, but I haven't messed with it much yet.

|CPU: i7-2700k @ 4.5Ghz
|Cooler: Zalman 9900 Max
|MB: MSI Military Class II Z68 GD-80
|RAM: Corsair Vengence 16GB DDR3
|SSDs: Seagate 600 240GB; Crucial M4 128GB
|HDDs: Seagate Barracuda 1TB; Seagate Barracuda 500GB
|PS: OCZ ZX Series 1250watt
|Case: Antec 1200 V3
|Monitors: Asus 3D VG278HE; Asus 3D VG236H; Samsung 3D 51" Plasma;
|GPU:MSI 1080GTX "Duke"
|OS: Windows 10 Pro X64

#6
Posted 12/22/2011 02:28 PM   
My motherboard had an ssd tray built in to the front usb ports, convenient. Get a tray for it, less than $10. On the ssd space, run disk cleanup and dump everything. Can't be anything there that you can't fix, if you make a mistake. Drivers and programs, when you download, put them on the hdd and if they have to be installed, to run, install them on the ssd(not everything has to be installed to run). Your browser, and programs you use every day, should go on the ssd. You can install programs on the hdd, but you got the ssd for its performance, so use it. Just use your best judgement and manage it properly.
My motherboard had an ssd tray built in to the front usb ports, convenient. Get a tray for it, less than $10. On the ssd space, run disk cleanup and dump everything. Can't be anything there that you can't fix, if you make a mistake. Drivers and programs, when you download, put them on the hdd and if they have to be installed, to run, install them on the ssd(not everything has to be installed to run). Your browser, and programs you use every day, should go on the ssd. You can install programs on the hdd, but you got the ssd for its performance, so use it. Just use your best judgement and manage it properly.

i7-2700k, ASRock z68ext7gen3, OCZ 120gb, 16gb ddr3, GTX680

#7
Posted 12/22/2011 02:44 PM   
[quote name='Bonefish' date='22 December 2011 - 08:44 AM' timestamp='1324565088' post='1345826']
My motherboard had an ssd tray built in to the front usb ports, convenient. Get a tray for it, less than $10. On the ssd space, run disk cleanup and dump everything. Can't be anything there that you can't fix, if you make a mistake. Drivers and programs, when you download, put them on the hdd and if they have to be installed, to run, install them on the ssd(not everything has to be installed to run). Your browser, and programs you use every day, should go on the ssd. You can install programs on the hdd, but you got the ssd for its performance, so use it. Just use your best judgement and manage it properly.
[/quote]

Got it. I just purchased a nifty bracket from Newegg that'll work great. Windows is so freakin' fast now I swear it opens programs before I click on them, heh heh!
[quote name='Bonefish' date='22 December 2011 - 08:44 AM' timestamp='1324565088' post='1345826']

My motherboard had an ssd tray built in to the front usb ports, convenient. Get a tray for it, less than $10. On the ssd space, run disk cleanup and dump everything. Can't be anything there that you can't fix, if you make a mistake. Drivers and programs, when you download, put them on the hdd and if they have to be installed, to run, install them on the ssd(not everything has to be installed to run). Your browser, and programs you use every day, should go on the ssd. You can install programs on the hdd, but you got the ssd for its performance, so use it. Just use your best judgement and manage it properly.





Got it. I just purchased a nifty bracket from Newegg that'll work great. Windows is so freakin' fast now I swear it opens programs before I click on them, heh heh!

|CPU: i7-2700k @ 4.5Ghz
|Cooler: Zalman 9900 Max
|MB: MSI Military Class II Z68 GD-80
|RAM: Corsair Vengence 16GB DDR3
|SSDs: Seagate 600 240GB; Crucial M4 128GB
|HDDs: Seagate Barracuda 1TB; Seagate Barracuda 500GB
|PS: OCZ ZX Series 1250watt
|Case: Antec 1200 V3
|Monitors: Asus 3D VG278HE; Asus 3D VG236H; Samsung 3D 51" Plasma;
|GPU:MSI 1080GTX "Duke"
|OS: Windows 10 Pro X64

#8
Posted 12/22/2011 04:19 PM   
Its worth seeing whether youor SSD can do data caching with the HDD.
The speed for your whole HDD is not far of the speed of your SDD - and you only need to allocate 20GB to it.

I have my drive allocated to 20GB caching and the rest for the games I play the most.

Takes windows 4 seconds to boot up after the opening animation, as apposed to 1 second via the SSD alone. (14 seconds on the HDD)

Best of all worlds IMO. get a very fast windows install, and you basically get a HDD with huge storage capasity running at speeds close to an SSD - with some SSD capasity to have direct installs to experience the full speed of your SSD for the things you use most.

for comparison, my HDD with caching (SATA 3) runs faster than my friends SSD (SATA 2).

Only down side is the speed increase only affects the things you use often (which is fine right?)
Its worth seeing whether youor SSD can do data caching with the HDD.

The speed for your whole HDD is not far of the speed of your SDD - and you only need to allocate 20GB to it.



I have my drive allocated to 20GB caching and the rest for the games I play the most.



Takes windows 4 seconds to boot up after the opening animation, as apposed to 1 second via the SSD alone. (14 seconds on the HDD)



Best of all worlds IMO. get a very fast windows install, and you basically get a HDD with huge storage capasity running at speeds close to an SSD - with some SSD capasity to have direct installs to experience the full speed of your SSD for the things you use most.



for comparison, my HDD with caching (SATA 3) runs faster than my friends SSD (SATA 2).



Only down side is the speed increase only affects the things you use often (which is fine right?)

#9
Posted 12/22/2011 04:44 PM   
[quote name='SnickerSnack' date='22 December 2011 - 08:35 AM' timestamp='1324560944' post='1345805']
Thanks for chiming in. I hate to derail the topic, but I've got a couple questions/concerns about SSDs. I only had enough time to install windows last night and that's it. I'm a little dissappointed with the amount of space I actually have left over. I read in two places that windows 7 takes around 8-10gb of room, but after installing I found that it took 35gb! Plus my 128gb drive was actually only good for 119gb, so I'm guessing I will only be able to load 3 to 5 games tops.

That said, what about other programs that are invariably needed? Antivirus, firewall, Flash plug-ins, browsers, STEAM... Can those things be installed on my second (larger) drive which will not the OS on it? I'm guessing at the very least that Steam would need to be installed on the SSD since I will want my games on it.

Sorry for the noob question, it's just been a long time since I had a computer with disk partitions and I've kind of forgotten what the limitations & possibilties are. (I know I'm speaking of two hard drives, but the SSD is so small it kind of feels like a disk partition to me.)
[/quote]
Here's how I set up my SSD (160GB Intel G2), I know everyone has their own systems but this has worked out the best for me:

[list]

[*]1) SSD for OS, productivity apps, currently playing games, some smaller personal documents that benefit from the faster speed of the SSD (photos).
[*]2) RAID 0 array for game installs, Steam, fraps recordings, media, driver downloads whatever else.
[/list]

The idea is to keep the registry info and directory structure intact, but to keep the OS install drive modular and lightweight, free of bloat that goes on your mechanical drive. This means games and anything else that can take a long time to install and take up a lot of space go on the mechanical drive, while not being used a lot. So everytime you get prompted to install a game, you will install it to the mechanical drive or array, lets say D:\. When you want to maximize performance and are playing a game frequently, you move the game to your SSD, then create a [b]junction[/b] to it. To create a junction do the following:

[list]

[*]1) Copy the entire folder of the game to your SSD, you can just copy it to the root so if this were Skyrim, you'd go to D:\steam\steamapps\common\ and copy the Skyrim folder, then drop it to C:\Skyrim
[*]2) Rename your old game directory as a backup, or alternatively you can delete it once you become comfortable with the process. So again if this was Skyrim you'd go to D:\steam\steamapps\common\ and rename the folder to D:\steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim old
[*]3) Now that the folder has been copied to your SSD and the old destination renamed, you want to create a junction. Do this by running an elevated command prompt as admin (right click cmd, run as admin).
[*]4) Once in the command prompt, type [b]mklink /j "<junction location>" "<target folder>"[/b] So for us, with our Skyrim example, this would be: [b]mlink /j "d:\steam\steamapps\common\skyrim" "c:\skyrim"[/b]
[*]5) To undo this, just delete the junction, then copy the folder to the old location (or rename your Skyrim old folder). For a game like Skyrim that dumps your mods into your game directory, you'll want to move your current directory back to retain your mods.
[/list]

For the various User folders, if you right click on them from Explorer, you can choose properties > location > Move and point them to a new physical location on your D: drive. Just set up the directory structure first on your new drive by creating a Users\<name>\ to match your C:\Users\<name>\ first. Then you can move the folders that have more bloat that don't need the SSD performance like Downloads, Movies, Music, Documents. I personally keep my Pictures/Photos on my SSD because they don't take a lot of space and the extra performance is appreciated. You may also want to move the page file to your mechanical drive; while you may see some speed-up having it on your SSD, the constant read/writes shortening the life of your SSD and the amount of space the page file takes may not be worth it.

Hope that helps, lmk if you have any questions on setting any of this up, or why.
[quote name='SnickerSnack' date='22 December 2011 - 08:35 AM' timestamp='1324560944' post='1345805']

Thanks for chiming in. I hate to derail the topic, but I've got a couple questions/concerns about SSDs. I only had enough time to install windows last night and that's it. I'm a little dissappointed with the amount of space I actually have left over. I read in two places that windows 7 takes around 8-10gb of room, but after installing I found that it took 35gb! Plus my 128gb drive was actually only good for 119gb, so I'm guessing I will only be able to load 3 to 5 games tops.



That said, what about other programs that are invariably needed? Antivirus, firewall, Flash plug-ins, browsers, STEAM... Can those things be installed on my second (larger) drive which will not the OS on it? I'm guessing at the very least that Steam would need to be installed on the SSD since I will want my games on it.



Sorry for the noob question, it's just been a long time since I had a computer with disk partitions and I've kind of forgotten what the limitations & possibilties are. (I know I'm speaking of two hard drives, but the SSD is so small it kind of feels like a disk partition to me.)



Here's how I set up my SSD (160GB Intel G2), I know everyone has their own systems but this has worked out the best for me:






  • 1) SSD for OS, productivity apps, currently playing games, some smaller personal documents that benefit from the faster speed of the SSD (photos).
  • 2) RAID 0 array for game installs, Steam, fraps recordings, media, driver downloads whatever else.




The idea is to keep the registry info and directory structure intact, but to keep the OS install drive modular and lightweight, free of bloat that goes on your mechanical drive. This means games and anything else that can take a long time to install and take up a lot of space go on the mechanical drive, while not being used a lot. So everytime you get prompted to install a game, you will install it to the mechanical drive or array, lets say D:\. When you want to maximize performance and are playing a game frequently, you move the game to your SSD, then create a junction to it. To create a junction do the following:






  • 1) Copy the entire folder of the game to your SSD, you can just copy it to the root so if this were Skyrim, you'd go to D:\steam\steamapps\common\ and copy the Skyrim folder, then drop it to C:\Skyrim
  • 2) Rename your old game directory as a backup, or alternatively you can delete it once you become comfortable with the process. So again if this was Skyrim you'd go to D:\steam\steamapps\common\ and rename the folder to D:\steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim old
  • 3) Now that the folder has been copied to your SSD and the old destination renamed, you want to create a junction. Do this by running an elevated command prompt as admin (right click cmd, run as admin).
  • 4) Once in the command prompt, type mklink /j "<junction location>" "<target folder>" So for us, with our Skyrim example, this would be: mlink /j "d:\steam\steamapps\common\skyrim" "c:\skyrim"
  • 5) To undo this, just delete the junction, then copy the folder to the old location (or rename your Skyrim old folder). For a game like Skyrim that dumps your mods into your game directory, you'll want to move your current directory back to retain your mods.




For the various User folders, if you right click on them from Explorer, you can choose properties > location > Move and point them to a new physical location on your D: drive. Just set up the directory structure first on your new drive by creating a Users\<name>\ to match your C:\Users\<name>\ first. Then you can move the folders that have more bloat that don't need the SSD performance like Downloads, Movies, Music, Documents. I personally keep my Pictures/Photos on my SSD because they don't take a lot of space and the extra performance is appreciated. You may also want to move the page file to your mechanical drive; while you may see some speed-up having it on your SSD, the constant read/writes shortening the life of your SSD and the amount of space the page file takes may not be worth it.



Hope that helps, lmk if you have any questions on setting any of this up, or why.

-=HeliX=- Mod 3DV Game Fixes
My 3D Vision Games List Ratings

Intel Core i7 5930K @4.5GHz | Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5 | Win10 x64 Pro | Corsair H105
Nvidia GeForce Titan X SLI Hybrid | ROG Swift PG278Q 144Hz + 3D Vision/G-Sync | 32GB Adata DDR4 2666
Intel Samsung 950Pro SSD | Samsung EVO 4x1 RAID 0 |
Yamaha VX-677 A/V Receiver | Polk Audio RM6880 7.1 | LG Blu-Ray
Auzen X-Fi HT HD | Logitech G710/G502/G27 | Corsair Air 540 | EVGA P2-1200W

#10
Posted 12/22/2011 07:21 PM   
@ chiz: Dude you rock! This could be extremely helpful info. Just so that I understand correctly, I can install as many games as I want to my larger HDD, then copy and paste to my SSD on a needed basis, and that will work as long as I create a 'junction?' Can you enlighten me on what the purpose of the junction is? It must have something to do with the registry, but I don't think I'm understanding exactly. Is it so that the system still 'thinks' that the game is on the HDD, but you are getting the performance value of the SSD? What is the advantage of this process versus simply installing the game to the SSD in the first place? If you need to uninstall a game from the SSD but want to preserve the data (such as patches, etc..), wouldn't you just copy and paste it over to the HDD at that time?

And secondly, is there a way to install a 3D rendering program like Poser or Bryce to the SSD but have the runtime (which can be GBs of data) reside on the mechanical drive?

Geez, I feel bad about hijacking this thread, but hopefully we answered Slithis Nonus questions... /unsure.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':unsure:' />
@ chiz: Dude you rock! This could be extremely helpful info. Just so that I understand correctly, I can install as many games as I want to my larger HDD, then copy and paste to my SSD on a needed basis, and that will work as long as I create a 'junction?' Can you enlighten me on what the purpose of the junction is? It must have something to do with the registry, but I don't think I'm understanding exactly. Is it so that the system still 'thinks' that the game is on the HDD, but you are getting the performance value of the SSD? What is the advantage of this process versus simply installing the game to the SSD in the first place? If you need to uninstall a game from the SSD but want to preserve the data (such as patches, etc..), wouldn't you just copy and paste it over to the HDD at that time?



And secondly, is there a way to install a 3D rendering program like Poser or Bryce to the SSD but have the runtime (which can be GBs of data) reside on the mechanical drive?



Geez, I feel bad about hijacking this thread, but hopefully we answered Slithis Nonus questions... /unsure.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':unsure:' />

|CPU: i7-2700k @ 4.5Ghz
|Cooler: Zalman 9900 Max
|MB: MSI Military Class II Z68 GD-80
|RAM: Corsair Vengence 16GB DDR3
|SSDs: Seagate 600 240GB; Crucial M4 128GB
|HDDs: Seagate Barracuda 1TB; Seagate Barracuda 500GB
|PS: OCZ ZX Series 1250watt
|Case: Antec 1200 V3
|Monitors: Asus 3D VG278HE; Asus 3D VG236H; Samsung 3D 51" Plasma;
|GPU:MSI 1080GTX "Duke"
|OS: Windows 10 Pro X64

#11
Posted 12/22/2011 08:58 PM   
Hey snicker yes that's correct, the game is physically on the SSD so it benefits from the increased performance but logically it still resides where you installed it, the junction just points to the new physical location while keeping the logical/directory structure in the registry intact.

The main benefits I can think of are:

[list]

[*]1) You don't have to uninstall the game ever as long as you have space on your mechanical drive/array, this can be an issue with games with limited number of activations, or Steam if you have an ISP that limits bandwidth. Space is the biggest problem ofc with SSD.
[*]2) Easy back-up of your OS install/image. You can just install all your games, then create an image of your OS, if something goes wrong, just reinstall the backup and your games are still installed/intact.
[*]3) Easier migration to a new OS drive. If you want to upgrade to a faster, bigger SSD or even a RAID 0 SSD array, its much easier to just make an image of your current OS install drive, then load the image onto your new drive/array. All of your games will still be installed and properly linked to your mechanical drives.
[/list]

Maybe the best analogy I can think of is that your mechanical drives are like a bookshelf at the library. When you want to read the book, you pull it from the shelf to a reading table (SSD) and put a placeholder on the shelf that indicates you've checked the book out. Once you're done, you return the book and remove the placeholder. All of this while gaining the benefits of the SSD speed-up ofc.

For your other question about 3D rendering program, it doesnt' really matter where you install it, but you will only get the speed benefits of the SSD if the runtimes and dlls are physically located on the SSD itself. Same for any data you're working with, you'll only get the speed-up of searching/loading if they're on the SSD but ofc the trade-off is data can take up a lot of space.
Hey snicker yes that's correct, the game is physically on the SSD so it benefits from the increased performance but logically it still resides where you installed it, the junction just points to the new physical location while keeping the logical/directory structure in the registry intact.



The main benefits I can think of are:






  • 1) You don't have to uninstall the game ever as long as you have space on your mechanical drive/array, this can be an issue with games with limited number of activations, or Steam if you have an ISP that limits bandwidth. Space is the biggest problem ofc with SSD.
  • 2) Easy back-up of your OS install/image. You can just install all your games, then create an image of your OS, if something goes wrong, just reinstall the backup and your games are still installed/intact.
  • 3) Easier migration to a new OS drive. If you want to upgrade to a faster, bigger SSD or even a RAID 0 SSD array, its much easier to just make an image of your current OS install drive, then load the image onto your new drive/array. All of your games will still be installed and properly linked to your mechanical drives.




Maybe the best analogy I can think of is that your mechanical drives are like a bookshelf at the library. When you want to read the book, you pull it from the shelf to a reading table (SSD) and put a placeholder on the shelf that indicates you've checked the book out. Once you're done, you return the book and remove the placeholder. All of this while gaining the benefits of the SSD speed-up ofc.



For your other question about 3D rendering program, it doesnt' really matter where you install it, but you will only get the speed benefits of the SSD if the runtimes and dlls are physically located on the SSD itself. Same for any data you're working with, you'll only get the speed-up of searching/loading if they're on the SSD but ofc the trade-off is data can take up a lot of space.

-=HeliX=- Mod 3DV Game Fixes
My 3D Vision Games List Ratings

Intel Core i7 5930K @4.5GHz | Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5 | Win10 x64 Pro | Corsair H105
Nvidia GeForce Titan X SLI Hybrid | ROG Swift PG278Q 144Hz + 3D Vision/G-Sync | 32GB Adata DDR4 2666
Intel Samsung 950Pro SSD | Samsung EVO 4x1 RAID 0 |
Yamaha VX-677 A/V Receiver | Polk Audio RM6880 7.1 | LG Blu-Ray
Auzen X-Fi HT HD | Logitech G710/G502/G27 | Corsair Air 540 | EVGA P2-1200W

#12
Posted 12/22/2011 09:45 PM   
Okay that makes sense. Nice illustration. /thanks.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':thanks:' />

What sort of improvement am I going to see in gaming? I'm assuming load times would be the biggest benefit. I'm hoping textures will load up faster too. That was distracting in The Witcher 2 and sometimes even in Batman Arkham City. Will I see any fps improvement though?

I'm really bummed about my Western Digital going bad but at least it forced me into SSD territory. I think I'm going to like it! Now if I can get WD to honor a warranty...
Okay that makes sense. Nice illustration. /thanks.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':thanks:' />



What sort of improvement am I going to see in gaming? I'm assuming load times would be the biggest benefit. I'm hoping textures will load up faster too. That was distracting in The Witcher 2 and sometimes even in Batman Arkham City. Will I see any fps improvement though?



I'm really bummed about my Western Digital going bad but at least it forced me into SSD territory. I think I'm going to like it! Now if I can get WD to honor a warranty...

|CPU: i7-2700k @ 4.5Ghz
|Cooler: Zalman 9900 Max
|MB: MSI Military Class II Z68 GD-80
|RAM: Corsair Vengence 16GB DDR3
|SSDs: Seagate 600 240GB; Crucial M4 128GB
|HDDs: Seagate Barracuda 1TB; Seagate Barracuda 500GB
|PS: OCZ ZX Series 1250watt
|Case: Antec 1200 V3
|Monitors: Asus 3D VG278HE; Asus 3D VG236H; Samsung 3D 51" Plasma;
|GPU:MSI 1080GTX "Duke"
|OS: Windows 10 Pro X64

#13
Posted 12/22/2011 11:04 PM   
[quote name='SnickerSnack' date='22 December 2011 - 06:04 PM' timestamp='1324595093' post='1346064']
Okay that makes sense. Nice illustration. /thanks.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':thanks:' />

What sort of improvement am I going to see in gaming? I'm assuming load times would be the biggest benefit. I'm hoping textures will load up faster too. That was distracting in The Witcher 2 and sometimes even in Batman Arkham City. Will I see any fps improvement though?

I'm really bummed about my Western Digital going bad but at least it forced me into SSD territory. I think I'm going to like it! Now if I can get WD to honor a warranty...
[/quote]
Yep np, as for improvements, it depends what you had your games on before. If you were running a RAID 0 array with 7200RPM drives you won't see too much difference in load time since its mostly sequential reads, where mechanical drives still perform well and scale nearly linearly in RAID 0. From a single 7200RPM drive you will see a big increase, almost half the load times aren't uncommon.

The bigger benefit though is random I/O and seek times with small files, which can really come in handy in games that have tons of items or characters like MMOs or RPGs. Here an SSD will cut down significantly on texture thrashing, texture pop-in, and general lag as you mouse cursor around. Similar for FPS games, texture pop-in should be more gradual and less pronounced. Overall it really shouldn't impact your FPS too much unless you were getting big drops due to texture thrashing or paging. Subjectively however, you should notice a smoother gaming experience running off an SSD.

WD should take care of you, in general I've had good experiences with RMA as long as the drive is within warranty. They may be a bit more reluctant now due to the HDD shortage caused by the flooding in Thailand, but you should get a replacement drive within a few weeks.
[quote name='SnickerSnack' date='22 December 2011 - 06:04 PM' timestamp='1324595093' post='1346064']

Okay that makes sense. Nice illustration. /thanks.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':thanks:' />



What sort of improvement am I going to see in gaming? I'm assuming load times would be the biggest benefit. I'm hoping textures will load up faster too. That was distracting in The Witcher 2 and sometimes even in Batman Arkham City. Will I see any fps improvement though?



I'm really bummed about my Western Digital going bad but at least it forced me into SSD territory. I think I'm going to like it! Now if I can get WD to honor a warranty...



Yep np, as for improvements, it depends what you had your games on before. If you were running a RAID 0 array with 7200RPM drives you won't see too much difference in load time since its mostly sequential reads, where mechanical drives still perform well and scale nearly linearly in RAID 0. From a single 7200RPM drive you will see a big increase, almost half the load times aren't uncommon.



The bigger benefit though is random I/O and seek times with small files, which can really come in handy in games that have tons of items or characters like MMOs or RPGs. Here an SSD will cut down significantly on texture thrashing, texture pop-in, and general lag as you mouse cursor around. Similar for FPS games, texture pop-in should be more gradual and less pronounced. Overall it really shouldn't impact your FPS too much unless you were getting big drops due to texture thrashing or paging. Subjectively however, you should notice a smoother gaming experience running off an SSD.



WD should take care of you, in general I've had good experiences with RMA as long as the drive is within warranty. They may be a bit more reluctant now due to the HDD shortage caused by the flooding in Thailand, but you should get a replacement drive within a few weeks.

-=HeliX=- Mod 3DV Game Fixes
My 3D Vision Games List Ratings

Intel Core i7 5930K @4.5GHz | Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5 | Win10 x64 Pro | Corsair H105
Nvidia GeForce Titan X SLI Hybrid | ROG Swift PG278Q 144Hz + 3D Vision/G-Sync | 32GB Adata DDR4 2666
Intel Samsung 950Pro SSD | Samsung EVO 4x1 RAID 0 |
Yamaha VX-677 A/V Receiver | Polk Audio RM6880 7.1 | LG Blu-Ray
Auzen X-Fi HT HD | Logitech G710/G502/G27 | Corsair Air 540 | EVGA P2-1200W

#14
Posted 12/23/2011 07:26 PM   
I wasn't running in Raid 0 - just had the Seagate (which is 4 years old) in there for a back-up drive. So yeah, I'm hoping/expecting to see some pretty significant improvement. Thanks again.
I wasn't running in Raid 0 - just had the Seagate (which is 4 years old) in there for a back-up drive. So yeah, I'm hoping/expecting to see some pretty significant improvement. Thanks again.

|CPU: i7-2700k @ 4.5Ghz
|Cooler: Zalman 9900 Max
|MB: MSI Military Class II Z68 GD-80
|RAM: Corsair Vengence 16GB DDR3
|SSDs: Seagate 600 240GB; Crucial M4 128GB
|HDDs: Seagate Barracuda 1TB; Seagate Barracuda 500GB
|PS: OCZ ZX Series 1250watt
|Case: Antec 1200 V3
|Monitors: Asus 3D VG278HE; Asus 3D VG236H; Samsung 3D 51" Plasma;
|GPU:MSI 1080GTX "Duke"
|OS: Windows 10 Pro X64

#15
Posted 12/23/2011 09:06 PM   
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