Hard Drive RPMs

pinstripe007 · Oct 28, 2004, 10:29 PM

Will I notice a difference in a 80G 4200 RPM drive compared to a 60G 7200RPM drive in a laptop when I am playing games such as Doom 3 and UT2K4.

If it helps the laptop is the Ferrari 3200. Thanks for any info.

CaptinSxb · Oct 28, 2004, 10:35 PM

I would assume that a hdd with more rpms would generate heat. the 7200 will obviously be faster but ive never gone from one to the other so nto sure if youll notice it.

MiDKnYtE · Oct 28, 2004, 11:27 PM

the maps, etc. will load faster, but the gameplay won't improve much.

pinstripe007 · Oct 29, 2004, 12:52 AM

Thanks, so it's almost better to keep the 80G 4200 hard drive...cooler and most likely will not make too big of a difference. I'll just upgrade the ram then.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Oct 29, 2004, 01:07 AM

seak times will be faster should improve over all performance quite a bit

pinstripe007 · Oct 29, 2004, 01:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Neon_Cowboy

seak times will be faster should improve over all performance quite a bit

Hmmm...now coming from Neon Cowboy, back to square one and ponder this dilema.

MiDKnYtE · Oct 29, 2004, 01:58 AM

he specifically asked about games. overall the system will improve, but frame rates will not increase. once the maps, textures, etc. are loaded to ram, the hdd won't help much.

swimtech · Oct 29, 2004, 10:12 PM

I've done this to an older IBM 600E (366pe PII processor - much like a PIII) - it made the whole computer feel faster - you'll notice the difference during any disk access, probably a bit bigger difference with a more modern laptop and a much faster CPU. Above about 512 Mb, more ram doesn't seem to help overall computer speed so that you would notice unless you run several large apps at once (under XP).

That being said - a faster hard drive alone will not improve frame rates during gameplay. More ram should help the game run more smoothly, without hitches or pauses, when the video memory is full and the textures must be swapped from ram (first) or the hard drive (second) and the cpu must devote cycles to handle those actions.

I would say that more ram (up to a Gig) would help with the latest games most, but a faster hard drive would help overall Windows and single application speed more than adding ram above 512Mb.

~~Crash Override~~ · Nov 19, 2004, 05:23 AM

not quite true.

ever heard of dynamic loading games?

basically its a game where not all the textures and terrains and weather effects are loaded into memory but are streamed from the HD while the game is played.

Need For Speed: Underground being a prime example, and especially Halo where all the loads are pretty much done in real-time.

rjpogi · Nov 19, 2004, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crash Override

not quite true.

ever heard of dynamic loading games?

basically its a game where not all the textures and terrains and weather effects are loaded into memory but are streamed from the HD while the game is played.

Need For Speed: Underground being a prime example, and especially Halo where all the loads are pretty much done in real-time.

is HALF-LIFE 2 and DOOM 3 one of these "dynamic loading games" ???

MiDKnYtE · Nov 19, 2004, 07:02 PM

even with dynamic loading, that would not increase the video card performance. once the data is received from the hdd, the video card must process that information. It's like a toll booth. The toll booth operator can only process so many cars per minute. Even if you can drive more cars to the toll booth, you are limited by the toll booth operator.

Would I upgrade the hdd? definitely. however, it would be for overall system performance, not framerate.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Nov 19, 2004, 10:31 PM

A hard drive is the slowest more largest bottle neck in any system...

do me a favor take a system o/c 6gh p4 / 4000+ AMD 64 and a 6800 ultra or x800xtpe use 512 or 1 gb of ram

now try the system with a 2gb ata 33 hard drive and tell me when it takes you a minute and muntue and a half to boot and you game runs slowly.. that hdd has no performance impact on the entire system includeing games...

you can never have enough memory, your system and you game creates temprary caches where? of you harddrive! the read and written two while you game....

run something hdd intensive and try to play a game... it will drop fps and go verry slow...

A good hard drive is verry important.....

rjpogi · Nov 19, 2004, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjpogi

is HALF-LIFE 2 and DOOM 3 one of these "dynamic loading games" ???

bump

bump bump

bug77 · Nov 19, 2004, 11:14 PM

Also higher RPM means more power drain. So if you're planning on gaming on batteries...

Geminiwave · Nov 19, 2004, 11:48 PM

better seek time means better framerates. seriously. Because yeah sure your framerate will be fine...until the game has to freeze for a minute to load new textures. faster harddrive will eliminate such pauses, thus improving average framerates.

rjpogi · Nov 20, 2004, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjpogi

bump

bump bump

bump again

Geminiwave · Nov 20, 2004, 05:55 PM

dont bump it anymore. you got the answers you were looking for.

davidnsibs · Nov 20, 2004, 06:15 PM

well hl2 has loading points after each 'level' or whatever you want to call it, static loading. nfsu2 doesnt do this, you can drive all over the city without it stopping to load a new section, its sort of contiunously loading all the time so doesnt need a big pause. halo is similar, doesnt stop when loading the next bit of map, mos fps i guess are like hl2, each level loads after you finish the one you're on (CoD, farcry, nolf etc)

rjpogi · Nov 21, 2004, 12:37 AM

thanks for the time guys!

knuth · Nov 21, 2004, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MiDKnYtE

Quote:

Originally Posted by pinstripe007

Will I notice a difference in a 80G 4200 RPM drive compared to a 60G 7200RPM drive in a laptop when I am playing games such as Doom 3...

the maps, etc. will load faster, but the gameplay won't improve much.

Good one

Oct 28, 2004, 10:29 PM	#1
pinstripe007 DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Florida Posts: 105 Rep Power: 0	Hard Drive RPMs Will I notice a difference in a 80G 4200 RPM drive compared to a 60G 7200RPM drive in a laptop when I am playing games such as Doom 3 and UT2K4. If it helps the laptop is the Ferrari 3200. Thanks for any info. __________________ [color=blue] [color=red][color=darkgreen]\|Desktop\| [/color]Mobo:[/color] DFI nForce2 "Ultra Infinity" [color=red]CPU:[/color] AMD Athlon XP 2500+ @ 3200+ Barton [color=red]RAM:[/color] 2x256 & 1x512 PC3200 Buffalo Technology CH-5 @ 11-2-2-2.0 [color=red]Vid:[/color] Sapphire ATI r9700pro @ 360/320 [color=darkgreen]\|Laptop - Prostar 3722\| [color=red]Display: [/color][color=blue]15.4" WSXGA+ [/color][color=yellow]; [color=red]CPU: [/color][color=blue]1.7 GHz Dothan 2MB L2 Cache[/color]; [color=red]RAM: [/color][color=blue]1024MB PC2700 DDR[/color]; [color=red]Vid: [/color][/color][/color][color=blue]ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 128M[/color] [/color]

Oct 28, 2004, 10:35 PM	#2
CaptinSxb DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Good Ol' U.S. of A. Posts: 404 Rep Power: 0	I would assume that a hdd with more rpms would generate heat. the 7200 will obviously be faster but ive never gone from one to the other so nto sure if youll notice it. __________________ A64-3200; x800xl; a couple other things ; and a floppy drive

Oct 29, 2004, 12:52 AM	Thread Starter #4
pinstripe007 DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Florida Posts: 105 Rep Power: 0	Thanks, so it's almost better to keep the 80G 4200 hard drive...cooler and most likely will not make too big of a difference. I'll just upgrade the ram then. __________________ [color=blue] [color=red][color=darkgreen]\|Desktop\| [/color]Mobo:[/color] DFI nForce2 "Ultra Infinity" [color=red]CPU:[/color] AMD Athlon XP 2500+ @ 3200+ Barton [color=red]RAM:[/color] 2x256 & 1x512 PC3200 Buffalo Technology CH-5 @ 11-2-2-2.0 [color=red]Vid:[/color] Sapphire ATI r9700pro @ 360/320 [color=darkgreen]\|Laptop - Prostar 3722\| [color=red]Display: [/color][color=blue]15.4" WSXGA+ [/color][color=yellow]; [color=red]CPU: [/color][color=blue]1.7 GHz Dothan 2MB L2 Cache[/color]; [color=red]RAM: [/color][color=blue]1024MB PC2700 DDR[/color]; [color=red]Vid: [/color][/color][/color][color=blue]ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 128M[/color] [/color]

Oct 29, 2004, 01:07 AM	#5
The_Neon_Cowboy HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,009 Rep Power: 92 System Specs	seak times will be faster should improve over all performance quite a bit __________________

Oct 29, 2004, 10:12 PM	#8
swimtech HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: North Carolina Posts: 4,040 Rep Power: 124 System Specs	I've done this to an older IBM 600E (366pe PII processor - much like a PIII) - it made the whole computer feel faster - you'll notice the difference during any disk access, probably a bit bigger difference with a more modern laptop and a much faster CPU. Above about 512 Mb, more ram doesn't seem to help overall computer speed so that you would notice unless you run several large apps at once (under XP). That being said - a faster hard drive alone will not improve frame rates during gameplay. More ram should help the game run more smoothly, without hitches or pauses, when the video memory is full and the textures must be swapped from ram (first) or the hard drive (second) and the cpu must devote cycles to handle those actions. I would say that more ram (up to a Gig) would help with the latest games most, but a faster hard drive would help overall Windows and single application speed more than adding ram above 512Mb. __________________ It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

Oct 28, 2004, 11:27 PM	#3
MiDKnYtE Caffeine Machine Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Hell is empty. All the devils are here. Posts: 670 Rep Power: 0	the maps, etc. will load faster, but the gameplay won't improve much.

Oct 29, 2004, 01:58 AM	#7
MiDKnYtE Caffeine Machine Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Hell is empty. All the devils are here. Posts: 670 Rep Power: 0	he specifically asked about games. overall the system will improve, but frame rates will not increase. once the maps, textures, etc. are loaded to ram, the hdd won't help much.

Nov 19, 2004, 05:23 AM	#9
~~Crash Override~~ Banned Join Date: May 2002 Location: Olympia, WA Posts: 2,448 Rep Power: 0	not quite true. ever heard of dynamic loading games? basically its a game where not all the textures and terrains and weather effects are loaded into memory but are streamed from the HD while the game is played. Need For Speed: Underground being a prime example, and especially Halo where all the loads are pretty much done in real-time.

Nov 19, 2004, 07:02 PM	#11
MiDKnYtE Caffeine Machine Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Hell is empty. All the devils are here. Posts: 670 Rep Power: 0	even with dynamic loading, that would not increase the video card performance. once the data is received from the hdd, the video card must process that information. It's like a toll booth. The toll booth operator can only process so many cars per minute. Even if you can drive more cars to the toll booth, you are limited by the toll booth operator. Would I upgrade the hdd? definitely. however, it would be for overall system performance, not framerate.

Nov 19, 2004, 10:31 PM	#12
The_Neon_Cowboy HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,009 Rep Power: 92 System Specs	A hard drive is the slowest more largest bottle neck in any system... do me a favor take a system o/c 6gh p4 / 4000+ AMD 64 and a 6800 ultra or x800xtpe use 512 or 1 gb of ram now try the system with a 2gb ata 33 hard drive and tell me when it takes you a minute and muntue and a half to boot and you game runs slowly.. that hdd has no performance impact on the entire system includeing games... you can never have enough memory, your system and you game creates temprary caches where? of you harddrive! the read and written two while you game.... run something hdd intensive and try to play a game... it will drop fps and go verry slow... A good hard drive is verry important..... __________________

Nov 19, 2004, 11:14 PM	#14
bug77 DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: around Posts: 792 Rep Power: 0	Also higher RPM means more power drain. So if you're planning on gaming on batteries...

Nov 19, 2004, 11:48 PM	#15
Geminiwave I Have lovely Breasts Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: In the closet... Posts: 5,395 Rep Power: 64	better seek time means better framerates. seriously. Because yeah sure your framerate will be fine...until the game has to freeze for a minute to load new textures. faster harddrive will eliminate such pauses, thus improving average framerates. __________________

Nov 20, 2004, 05:55 PM	#17
Geminiwave I Have lovely Breasts Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: In the closet... Posts: 5,395 Rep Power: 64	dont bump it anymore. you got the answers you were looking for. __________________

Nov 20, 2004, 06:15 PM	#18
davidnsibs 9500pro Forever Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Bath, UK Posts: 273 Rep Power: 0	well hl2 has loading points after each 'level' or whatever you want to call it, static loading. nfsu2 doesnt do this, you can drive all over the city without it stopping to load a new section, its sort of contiunously loading all the time so doesnt need a big pause. halo is similar, doesnt stop when loading the next bit of map, mos fps i guess are like hl2, each level loads after you finish the one you're on (CoD, farcry, nolf etc) __________________ Goodbye 9500pro, you've been a faithful servant through Half life, Deus Ex, Unreal 2, Max Payne 1+2, Nolf 1+2, CoD, Far Cry, Civ IV, F.E.A.R and many more

Nov 21, 2004, 12:37 AM	#19
rjpogi DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Seoul-Tokyo Connection Posts: 235 Rep Power: 0	thanks for the time guys! __________________ AMD 64 +3000 Venice 2 Infineon 1 gig PC2700 333Mhz DDRAM ECS Elite nForce3a Mobo Seagate Barracuda 120GB HD SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS Inno3D Geforce 6600 AGP