Anyone use dedicated XP partition for Gaming.

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kleox64

[H]ard|Gawd
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Ive allways done this and will continue to do so, opinions?

Seems I avoid alot of the software/performance issues when installed other applications.
 
This is not a personal attack. In general the theory seems retarded. If there is a software issue then it seems it would be a shared file. Which means it'll still install either way. Also performace wise it's still the same file coming of the same hard drive. It doesn't matter what partition it's on. Maybe, meaning maybe, if the partition sits closer to the beginning of the hard drive then things might possibly run a little faster if the OS was towards the end. But still it's not a performance gain. It's like trying to run a benchmark with SuperPi running then running it without SuperPi and saying you got a performance gain. The only thing you are doing it keeping the game files a little separate for easier uninstallation. Do a couple searches for swap file partition and programs partition. It's not worth it in my opinion. But.... good job on the HD organization.
 
ne1wantaride said:
This is not a personal attack. In general the theory seems retarded. If there is a software issue then it seems it would be a shared file. Which means it'll still install either way. Also performace wise it's still the same file coming of the same hard drive. It doesn't matter what partition it's on. Maybe, meaning maybe, if the partition sits closer to the beginning of the hard drive then things might possibly run a little faster if the OS was towards the end. But still it's not a performance gain. It's like trying to run a benchmark with SuperPi running then running it without SuperPi and saying you got a performance gain. The only thing you are doing it keeping the game files a little separate for easier uninstallation. Do a couple searches for swap file partition and programs partition. It's not worth it in my opinion. But.... good job on the HD organization.
Click to expand...

Err, I'm not sure you get what the OP means by software/performance issues. What he is (most likely) referring to is how having a bazillion programs running (for web surfing, listening to music, checking email, pr0n, etc.) will generally affect (effect?) gaming performance, anywhere from a very minute amount to a gigantic difference, depending on how fuxx0red his configuration is. Having a completely separate partition with a completely clean windows installation gets rid of most of those issues. Now, a virus would bork both installations (most likely) for sure, but a bad install of some "1337 H@XX05" drivers for your video/sound/etc. card will not affect the other installation.

So no, the theory isn't "retarded". It makes perfect sense.


*edit: This is also a really good idea if you do things such as music editing/recording. You can disable a hell of a lot of useless crap (well, useless as it pertains to audio recording) such as internet, antivirus, updates, etc., which translates to very real performance/stability gains. As you can imagine, this is 100x more important if you're dealing with irreplaceable material vs. video games.
 
If you are thinking of using a separate install of XP for gaming, then it's a complete waste for two reasons:

1) If disabling a few apps and freeing up a couple of MB of memory makes a difference on your system, you need an upgrade badly.
2) This same concept can be accomplished with separate user accounts. You're doing the mountain out of a molehill thing.

If you are referring to putting the games on a separate partition from your OS, that's simply up to you in terms of personal preference, and shouldn't have any measurable effect.
 
I can not remember where I read; I think it was Maximum PC, but they said using one partition is best. Can not remember why.
 
My Programs/Games live on separate partitions anyway, Ive allways had a separate OS partition for gaming ever since dumping Win98.
 
i keep all programs/games installed to C drive so when I reformat I don't have to manuall delete all the program directories and worry about registy issues
 
sitheris said:
i keep all programs/games installed to C drive so when I reformat I don't have to manuall delete all the program directories and worry about registy issues
Click to expand...

after reformatting and installing on the primary partition, if the secondary partition with the programs was all alone, that could be formatted as well.
 
partitioning a hard drive with a partition for os and a partition for programs/games = teh stupid, on the other hand having two seperate installs of windows one for every day and one for gaming makes plenty of sense prefomance wise inparticular when you use nlite for your gaming partition and take all the bloat out of windoz
 
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