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Improve BF2 Load times

P

Pharacon

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 15, 2004
Messages
308
Ok here is a little backstory:

I had two Diamond Max 9 Plus drives (SATA) running in RAID 0 on my Abit IC7-MAX 3 mobo and then one day i power up my cpu and i here a clicking grinding noise and my oldest Maxtor = toast. I couldnt get the controller to see it or anything. So now i'm on a single 80 gig HDD, and when i play BF2 i have to wait like 5-8 mins per level load. I was wondering what i should do about it. I figured something went wrong with my drives and maybe this other one didnt eat it as bad as the other and now is having issues transfering (XP takes a long time to load etc.) or maybe my Intel Controll has gone bad =(. The toasted drive was sitting on SATA 1 where my working drive is now.

What would be the wised thing to do to speed up BF2, get more RAM so my HDD doesnt get hit for the paging file, or just dump the maxtor and get a better HDD (been looking at the MAX 10 (OEM with 3 year) or Hytachi(?), or Seagate 7200.8.

Anyone got any utilities to check if its the HDD or the controller? Should i try to RMA my board, the working HDD (i think its still under war)?

here is my stats for my rig:
2.4c
IC7-max 3
1 gig of PC4000 (running at 3200)
1 Diamond Max 9 Plus 80 gig
BFG 6800GT
SB Audigy

After the 8 min load times and the initial cache hit the game runs smooth with High everything @ 1024x768 2x AA but it loads like cRAP!

Thanks in Advance... PS if in the wrong section please move

-P
 
Is your HDD the 2MB cache version, or the 8MB?

While I only have the demo of BF2, I would suggest a newer HDD. My system is comparable to yours in terms of performance and it only takes at most a minute or minute and a half to load up.

I have:
Athlon 2500+
1GB PC3200 Mushkin Memory
80GB Maxtor HDD w/ 8MB cache

I'm sure bumping your memory to 2GB would help, but it really isn't a necessary expense at the moment. Get yourself a Seagate drive if you want a 5-year warranty...the other companies, WD, Maxtor, Hitachi will only give you three.

Also, a side note, I would stay away from Hitachi drives (just my opinion). I built a machine for a client recently and went through two of them before the third one worked correctly...and Hitachi's RMA service/customer support isn't very friendly or helpful.
 
The Maxtor Diamond Max 9 is an old drive. You will realize numerous benefits by going to a new one, such as quieter operation, increased performance, and reduced power consumption/heat. Check out the sticky at the top of this forum, and buy what looks good to you. All of the 7200RPM drives that are recommended are within a fairly narrow performance range, although if you've got some cash to burn and don't need much capacity, one of the 73GB Raptors may be just what the doctor ordered. :)
 
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