[Data]

I get 5.9 HDD result and so does a friend of mine who has a 10000rpm HDD, however I know his drive is faster. I agree that the WEI HDD scores are outdated.

I use SiSoftware Sandra Lite 2010c to benchmark my system, much more accurate and free.

[Maviarab]

Well quick heads up...

DG story is on hold for now....after re-reading through it (maybe Im my worst critic) im re-writing large parts of it....so bear with me please...

Also now have funds to sort new pc out (YAAYYYYYYYY)...

Have everything sorted what  want...but HDD is bothering me...

Mainly used for gaming, so any recommendations, needs to be fast.....and preferably a 1tb drive but certianly nothing less than a 750..

Any advice be appreciated

(and remember...im in the UK)

[Data]

I don’t have one but I’ve been hearing good things about the Samsung drives.

This looks good, 7200 RPM, (some of the 1TB drives are only 5400rpm) and this one has 32mb cache too.

http://www.dabs.com/products/samsung-spinpoint-f3-1tb-7200rpm-sata-3gb-s-32mb-65QC.html?refs=52450000-50429

[lrh9]

If prices were low enough, a solid state disk would be the way to go for a cutting edge gamer. Load times are the number one bottleneck on gaming computers, and a solid state disk can result in seemingly instantaneous loads.

The only problem is that the large disks costs thousands of United States dollars. Surprisingly, they have a terabyte ssd. Shockingly, it costs 3,800 USD.

However, one option is to purchase a traditional disk for data and applications, and purchase a small solid state disk for games.

80 and 120 GB ssds with high read speeds of 250 to 270 MB/s are from 300 to 500 USD.

The best standard hard disks are 150GB or 300 GB have disk rotation speeds of 10,000 RPMs with average seek times of 4.2 ms. I don't know how that translates to load times. They cost 170 to 240 USD.

It depends on your budget. I'd be willing to try out a ssd. I'd have to save up some money first, but I'd only put one in a truly high end system. (One with a quad core, 3.0 GHz cpu. Several graphics cards. Multiple monitors. Large amounts of RAM.) Otherwise I'd go with the 10k rpms or if I'm on a budget just a 7200 rpm. (7200 rpm terabyte drives cost about 90 USD.)

[Maviarab]

Yeah I know what you mean Lrh...but oviously over my budget lmao....well...we can dream eh?

Data...not bad...good find thanks, if you heard good things then good enough for me (dont really have enough HD knowledge to argue lol)...

Found a tad cheaper at a local place where Im getting my ram and cpu from so have one set aside as we speak

Cheers fella's   

[Freddy]

That drive looks interesting to me too.  I had heard they are pretty good.  So double thanks.  I have too much to do on my course to think about upgrades at the moment though !  Added to my bookmarks...

[Carl2]

  I downloaded a few aps and ended up using Performance Test 7,  For the two Samsung Hd's I got a read of 272 Mbs/s and a write of 247 Mbs/s.  Just looking at SSD's at newegg which have reads and writes about the same speed with the faster disks.   I'd think the big advantage is the seek, thay can almost instantly find the next pice of data.  To be sure about the speeds of the raid I checked the hard drive on this computer and got a read of 92Mb/s and write of 92 Mb/s.
  The raid appears to work but the load times of the computers is close to the same, the gateway gives me a snappy feeling.   I'd used the Western digital raptors 10K and wouldn't buy them again for the price I'd stay with the Samsung at about one third the price.
  I'd check out the performance of the hard drives at tomshardware or techpowerup.com,  The disk size and cache don't seem to have much bearing on the speeds.
Carl2

[Freddy]

Finally had a reply from Rockstar.  I sent the original email on the 4th January...so much for their quoted '72 hour' response time.

Here's what they said :

From the dxdiag log the video card is showing as dedicated ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series Dedicated Memory: 508 MB  and Shared Memory: 767 MB which it will take away from the system memory of   Memory: 2048MB RAM and this will leave you under the recommeded specs for the game.

So girls and boys, if you buy something from Rockstar remember to NOT take any notice of their required specifications.

I think Datahopa did say adding some RAM might do the trick....

[Data]

72 hours turned in to 30 days, sounds about right  

I think the minimum specs for GTA4 should be:

64 bit OS
4 GIG RAM
1 GIG Graphics Card
Quad core CPU @ 3Ghz

Reason:
The game is extremely CPU intensive, using over 80% of my Quady @ 3.4ghz.
The more RAM you throw at it the smoother the game play.
Interestingly the amount of memory on the Graphics card is more important than its speed, what I mean is a slower card with 1 GIG of RAM will outperform a faster card with 512mb (as long as the CPU is good enough).

Yes it is very annoying that the game doesn’t play at R’s minimum specs, they got that wrong but run it on a PC that can handle it and you will be playing an extremely addictive game in a huge area and with very high world detail.

I’ve done 70% of it now.

The age of the Quad core and a 64 bit OS (so you have enough RAM) has arrived.

[Maviarab]

Well...should be fully up and running some time tomorrow...get my new psu in the morning

Full build report and pics to come

[Freddy]

Good luck with the build dude - don't forget your anti-static wrist band !

[Art]

<QUOTE>don't forget your anti-static wrist band !</QUOTE>

How ShOcKiNg!!

[Freddy]

 

[Maviarab]

PC built and up and running...pics later

[Freddy]

I don’t have one but I’ve been hearing good things about the Samsung drives.

This looks good, 7200 RPM, (some of the 1TB drives are only 5400rpm) and this one has 32mb cache too.

http://www.dabs.com/products/samsung-spinpoint-f3-1tb-7200rpm-sata-3gb-s-32mb-65QC.html?refs=52450000-50429

I looked into this some more, I think I will get one - all the reviews I have seen are positive..  The only other drive that had me interested was this :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Caviar-SATAII-Internal/dp/B0017XUX7O/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=ID3IK9WLTY1GS&colid=O3LJM63KH1I0

But for an extra £13.00 you get 1TB... my brain didn't hurt with that decision.