Ratdude's Main rig V2

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

=> EXPAND

Nope. Not in the X5DAL-TG2 bios (and it is indeed pheonix).

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

since the 12.10 graphics are FUBAR. Just like nvidia fx series and intel i855... Useless.

Please try Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) the current LTS version.

Quantal Quetzal sux for video support.

And then if 12.04 don't work out, I suggest Debian Squeeze.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

Please try Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) the current LTS version.

Quantal Quetzal sux for video support.

And then if 12.04 don't work out, I suggest Debian Squeeze.

I was running 12.04 before that and it was less buggy but still crap.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

Uh oh. Gavotte didn't see the extra RAM. Am I f*cked?

edit- never mind, moron here probably forgot to enable PAE. Let's hope that's it.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

Uh oh. Gavotte didn't see the extra RAM. Am I f*cked?

edit- never mind, moron here probably forgot to enable PAE. Let's hope that's it.

Nope. Thanks to the lack of remapping in my BIOS, I'm fucked.

edit- No I'm not. I had an old copy... a new one had an extra registry and worked. 4.8gb Ram drive created.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

Used 4gb for paging (max allowed), not sure what to use the other 800mb for. Too small for temp?

[TELVM]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

Nope. Not in the X5DAL-TG2 bios (and it is indeed pheonix).

That's what the X5DAL-TG2 manual says . Anyway if ...

... worked. 4.8gb Ram drive created.

... most def your system has both PAE & mem remapping enabled.



Things you can move into a volatile (vanishes on shutdown) ramdisk:

· Pagefile, fixed or variable size according to your needs. Set, restart, then set no pagefile in any other drives, set and restart.

(If Windows starts bitching it can't find any pagefile, put one minimal fixed size 16-16 MB vestigial pagefile into some SSD/HDD, that will stop the bitching).


· User & system environment variables %TEMP% and %TMP% :



· Browser cache. The procedure varies according to browser.


· Any other application cache &/or temp files suitable to move into a volatile ramdisk, like Photoshop scratch disk.



With a non-volatile ramdisk (saves on shutdown, loads on booting), the sky and the user's tolerance to long booting times are the limit.

... not sure what to use the other 800mb for. Too small for temp?

Should be enough 99% of the time. I used 767MB with Se7en without problems.

Anyway should conflict arose, you can always shrink the pagefile to leave more room in the ramdisk, or point back %TEMP% & %TMP% to any SSD/HDD, to solve the situation.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

That's what the X5DAL-TG2 manual says . Anyway if ...



... most def your system has both PAE & mem remapping enabled.



Things you can move into a volatile (vanishes on shutdown) ramdisk:

· Pagefile, fixed or variable size according to your needs. Set, restart, then set no pagefile in any other drives, set and restart.

(If Windows starts bitching it can't find any pagefile, put one minimal fixed size 16-16 MB vestigial pagefile into some SSD/HDD, that will stop the bitching).


· User & system environment variables %TEMP% and %TMP% :



· Browser cache. The procedure varies according to browser.


· Any other application cache &/or temp files suitable to move into a volatile ramdisk, like Photoshop scratch disk.



With a non-volatile ramdisk (saves on shutdown, loads on booting), the sky and the user's tolerance to long booting times are the limit.






Should be enough 99% of the time. I used 767MB with Se7en without problems.

Anyway should conflict arose, you can always shrink the pagefile to leave more room in the ramdisk, or point back %TEMP% & %TMP% to any SSD/HDD, to solve the situation.

Already setup my Page file to be on the ramdisk... Just edited the settigns to move the two temps to the temp folder on the ramdisk. Not moving the Browser cache as that's a bit self defeating; the cache should be non volatile... and given that I'm using a triple 10k Raid 0 array, I don't think leaving them on the hdd will incur much of a speed penalty.

---

so far the ram disk is running well... and two more upgrades coming:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ARCTIC-COOLI...item5d2d29a395

That should take care of the sketchy rear fan. I know I could relube the old fan, and I will, but I wanted a quieter fan. I read that those had a very good noise to flow ratio, so I figured it would be a safe bet.

The other is the Lightscribe burner that was taken out... as luck woudl have it, the place I rehomed it no longer needs it and is giving it back... and since xp has good lightscribe support, It's going back in.

---

Speaking of Optical drives, I think the CD burner is toast. It's a very old liteon that was given to me back in 8th grade (two years before I made my BCN debut). It was a brand new drive that was originally slated to go in a photo kiosk that wasn't needed and was sent "to the trash".

This drive saw a lot of use and it was wicked fast... it even had a multicolor activity LED (green to read, red to burn, yellow to do something else).

Cause of failure: Blown spindle bearing. I went to burn a disc with it yesterday and it was vibrating like hell. Very loud. It used to be load at full speed but not that loud... and nowhere as much vibration.

I now need a fresh burner since my only other high speed burners I can trust already have homes. Any suggestions?

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

Performed the same trick on my D630's Xp x32 partition... but since that was only a 500mb RAMdisk, All I did was turn it into additional page file space.

[TELVM]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

For the benefit of your D630, here goes another old trick.

Depending on the available physical RAM and how you use your comp, just ~500MB of ramdisk pagefile couldn't be enough, you could ran out of virtual memory and break the party:

So you need another larger pagefile in HDD.


But it's tactically interesting to force Windows to use first the inmensely faster ramdisk pagefile to the full, and only then use the crawling HDD pagefile .

To make it so, set the pagefile in the ramdisk as fixed size, at the maximum it can hold. In your D630 it could be 500-500 MB.

Then set the pagefile in HDD as variable size, with the minimum initial size Windows allows (16 MB), then maximum size at your leisure.

(In this example, fixed size 512-512 MB pagefile in ramdisk F: , variable size 16-12288 MB pagefile in HDD E: ).

Look how it works. Windows began using both pagefiles more or less simultaneously:

But, and here is the trick, as soon as the usage of the HDD pagefile reaches 16 MB (the minimum size we defined), Windows 'drops' the HDD pagefile and keeps using the ramdisk pagefile alone ...

... and only when the ramdisk pagefile is used to the full will Windows go back for the HDD pagefile ...

Ah the good old tricks of the good old days .

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

^nah.

Windows picks where to send the page based on which has the least drive activity. Since the only use of the RAM drive is page files, it in theory should always win.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

speaking of Optical drives, I think the CD burner is toast. It's a very old liteon that was given to me back in 8th grade (two years before I made my BCN debut). It was a brand new drive that was originally slated to go in a photo kiosk that wasn't needed and was sent "to the trash".

This drive saw a lot of use and it was wicked fast... it even had a multicolor activity LED (green to read, red to burn, yellow to do something else).

Cause of failure: Blown spindle bearing. I went to burn a disc with it yesterday and it was vibrating like hell. Very loud. It used to be load at full speed but not that loud... and nowhere as much vibration.

Uh Oh... there was a second drive that I got in the same deal... and just by chance it died tonight. It was a Sony DRU-510A that I was using in a firewire enclosure for my G5. Went to reinstall OSX 10.5 (I'm putting the 4th raptor in it) and the drive wouldn't show. Swapping for the DVD burner comign out of the main rig fixed it.

I must be cursed or something.

[TELVM]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

... Windows picks where to send the page based on which has the least drive activity ...

That's what Q314482 pretends and everybody repeat like parrots without having tested it, but unfortunately it's just another microshaft tale that doesn't stand up empirically. Do as you wish.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

That's what Q314482 pretends and everybody repeat like parrots without having tested it, but unfortunately it's just another microshaft tale that doesn't stand up empirically. Do as you wish.

I re-read your post. I misread it... actually that's not as invasive as I thought. Easy enough.

Edit- it let me set the minimum size as small as 2mb.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

Re-installed the lightscribe drive...

From what I saw online, It looks like I'm eligible for another copy of Win 7 ultimate for $20 through my college. I bought a copy this summer for my D630; however, the agreement mentioned nothing about how may copies a student can buy.

Win Xp is great and all but with two displays the GUI isn't as efficient. For instance, I cant't drag and snap maximized windows like I could in 7 (and Gnome Shell). Instead, I have to restore, move, then remaximize. How annoying.

[TELVM]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

... it let me set the minimum size as small as 2mb.

That's even better than 16MB , paging will be focused on the ramdisk even sooner.


Q99768 hints better how Windows empirically manages multiple pagefiles:


" ... If you have two hard disks, and you split the paging file, both hard disks can be accessing information simultaneously, greatly increasing the throughput ..."

And that's what Windows really does, striping.


" ... However, if you have two hard disks, and one hard disk is faster than the other, it may be more effective to store the paging file on only the faster hard disk ..."

So much for the 'Windows will go by itself for the faster pagefile' tale.


"... Some experimentation may be necessary to arrive at the best configuration for your system ..."

No kidding.

[momaka]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

^ I'm adding these posts to my favorites. Really good info there. Thanks guys .

[TELVM]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

There are more juicy RAM tricks , if you are interested.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

Speaking of Optical drives, I think the CD burner is toast. It's a very old liteon that was given to me back in 8th grade (two years before I made my BCN debut). It was a brand new drive that was originally slated to go in a photo kiosk that wasn't needed and was sent "to the trash".

This drive saw a lot of use and it was wicked fast... it even had a multicolor activity LED (green to read, red to burn, yellow to do something else).

Cause of failure: Blown spindle bearing. I went to burn a disc with it yesterday and it was vibrating like hell. Very loud. It used to be load at full speed but not that loud... and nowhere as much vibration.

I now need a fresh burner since my only other high speed burners I can trust already have homes. Any suggestions?

Uh Oh... there was a second drive that I got in the same deal... and just by chance it died tonight. It was a Sony DRU-510A that I was using in a firewire enclosure for my G5. Went to reinstall OSX 10.5 (I'm putting the 4th raptor in it) and the drive wouldn't show. Swapping for the DVD burner comign out of the main rig fixed it.

I must be cursed or something.

Never mind on both counts, as the cd burner didn't do it the last two burn attempts... and the DVD Burner worked fine in a shuttle box.

Weird

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

Possible sound card change coming for my rig..... (In another thread)