I am going to install win7 64-bit on a new partition on one of my hard drives so I can boot from it to play dragon age inquisition and maybe Star Citizen. I'm currently running 32-bit and I don't want to do a fresh install, I've got like 5 years invested into this one and I'm not starting from scratch. Not until I get an SSD anyway. The question is, how much space should I allocate for the partition? and on what drive?
I have 3 HDDs, all of which I cleaned thoroughly yesterday (freed up like 150 GB, very proud)
C:\ 150 GB Western Digital Velociraptor
OS, small commonly used programs, high-demand programs (photoshop, games)
70 GB of 139 GB free
D:\ 1 TB Seagate Barracuda
Used for misc. storage and low-demand programs (conversion software, old games)
90 GB of 901 GB free
E:\ 2 TB Seagate Barracuda II
used for video storage
15 GB of 1.81 TB free
I ran Winsat on each disk and these were the results:
C:
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Read_______________103.59 MB/s 6.6
> Disk Random 16.0 Read________________ 2.91 MB/s 4.6
> Responsiveness: Average IO Rate_________2.36 ms/IO 6.8
> Responsiveness: Grouped IOs____________8.77 units 7.4
> Responsiveness: Long IOs_______________8.19 units 7.5
> Responsiveness: Overall_________________71.86 units 6.9
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Write_______________111.76 MB/s 6.8
> Average Read Time with Sequential Writes___4.187 ms 6.3
> Latency: 95th Percentile__________________7.842 ms 6.0
> Latency: Maximum______________________27.264 ms 7.9
> Average Read Time with Random Writes_____4.055 ms 6.3
D:
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Read_______________104.22 MB/s 6.6
> Disk Random 16.0 Read_________________1.16 MB/s 3.3
> Responsiveness: Average IO Rate__________3.43 ms/IO 6.1
> Responsiveness: Grouped IOs____________11.16 units 6.9
> Responsiveness: Long IOs_______________13.56 units 7.1
> Responsiveness: Overall_________________151.28 units 6.6
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Write_______________98.56 MB/s 6.5
> Average Read Time with Sequential Writes___4.928 ms 6.0
> Latency: 95th Percentile__________________37.409 ms 2.4
> Latency: Maximum______________________82.321 ms 7.8
> Average Read Time with Random Writes____10.485 ms 4.4
E:
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Read_______________112.66 MB/s 6.8
> Disk Random 16.0 Read_________________1.64 MB/s 4.1
> Responsiveness: Average IO Rate__________3.27 ms/IO 6.2
> Responsiveness: Grouped IOs_____________11.44 units 6.9
> Responsiveness: Long IOs________________13.03 units 7.1
> Responsiveness: Overall_________________149.12 units 6.6
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Write_______________105.77 MB/s 6.7
> Average Read Time with Sequential Writes___3.754 ms 6.4
> Latency: 95th Percentile__________________20.754 ms 4.5
> Latency: Maximum______________________27.710 ms 7.9
> Average Read Time with Random Writes_____7.880 ms 5.0
So with that info, which drive would you suggest I make the partition on? and do you recommend putting Dragon age on the same partition? (this game is push my system to its limit one way or another so I need to optimize as best I can). Obviously C outscored D and E in nearly every category, but I'm not exactly sure how DA:I uses my hdd with the ram and I'm expecting my ram to be my bottleneck. I'm guessing some information won't preload and will need to be transferred from the hdd to the ram while in-game rather than just in loading screens.
Because C is normally short on space I'd prefer not to put it there if I'm not going to see a performance increase over D or E. To that end, if I do go with E or D, which should I pick? E has better stats (newer model) but D has less stuff on it. Not sure how much that matters.
Good Old Rig:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz
4 GB RAM pc16000 ddr3 2000mhz
MSI Radeon 7870 Hawk 2048 MB GDDR5 Core@1100MHz Memory@1200MHz
EVGA nForce 790i Ultra Motherboard
Sound card, power supply, dvd burner, fans, lights, buttons, 3 HDDs and a case.
I have 3 HDDs, all of which I cleaned thoroughly yesterday (freed up like 150 GB, very proud)
C:\ 150 GB Western Digital Velociraptor
OS, small commonly used programs, high-demand programs (photoshop, games)
70 GB of 139 GB free
D:\ 1 TB Seagate Barracuda
Used for misc. storage and low-demand programs (conversion software, old games)
90 GB of 901 GB free
E:\ 2 TB Seagate Barracuda II
used for video storage
15 GB of 1.81 TB free
I ran Winsat on each disk and these were the results:
C:
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Read_______________103.59 MB/s 6.6
> Disk Random 16.0 Read________________ 2.91 MB/s 4.6
> Responsiveness: Average IO Rate_________2.36 ms/IO 6.8
> Responsiveness: Grouped IOs____________8.77 units 7.4
> Responsiveness: Long IOs_______________8.19 units 7.5
> Responsiveness: Overall_________________71.86 units 6.9
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Write_______________111.76 MB/s 6.8
> Average Read Time with Sequential Writes___4.187 ms 6.3
> Latency: 95th Percentile__________________7.842 ms 6.0
> Latency: Maximum______________________27.264 ms 7.9
> Average Read Time with Random Writes_____4.055 ms 6.3
D:
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Read_______________104.22 MB/s 6.6
> Disk Random 16.0 Read_________________1.16 MB/s 3.3
> Responsiveness: Average IO Rate__________3.43 ms/IO 6.1
> Responsiveness: Grouped IOs____________11.16 units 6.9
> Responsiveness: Long IOs_______________13.56 units 7.1
> Responsiveness: Overall_________________151.28 units 6.6
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Write_______________98.56 MB/s 6.5
> Average Read Time with Sequential Writes___4.928 ms 6.0
> Latency: 95th Percentile__________________37.409 ms 2.4
> Latency: Maximum______________________82.321 ms 7.8
> Average Read Time with Random Writes____10.485 ms 4.4
E:
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Read_______________112.66 MB/s 6.8
> Disk Random 16.0 Read_________________1.64 MB/s 4.1
> Responsiveness: Average IO Rate__________3.27 ms/IO 6.2
> Responsiveness: Grouped IOs_____________11.44 units 6.9
> Responsiveness: Long IOs________________13.03 units 7.1
> Responsiveness: Overall_________________149.12 units 6.6
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Write_______________105.77 MB/s 6.7
> Average Read Time with Sequential Writes___3.754 ms 6.4
> Latency: 95th Percentile__________________20.754 ms 4.5
> Latency: Maximum______________________27.710 ms 7.9
> Average Read Time with Random Writes_____7.880 ms 5.0
So with that info, which drive would you suggest I make the partition on? and do you recommend putting Dragon age on the same partition? (this game is push my system to its limit one way or another so I need to optimize as best I can). Obviously C outscored D and E in nearly every category, but I'm not exactly sure how DA:I uses my hdd with the ram and I'm expecting my ram to be my bottleneck. I'm guessing some information won't preload and will need to be transferred from the hdd to the ram while in-game rather than just in loading screens.
Because C is normally short on space I'd prefer not to put it there if I'm not going to see a performance increase over D or E. To that end, if I do go with E or D, which should I pick? E has better stats (newer model) but D has less stuff on it. Not sure how much that matters.
Good Old Rig:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz
4 GB RAM pc16000 ddr3 2000mhz
MSI Radeon 7870 Hawk 2048 MB GDDR5 Core@1100MHz Memory@1200MHz
EVGA nForce 790i Ultra Motherboard
Sound card, power supply, dvd burner, fans, lights, buttons, 3 HDDs and a case.