minotaur

'Fess up, you're an AI bot, aren't you. Man...I usually give up as soon as the fps drops below 20. I almost gave up playing Oblivion the first time around because my system wouldn't run it above 20-22 fps. Had to spend hours tweaking it until I got it to run smoothly.

^ yup no better or worse than others. Anyway, the religious/political/idealogical backgrounds of manufacturers is not a criteria when I purchase stuff, otherwise I'd literally be living like a caveman..... Diskeeper simply works great only my systems, and I shall continue to use it.

I've often run Ccleaner right after running the native windows disk cleanup utility, and CC hasn't found much more to remove, which leads me to believe that the windows utility itself does a decent job. I never use it or any other app for registry 'cleaning'.

I don't think that is true. If any program claims to be able to 'refresh' the 'grains' (collection of magnetic domains) of the magnetic thin film coating of the platter, then it's a false claim. The magnetization of the grain (corresponding to the 'bit') is a materials property and the fields strengths required for that are carefully calibrated by the drive manufacturer and precisely applied by the read/write head. No software can change this, to the best of my knowledge. As for defrag, once the files are defragged, then there is no 'too much defrag' since there is nothing to defrag, so there is no wear & tear on the drive. A defragmented file will not fragment unless it's modified and cannot expand contiguously. I too use Diskeeper 2009 auto defrag, and it doesn't defrag every single time the system is idle, only if it's necessary i.e. usually for a few minutes a day. Hardly any stress on the drive, and it reduces the number of seeks for reading the same file (compared to the fragmented state). Ofcourse, I have added temporary file directories such as my Opera browser cache to the file exclusion list since there is no point defragging those; so Diskeeper ignores those. Remember, the drive is always working as soon as the system is turned on. The platters are always spinning, and something is always going on in the background...indexing, superfetch, pagefile, log files etc etc., yet drives don't die because of this. Drives die either due to construction/QC problems (early failure) or due to poor environmental conditions like dust, heat, vibration, shock etc. So ensure that the drive is running cool and stable, to get some decent life out of it.

Yes, defrag times are highly unpredictable. Some of the variables are -speed of the drive itself -volume of fragmented files -size of the fragmented files (moving larger files obviously takes longer) -type of fragmented files. eg ...system files like the page file (and MFT for most defraggers) cannot be moved online, and they also form barriers to other file movements. -disk activity from other applications -CPU usage -fragmented free space -available free space. -and very importantly, the defraggers algorithms. Some are clearly faster than others. So predicting defrag times is a hit or miss affair. That said, I use Diskeeper 2009 Pro on my XP machines, and it's always left on auto defrag (defrags only in the background using idle cycles) so defrag times are not an issue for me. It's a great set and forget solution. BTW, defragging an external HDD will take a long time because of the slow USB interface that is much slower than the internal IDE/SATA standard, so expect long defrag times. Another factor is that unless the external drive is heavily fragmented, the USB interface is more likely to be the bottleneck than anything else.

If you install Diskeeper, you don't need to worry about the built-in XP defrag, it is automatically superseded. I use Diskeeper 2009 Pro, and all defragmentation tasks have been taken over by Diskeeper on my system...even when I right-click->tools->defrag, it's diskeeper that pops up. To the OP: don't bother with removing the xp defragger, you can just choose not to run it.

I am not sure I understood some of the stuff because SSDs are generally *much* faster than HDDs for sequential/random reads and sequential writes. Where they falter is at random writes, and some software solutions are already available to address that to an extent. http://downloads.diskeeper.com/pdf/HyperFast.pdf Operational longevity of SSDs is ofcourse yet to be determined. The OS has no hand in organizing data physically on the disk...that is done by the disk's controller. OS organizes data only at a logical level.

Does anyone play UT3 anymore? I still have my retail copy that I bought as soon as it was released...I must have spent a grand total of 10 hours on it before putting it aside due to the dull maps and lack of servers (at that time). Maybe time to revisit it....

I voted for Diskeeper. Would have specifically selected the 2009 Pro version if that option was there. It's the best defragger I've come across..set and forget...never worry about defragging.

I voted for COD:MW on the PC. COD4 was one of my most played MP games of all time, second perhaps only to Day of Defeat (the original). I don't own consoles and I haven't played COD:WAW. I don't think I have the strength to play another WW-II shooter.

Probably on the older versions; the new Diskeepers don't have that issue. I am currently testing the trial version of Diskeeper 2009 Pro and it fully defragged a 250GB drive with only 5% free space when I tried it. I created some fragmentation by deleting some files and adding new files until the space was only 5% and turned on the auto defrag before going to bed. Next morning the drive was fully defragged!! This was on a drive with relatively static files (photos/torrents) but I would not recommend that any OS drive be filled up to the 90-95% mark though. Performance is bound to suffer regardless of fragmentation.

I agree 71 C on the CPU is on the hot side. The south bridge also seems to be running hot at 66 on idle. Have you checked if the CPU's HSF is correctly installed and the fan cable is plugged into the mobo? Could be a problem with insufficient cooling in the case. Open up the case and test the rig once again with a desktop/pedestal fan blowing air at the components. As for the PSU, FSP used to be a decent brand atleast a few years ago. I used one of their 350W units for a couple of years without any problems. I don't know if the 9800GT uses more power than the 8800GT but as a rough guide I ran a E6550 + mobo + 2GB + 2 HDDs + DVDROM + soundcard + 8800GT on a coolermaster 450W RealPower unit for more than a week without any problems, last year.

I am not sure if this'll work but if if your video card has a Video-In/Video-Out function port, you may be able to connect the output of the VCR to the card and watch/transcode/capture the video? Back in the day, I had a Leadtek 7800GT with the VIVO function; and it was claimed in the manual that I could connect an external source like a TV box and capture the video. But i never used it even once so I don't know how well it worked.

I've never used it on Vista 64-bit personally, but Diskeeper 2009 Pro may do the job, since it supports x64. http://www.diskeeper.com/diskeeper/home/dk...chart-home.aspx I have v2009 installed on XP Pro 32 bit, and it's excellent. I used to run the older 2008 Pro version back when I had Vista 32-bit and used it's VSS defrag option to avoid conflict with restore points.

I am at level 10, and I am loving every minute of this game. It's easily my game of the year. Oblivion with guns and frickin "laser" beams, yeah! EDIT: I just got the flamer, and I am having fun toasting the supermutants with it.