PC Rehab

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Lonewolf-McQuade
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Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 1:50 am

PC Rehab

Post by Lonewolf-McQuade »

My computer is as old as dirt, but it still can perform some very high end tasks. It has a P4 2.8Ghz Intel processor with 512mb high speed cache. The mainboard only has a 400/450 FSB and I'm running about 2 GB SDRam. At the time that I bought this rig the processor had actually been released to the public the day before but it's not even a dual core! So, it doesn't run many of the newer graphic intense games. It has a Radeon all-in-wonder 9600 SE video card with 512Mb & combined with the Pinnacle software suite, I can still crank out some neat video special effects and production. It runs 42, and command and conquer just fine, but the load times were a bit slow and It had started to get cranky from years of installing and uninstalling so I decided to give it a complete refresh.
I found that I could eek out a bit more from the hard disks by putting them on a PCI based controller card so I did that first. Once I had re-installed XP, and gone through the service packs, updates, and personal software, it actually ran like a brand new computer once again. It also helped that I'd reorganized where my pagefile was and how fast it could be accessed. I set it statically because a dynamic pagefile also takes up resources to shrink & grow. I was amazed at the performance improvement. I even was able to dramatically improve my graphics quality due to driver upgrades and some configuration homework on the ATI specs. Unfortunately one of my drives in my array is going out, and it didn't make itself apparent until after the process :twisted:. Man! Aside from the failing drive (which I've put some good miles on over the years) I was able to really improve the performance of my old PC. XP loads a lot quicker, applications execute faster, & 42 seemed to play a lot smoother except for the occasional refresh/glitching that happens when it reads my failing drive. I'll be plugging another one up tonight and I'm excited to get it all setup again and to get back on playing.

Now my laptop.. is brand spanking new and I have 42 on it.. but it's really supposed to be for work not play :lol:
[JiF]Tristan
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Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2008 11:18 pm
Location: Newport News, Virginia

Re: PC Rehab

Post by [JiF]Tristan »

I just figured you would have to tinker with the graphics settings never woulda guessed it to be a drive!?!?!
anyway glad you found the problem and may the ping be with you... lol :D
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Lonewolf-McQuade
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Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 1:50 am

Re: PC Rehab

Post by Lonewolf-McQuade »

It wasn't the drive.. it seems it was the raid controller! I'm playing with it to see if it's a flash/bios issue or just junked! Either way I'm finally back on playing whew!
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