Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Here's the situation:
I own a beefy computer that runs most games at 1280*1024 with everything maxed out at decent speeds, but sometimes there is some chugging during some "big" sequences, like buildings collapsing or sudden scenery changes. I've never been too happy with my HDD, it seems that it takes too much time to list directories or open the windows explorer, but it is a real nuisance with some games. There are little things more anticlimactic that playing HL2 at full speed and then bang, a one second pause followed by five or so spasmodic frames and then going back to high speed. It really gets on my nerves.
The question is, is the HD the real problem? I don't know if other gaffers have faced similar problems. It is a 120 GB Maxtor ATA drive by the way (not the 8 MB one). It'd be handy if you could point me to a freeware program that measures the speed with a graph or something.
Thanks in advance.
PS: It has 1 GB RAM, I'll upgrade to 2 when FEAR comes out. Even Battlefield takes some pauses at medium detail when firing a rocket or blowing something up for first time.
I own a beefy computer that runs most games at 1280*1024 with everything maxed out at decent speeds, but sometimes there is some chugging during some "big" sequences, like buildings collapsing or sudden scenery changes. I've never been too happy with my HDD, it seems that it takes too much time to list directories or open the windows explorer, but it is a real nuisance with some games. There are little things more anticlimactic that playing HL2 at full speed and then bang, a one second pause followed by five or so spasmodic frames and then going back to high speed. It really gets on my nerves.
The question is, is the HD the real problem? I don't know if other gaffers have faced similar problems. It is a 120 GB Maxtor ATA drive by the way (not the 8 MB one). It'd be handy if you could point me to a freeware program that measures the speed with a graph or something.
Thanks in advance.
PS: It has 1 GB RAM, I'll upgrade to 2 when FEAR comes out. Even Battlefield takes some pauses at medium detail when firing a rocket or blowing something up for first time.
