The Geek Crew - 64-Bit OS?

MediaMaster GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline Holy Xenu! Posts: 1884 Detroit Gender:	Re: 64-Bit OS? Reply #15 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 11:30am ready-boost sounds pretty cool, I definitely would like to hear how that affects performance. I wonder if I could actually use that ram for rendering. Does it act as physical ram or just a faster virtual ram?
Back to top	"Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other."&&&&John Adams&& IP Logged

b0b

GeekCrew Administrator
FTP Server

Offline

The revolution will not
be televised.

Posts: 7464
Battle Creek, Michigan
Gender: male

Re: 64-Bit OS?
Reply #16 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 1:02pm

It's essentially a faster virtual cache/RAM. Once your system hits the RAM limit, the OS starts paging out to L4 cache, which is usually the paging file on the hard drive. With ReadyBoost, the faster USB drive becomes the L4 cache, and the hard drive page file becomes L5 cache.

L1 Cache - On processor, runs at the core speed of the CPU.
L2 Cache - On die, runs at the speed of the FSB.
L3 Cache - RAM, runs at the speed of the bus, but with much higher latency.
L4 Cache - ReadyBoost, runs at USB 2.0 bus speed (480Mbps).
L5 Cache - Hard drive paging file, runs at the drive's transfer speed.

-b0b
(...the more you know.)

Back to top

IP Logged

MediaMaster GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline Holy Xenu! Posts: 1884 Detroit Gender:	Re: 64-Bit OS? Reply #17 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 1:15pm Thanks bob, its nice to see it organized like that.
Back to top	"Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other."&&&&John Adams&& IP Logged

spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: 64-Bit OS? Reply #18 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 1:53pm You wrote -bob twice, that counts as a mistake. Me finding this thus gives me a point. ...so what is it now 1500 to 3? I am going to catch you soon!
Back to top	IP Logged

b0b GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline The revolution will not be televised. Posts: 7464 Battle Creek, Michigan Gender:	Re: 64-Bit OS? Reply #19 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 2:22pm spanky wrote on Dec 5^th, 2007 at 1:53pm: You wrote -bob twice, that counts as a mistake. It wasn't a mistake, I simply wanted to be sure you knew who was posting that witty piece of information. -b0b (...fixed it anyway.)
Back to top	IP Logged

b0b

GeekCrew Administrator
FTP Server

Offline

The revolution will not
be televised.

Posts: 7464
Battle Creek, Michigan
Gender: male

Re: 64-Bit OS?
Reply #20 - Dec 6^th, 2007 at 8:50am

I finished getting the OS setup last night and I've reinstalled most of my applications. I might be able to get some gaming done on Saturday, so I'll let you know how they play.

I tried out Aero and Flip 3D last night, and wasn't incredibly impressed by either. I've gone back to the classic interface and classic start menu. Windows 2000 never looked so good!

By the way, I haven't run into any driver issues. The only piece of hardware I have that doesn't work is my craptastic flatbed scanner. I bought it at Meijer about six years ago and the vendor doesn't even have a website, so I'm going to have to call it a loss. I hardly use it anyway so it isn't a big deal.

-b0b
(...is downloading Half-Life 2 from Steam to try out tonight.)

Back to top

IP Logged

b0b

GeekCrew Administrator
FTP Server

Offline

The revolution will not
be televised.

Posts: 7464
Battle Creek, Michigan
Gender: male

Re: 64-Bit OS?
Reply #21 - Dec 7^th, 2007 at 8:23am

I just thought I'd mention that I got my first (and second, and third) blue screen of death last night on Vista. That might be a new record for quickest BSoD on a new OS!

For some reason, Vista BSoD's when I try to install PCMark 2005. That really sucks because I wanted to compare Vista's performance to XP's performance on the same machine. Both times I tried to install PCMark 2005, the system crashed with a non-descript BSoD.

The third crash was my fault. I downloaded Vista-compatible drivers for my Soundblaster X-Fi Fatal1ty, and then tried to install the rest of the Soundblaster programs from the CD. Apparently, the software on the CD doesn't work with the Vista drivers, so my machine blue-screened again when I rebooted. It's good to know that safe mode is still in the same location...

Creative has replaced all of their X-Fi installation CD's with a Vista-compatible version. If you bought an X-Fi before the CD was switched and you want to use Vista, you're pretty much screwed as far as Soundblaster applications are concerned. Only the driver and a couple of programs are on the Creative website.

I did manage to find a copy of the Vista X-Fi CD on MiniNova, though, so I'm going to install everything else tonight.

Shame on Creative for not hosting the apps on their site, and shame on Microsoft for allowing Vista to BSoD so easily. What happened to the improved HAL that was supposed to handle application crashes more gracefully?

-b0b
(...will post pics later.)

Back to top

IP Logged

Stick

Wootzor von Leetenhaxor
FTP Server

Offline

Stick is back

Posts: 501
Michgan
Gender: male

Re: 64-Bit OS?
Reply #22 - Dec 8^th, 2007 at 11:36am

My friend at work just built his new rig and installed 64bit XP pro. He said that he found all of his drivers just fine and everything is peachy.

He got a quad core Q6600, that's the cheapest one. Its paired with a 8800GTX. He overclocked the system where the CPU is now running at 3.3GHz and its normally at 2.4. His cooling is a high end Zalman fan heatsink.

Back to top

IP Logged

b0b GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline The revolution will not be televised. Posts: 7464 Battle Creek, Michigan Gender:	Re: 64-Bit OS? Reply #23 - Dec 8^th, 2007 at 11:52pm Wow, that's a pretty decent overclock. I'm also looking at a Q6600 and an 8800GTX, so it sounds like his rig is pretty similar to mine. Has he said anything about performance yet? -b0b (...inquiring minds.)
Back to top	IP Logged

Stick Wootzor von Leetenhaxor FTP Server Offline Stick is back Posts: 501 Michgan Gender:	Re: 64-Bit OS? Reply #24 - Dec 10^th, 2007 at 1:42pm Yea, he did. He gave me some numbers but I can't recall them off the top of my head. I will ask him tomorrow. He's playing crysis and said he noticed a small lag spike once when he was in major combat but that is all.
Back to top	IP Logged

b0b

GeekCrew Administrator
FTP Server

Offline

The revolution will not
be televised.

Posts: 7464
Battle Creek, Michigan
Gender: male

Re: 64-Bit OS?
Reply #25 - Dec 10^th, 2007 at 3:02pm

That's pretty impressive. Crysis is an absolute juggernaut of a game when it comes to system resources. It takes the average "gaming PC" and breaks it into tiny little pieces, making it run home to mommy while screaming like Briney a little girl.

There are a handful of games that I'm really looking forward to playing, including...

Supreme Commander and expansion - I'm an RTS man at heart.
World in Conflict - Another RTS that looks excellent.
Neverwinter Nights 2 and expansion - I've owned the game for months, but can't play it on my current rig.
STALKER - Yeah, it's getting old, but I love Chernobyl and the game looks sweet.
BioShock - This game looks incredibly sweet.

There are a couple others, but those ones round out the top five. I also want to play the new WarHammer 40k expansions, but I might wait until they hit the bargain bin.

-b0b
(...can't wait to play!)

Back to top

IP Logged

Stick Wootzor von Leetenhaxor FTP Server Offline Stick is back Posts: 501 Michgan Gender:	Re: 64-Bit OS? Reply #26 - Dec 10^th, 2007 at 3:25pm warhammer 40k was cool for a while but you have to play the same tactical way everytime or you will lose. Kinda got boring....
Back to top	IP Logged

spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: 64-Bit OS? Reply #27 - Dec 10^th, 2007 at 8:16pm Why are you guys stuck on the 8800GTX? Yes it is the best of the best, but it is also OMG expensive. Why not spring for the 8800GT for half the price. I have not found a game that it can't play yet. (only tried crysis demo not full game)
Back to top	IP Logged

X Post Whore FTP Server Offline Truth Is Treason, In The Empire Of Lies Posts: 3903 Gender:	Re: 64-Bit OS? Reply #28 - Dec 10^th, 2007 at 8:47pm Because like you and I've always said... The 'X' means better! X
Back to top	In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king. - Max Payne IP Logged

b0b

GeekCrew Administrator
FTP Server

Offline

The revolution will not
be televised.

Posts: 7464
Battle Creek, Michigan
Gender: male

Re: 64-Bit OS?
Reply #29 - Dec 10^th, 2007 at 10:11pm

Yeah, it's kinda like I told Wes, the plus means better.

When I built the Bobulator IV (the first one with the ubercase), I bought a Soyo K7V Dragon Plus. Wes rebuilt his PC at the same time and only opted for the Soyo K7V Dragon. Guess what? The plus really did mean better, and my system whooped the crap out of his.

Of course, that superior processor and graphics card might have had something to do with that, too.

-b0b
(...w00t!)

Back to top

IP Logged