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Looking to speed up load times of favourite apps

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  • 28-04-2005 10:44pm
    #1
    Khannie
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 37,485 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    So.....I was just thinking about this....most of my computing at home involves about ten applications, of which, the top two are Unreal Tournament 2004 and Mozilla Firefox. Almost without fail I will load one of them when I boot the computer.

    I don't want to increase my boot times, but I would like to increase the speed of load of these puppies. Can you buy a PCI card (or equivalent) that has flash ram (or equivalent) on it, that's faster than a hard drive?

    I think flash ram's pretty slow....slower than a hard drive, though I could be wrong, in which case the solution's obvious.

    Anyway, has anyone got any suggestions?

    It surprises me that operating systems don't already come on rewriteable fast memory, so that it was there immediately once you turn the machine on....a bit like a console...or the old 8 bit computers.


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    #2
    SwampThing
    Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭SwampThing


    Yes, there is a solution...

    Check out this


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    #3
    Ciaran500
    Registered Users Posts: 8,225 ✭✭✭Ciaran500


    You could try and find one of these if you looking to lood from solid state mem. http://www.cenatek.com/product_rocketdrive.cfm


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    #4
    Khannie
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 37,485 Mod ✭✭✭✭Khannie


    Ciaran500 wrote:
    You could try and find one of these if you looking to lood from solid state mem. http://www.cenatek.com/product_rocketdrive.cfm

    That's the stuff. I'd only want a small one though....maybe 512MB. Defo not 4 gigs. That's for global-mega-corps. :)


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    #5
    Mutant_Fruit
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,943 ✭✭✭Mutant_Fruit


    Try using software to create a ram disk. It'd have to be small (unless you own loads of ram) but you should be able to make one thats big enough to store firefox. But, i doubt you'd notice a huge speed improvement. Its worth a shot though i suppose.

    It wouldn't help games, unless you had a giant ramdisk, and installed the game onto it :p


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    #6
    Orion
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,807 ✭✭✭✭Orion


    Khannie wrote:
    the top two are Unreal Tournament 2004 and Mozilla Firefox. Almost without fail I will load one of them when I boot the computer.

    I don't want to increase my boot times, but I would like to increase the speed of load of these puppies. Can you buy a PCI card (or equivalent) that has flash ram (or equivalent) on it, that's faster than a hard drive?

    My God you're impatient ;)

    UT loads in about 15 seconds for me and Firefix in about 5. And both of them are after I've already got TS, Thunderbird and mIRC open on top of all the other crap in my systray :D

    How much RAM have you got in your box? And what's the seek time on your hdd?


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    #7
    Khannie
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 37,485 Mod ✭✭✭✭Khannie


    Macros42 wrote:
    My God you're impatient ;)

    Yes. Yes I am. :D

    Impatience and laziness fuel the world economy :D
    Macros42 wrote:
    UT loads in about 15 seconds for me and Firefix in about 5.

    And this is acceptable to you?

    :p

    But seriously....I hate waiting for windows to load, and I hate waiting for UT to load.
    Macros42 wrote:
    How much RAM have you got in your box? And what's the seek time on your hdd?

    Ram is 768MB. Not upgrading that 'til I get a new machine. I never hit swapfile space. UT's not really a ram monster.

    Hdd seek times? Not sure tbh, but it's a fast 7200rpm ATA 133 drive with 8mb cache.

    Mutant: I considered the ramdisk thing, but I'd have to copy the exe to ram each time from disk.

    I'm really surprised that there isn't more demand for really fast solid state storage.


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    #8
    hostyle
    Registered Users Posts: 1,268 ✭✭✭hostyle


    Khannie wrote:
    I'm really surprised that there isn't more demand for really fast solid state storage.

    There is. Its just very, very expensive.


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    #9
    SwampThing
    Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭SwampThing


    Khannie, put on a yellow leotard, light some canddles and incence.
    Turn on PC - UT & Firefox on autoload.
    Assume the Lotus position on the floor and find your inner calm.
    Arise, take position in front of PC, and hope no-one ever realises you're playing UT against them wearing what you're wearing!


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    #10
    Khannie
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 37,485 Mod ✭✭✭✭Khannie


    SwampThing wrote:
    Khannie, put on a yellow leotard, light some canddles and incence.
    Turn on PC - UT & Firefox on autoload.
    Assume the Lotus position on the floor and find your inner calm.
    Arise, take position in front of PC, and hope no-one ever realises you're playing UT against them wearing what you're wearing!

    LOL.

    To get in touch with my inner killer, I play UT naked, covered only (in parts) by raw meat ;)

    Picture THAT! :D

    Looks like I'll just have to RAID0 when I upgrade in a few months.


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    #11
    Orion
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,807 ✭✭✭✭Orion


    Khannie wrote:
    LOL.

    To get in touch with my inner killer, I play UT naked, covered only (in parts) by raw meat ;)
    Picture THAT! :D

    Aarrrrggghhhhhh! That's an even worse mental image than Calis singing in the shower :D


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    #12
    SwampThing
    Registered Users Posts: 944 ✭✭✭SwampThing


    Oh sweet Jesus, someone pass me a bottle of Absinthe, 'till I finish myself off!!

    You're a sick ****er Khannie :D


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    #13
    Gegerty
    Closed Accounts Posts: 900 ✭✭✭Gegerty


    Khannie wrote:
    So.....I was just thinking about this....most of my computing at home involves about ten applications, of which, the top two are Unreal Tournament 2004 and Mozilla Firefox. Almost without fail I will load one of them when I boot the computer.

    I don't want to increase my boot times, but I would like to increase the speed of load of these puppies. Can you buy a PCI card (or equivalent) that has flash ram (or equivalent) on it, that's faster than a hard drive?

    I think flash ram's pretty slow....slower than a hard drive, though I could be wrong, in which case the solution's obvious.

    Anyway, has anyone got any suggestions?

    It surprises me that operating systems don't already come on rewriteable fast memory, so that it was there immediately once you turn the machine on....a bit like a console...or the old 8 bit computers.


    Emmm why don't you leave them open and don't shut down your PC? I work as a software developer and the apps I use take an eternity to load, I just keep them open always. Sometimes need to reboot maybe once every 6 months, hardly warrants buying new hardware for it.


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    #14
    Khannie
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 37,485 Mod ✭✭✭✭Khannie


    Gegerty wrote:
    Emmm why don't you leave them open and don't shut down your PC?

    :eek:

    *shudders*

    I too am a software developer, and while my work machine's on, I leave most apps open. This machine has oodles of ram, so that's grand.....HOWEVER....leaving my PC always on is something that I consider just plain wrong.

    That kind of wasted energy sickens me tbh.

    Swamp and Mac: Knew you'd like that ;)


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    #15
    Gegerty
    Closed Accounts Posts: 900 ✭✭✭Gegerty


    Khannie wrote:
    :eek:

    *shudders*

    I too am a software developer, and while my work machine's on, I leave most apps open. This machine has oodles of ram, so that's grand.....HOWEVER....leaving my PC always on is something that I consider just plain wrong.

    That kind of wasted energy sickens me tbh.

    Swamp and Mac: Knew you'd like that ;)

    Switch to Wind power :rolleyes:


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    #16
    jozi
    Registered Users Posts: 5,391 ✭✭✭jozi


    My whole image of khannie just changed *shuder*
    :eek:


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    #17
    Khannie
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 37,485 Mod ✭✭✭✭Khannie


    jozi wrote:
    My whole image of khannie just changed *shuder*
    :eek:

    Like the new one? ;)

    See you at the LAN in a few weeks ;)


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    #18
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,889 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Khannie wrote:
    :HOWEVER....leaving my PC always on is something that I consider just plain wrong.

    That kind of wasted energy sickens me tbh.
    How about hibernating then use pagedfrg (sysinternals) to defrag that file so it loads quicker.

    with 768MB ram you could look at not paging out the kernel - can't remember the settings to do that though - uses up memory but should be a little faster.

    also change your pagefile to static (same min/max size) and again with the pagedfrg to make it contiguous

    http://www.cyberwizardpit.net/article3.htm - XP Ramdrive
    not going to help much though


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    #19
    jozi
    Registered Users Posts: 5,391 ✭✭✭jozi


    Khannie wrote:
    Like the new one? ;)

    See you at the LAN in a few weeks ;)
    ROFL
    Can imagine you there now, on your own cause we all got scared

    EDIT: just noticed i went over 1000 posts, how did i miss that


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    #20
    Orion
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,807 ✭✭✭✭Orion


    Khannie wrote:
    Like the new one? ;)

    See you at the LAN in a few weeks ;)

    F**k that - I think I'll just go to the Star Wars night* and skip the LAN. Thanks for helping me make the decision easy :D


    *This is assuming that you watch Star Wars fully clothed of course


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