New HD PCI-e

[wowphreak]

Well honestly I guess I would need to DL some hd testing software as Im not real savvy in that dpt. I do however see a major improvement already. Dalaran is extremely smooth, no hiccups. I put 3 of the windows on this drive and the 2 other off my cheaper SSD (agility 120). I was thinking maybe I should further divide up the load and put 1 on the raided raptors. So then it would be 2 on new SSD, 2 on old SSD and 1 on HDs. I guess I could start upping the graphics settings, right now Im only 1080x760(?) and most effects are off.

You have an io extreme ?? just put wow on it and use symlinking to conserve space, anything else will be slower

crank the graphics till yer comp screams uncle :P

[Sajuuk]

I have 2 4850 graphics cards and a quad core Q9550 CPU with 8mb of ram. So I believe you can get some serious eye candy with your setup.
Drommon

Dang, 8MB, that's hardcore!


Multibocks: You mean you just didn't copy the data folder of wow to your new, shiny expensive PCIE raid array and symlink your directory(ies) to it? Why not just put all your folders on it? Seems like a waste to send so much on hardware only to split it between it and your older hardware.

[Drommon]

Dang, 8MB, that's hardcore!


Multibocks: You mean you just didn't copy the data folder of wow to your new, shiny expensive PCIE raid array and symlink your directory(ies) to it? Why not just put all your folders on it? Seems like a waste to send so much on hardware only to split it between it and your older hardware.

LOL!!! I meant 8GB... hehe

[Multibocks]

Dang, 8MB, that's hardcore!


Multibocks: You mean you just didn't copy the data folder of wow to your new, shiny expensive PCIE raid array and symlink your directory(ies) to it? Why not just put all your folders on it? Seems like a waste to send so much on hardware only to split it between it and your older hardware.

Well here's my reasoning. The Ioxtreme can burst to 700, but usually its around 500. The agility 120 can do I think 300s. The raptors are a bit lower than that. If I throw all 5 on the xtreme thats 5 clients requesting data from one drive right? So my bottleneck is 500, so 100 per window(I know its not as simple as that, but lets say average). If I put two windows on the agility, suddenly they all jump up in bandwidth (500/3 and 300/2) further dividing the load add the raptors and you have (500/2) (300/2) and uhm hrm I think raptors are in the 200s so 200/1. Lowest bandwith there is 150 on one window. If my thinking on this is incorrect then go ahead and right my sinking ship.

Drommon: How are you assigning your GPUs? I tried using the config in IS and as soon as window 2 launched it crashed saying it couldnt find the GPU. I have the crossfire ATI 5870x2s (damn so long since I thought about it, I'm not even sure thats the right number, lol)

edit: p.s. the first thing I did was transfer my symlinked setup from the agility to the ioxtreme. Turns out something was bad with the data and it BSOD me when I was playing. I reinstalled WOW and decided to try my "experiment" using multiple drives.

[Drommon]

Well here's my reasoning. The Ioxtreme can burst to 700, but usually its around 500. The agility 120 can do I think 300s. The raptors are a bit lower than that. If I throw all 5 on the xtreme thats 5 clients requesting data from one drive right? So my bottleneck is 500, so 100 per window(I know its not as simple as that, but lets say average). If I put two windows on the agility, suddenly they all jump up in bandwidth (500/3 and 300/2) further dividing the load add the raptors and you have (500/2) (300/2) and uhm hrm I think raptors are in the 200s so 200/1. Lowest bandwith there is 150 on one window. If my thinking on this is incorrect then go ahead and right my sinking ship.

Drommon: How are you assigning your GPUs? I tried using the config in IS and as soon as window 2 launched it crashed saying it couldnt find the GPU. I have the crossfire ATI 5870x2s (damn so long since I thought about it, I'm not even sure thats the right number, lol)

edit: p.s. the first thing I did was transfer my symlinked setup from the agility to the ioxtreme. Turns out something was bad with the data and it BSOD me when I was playing. I reinstalled WOW and decided to try my "experiment" using multiple drives.

I may be wrong about this. But when you copy a folder with symlinked subfolders they become unlinked. What I did is create the symlinked folders from scratch after each install. Yes my crappy SSD fails sometimes but I have a backup on a NAS server. Whenever I copy from the NAS to the SSD I have to recreate the symlinks.

I don't know what to say about innerspace in your case. But I see a big performance boost when I create a primary and secondary display profiles. I have crossfire disabled and I also made sure that the OS actually sees a second card. Oddly, when I turned off crossfire the OS stopped seeing the second card, I dont know why. I use Ultimate Vista 64 bit. Make sure your OS and MOBO bios and all drivers are latest. In my humbe opinion I really would encourage you to drive all wow folders from your new SSD. I know you will see a boost. Don't do the crossdrive stuff, I would imagine it could create a bandwidth issue on the bus (but not really sure).

I hope this helps,

Drommon

[Multibocks]

oh I did have to redo the symlinks, sorry for the confusion. Hmm seperating my crossfire, I'll have to try that. Do you run all accounts on one monitor? I have one big 30" that I run all 5 on. Ya after I posted my experiment I started wondering more about it. Now if 3 drives would create a bus bandwidth problem, well wouldnt one drive do the same (or have less bandwidth?) Actually what I think is more the issue is drive response time. I think I want to stay away from using any HD so I dont get hiccups in game play (dalaran, WG Im looking at you) other than that I dont see a problem using two different SSDs. I really doubt they can saturate the bus, what would be the point of a 700MB/s burst drive if it's limited by the bus?

One final thought that I'm unsure of: Does using two drives at once mean that you have to request info from one, while the other waits? You see that would be a problem and then I can understand only using one SSD.

edit: damn seperated my crossfire via the utility and now I cant see anything inside the innerspace config UI. Also Im not sure what you mean by OS seeing both cards, all 4 show up in my device manager??

[Multibocks]

oh damn do you have to use more than one monitor if you split up crossfire?

[Drommon]

oh damn do you have to use more than one monitor if you split up crossfire?

Yes, I have 2 monitors. Each monitor has 1 card driving it.. I use a 24" for the main and a 22" for the 4 slaves. The 24" is set to max graphics "eye candy" mode. The 22" is set to min graphics. When I Pip, I have the PiP switch hit a macro in wow that improves the graphics of the slave when the screen moves to the 24" monitor and also it hits a macro in the main to reduce its graphics to minimum when it moves to the 22" monitor. That way I preserve the balance of load between all clients.

Yeah, I don't know much about busses so just disregard my statement there. But I really think you should try just putting all of your wow folders on your new PCI SSD. Actually experiment with all combos and keep the best one. It will require some work but I think it will pay off.

Drommon

[Multibocks]

wonder if I can find a switch for a monitor cable so I can swap my GFs monitor back and forth between her comp and mine....

[Drommon]

Well if your GF's monitor has multiple inputs then you may not need a switch, just a cable will do. Check all of your video port options before spending more money. I have my laptop docking station and game PC connected to the same 2 monitors because I am using all of the available ports.

Drommon