silence in software....
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silence in software....
silence in software....
(sorry, not sure which place to post this...but you have to store software somewhere, right? )
figure such a list may be useful...
What software based silencing methods are there, and how do you do them?
I mean things like....
1 - using a Ram Disk...with your temp folder on that, things can be speeded up a little, and the hard disk wont need to crunch as the data is in ram
2 - CPU idling software...supposed to let your cpu cool off a it, thus reducing temps, and so reducing the amount of airflow needed.
3 - hard disk idle/standby settings...I know with one of my disks, sometimes when the PC is not in use it will ramp up for a couple of minutes, then shut down....then ramp up again...and this is very annoying, especially when it happens when I am trying to sleep....if the HD was being accessed more consistantly, then things would be better...
4 - better swap file settings...that is, make a partition at one end of the drive, defrag the disk, put a swap file on it and do not allow windows to change it's size..hay presto, less fragmenting of the swap file, and so less noisy thrashing.
so, what other ways do you people know of?
how good can they be if done right?
and...how do you do it?
(sorry, not sure which place to post this...but you have to store software somewhere, right? )
figure such a list may be useful...
What software based silencing methods are there, and how do you do them?
I mean things like....
1 - using a Ram Disk...with your temp folder on that, things can be speeded up a little, and the hard disk wont need to crunch as the data is in ram
2 - CPU idling software...supposed to let your cpu cool off a it, thus reducing temps, and so reducing the amount of airflow needed.
3 - hard disk idle/standby settings...I know with one of my disks, sometimes when the PC is not in use it will ramp up for a couple of minutes, then shut down....then ramp up again...and this is very annoying, especially when it happens when I am trying to sleep....if the HD was being accessed more consistantly, then things would be better...
4 - better swap file settings...that is, make a partition at one end of the drive, defrag the disk, put a swap file on it and do not allow windows to change it's size..hay presto, less fragmenting of the swap file, and so less noisy thrashing.
so, what other ways do you people know of?
how good can they be if done right?
and...how do you do it?
Last edited by hwsboss on Wed Jun 15, 2005 3:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: silence in software....
This one is questionable in terms of usefulness. Sometimes spin-up is much more annoying than just a smooth idle, and worse, the delay will reduce performance speed (i.e. the system has to wait for your drive to spin up).hwsboss wrote:3 - hard disk idle/standby settings...I know with one of my disks, sometimes when the PC is not in use it will ramp up for a couple of minutes, then shut down....then ramp up again...if the HD was being accessed more consistantly, then things would be better...
In some cases the automatic turn-off can be a lifesaver... I currently use an old Seagate Medallist and that thing has a whine like no tomorrow. I have it set to turn off after three minutes of inactivity and screw the lifetime measured in power-up-power-down cycles.hwsboss wrote:sorry, what I meant was, it would be better to have the disk contatly spinning, at idle, rather then turning off every few moments, which is annoying
RE: Point 4, the best way is loads of RAM and just dissable the swap file, it's great, I have done it and havent looked back from 2GB of RAM, can be done with 1GB of RAM as well.
You can also set up Ramdrives using software, but dont expect fast performance due to the fact that you are using RAM to "Emulate" a drive, the only use I can think of is whilst web-browsing.
Not on your list as software, but you can get Hardware Ramdrives, out of this world performance (AKA standard in 5 years), few drawbacks except for the price, and data integrity, see Gigabyte for their newly announced drive.
Andy
You can also set up Ramdrives using software, but dont expect fast performance due to the fact that you are using RAM to "Emulate" a drive, the only use I can think of is whilst web-browsing.
Not on your list as software, but you can get Hardware Ramdrives, out of this world performance (AKA standard in 5 years), few drawbacks except for the price, and data integrity, see Gigabyte for their newly announced drive.
Andy
From a performance point of view, it's almost always better to let Windows manage the paging file, no matter how much RAM you have.andyb wrote:RE: Point 4, the best way is loads of RAM and just dissable the swap file, it's great, I have done it and havent looked back from 2GB of RAM, can be done with 1GB of RAM as well.
From a silencing point of view, if you're trying to avoid seeks completely, what's the point of having the drive in the first place? A better solution is to suspend the drive and be done with it.
Sorry Mar, but I have to disaggree with you on both of your points.
If you have enough RAM you just DONT need a paging file, and as such whether it's better for windows to look after it or not is not a question, you DONT have a paging file, anyway I have always had a performance boost from having a fixed page file than letting Window manage it (XP is better than the rest though).
Second point, everyone with a normal cashflow needs a HDD in their PC, and as such we are dicussing "Software" related ideas to reduce noise, everyone agres that suspension is a very good thing, but however the idea was to eliminate noise by other means, i.e. software.
I dont agree that software is the BEST way to fix these problems, hardware is, and always will be, however software is cheap, No-Page file is Free, a Ram-Drive is free, but more RAM is better, and I believe that an extra 1GB of RAM will help most peoples PC's become even quiter, due to the HDD getting used less.
Andy
If you have enough RAM you just DONT need a paging file, and as such whether it's better for windows to look after it or not is not a question, you DONT have a paging file, anyway I have always had a performance boost from having a fixed page file than letting Window manage it (XP is better than the rest though).
Second point, everyone with a normal cashflow needs a HDD in their PC, and as such we are dicussing "Software" related ideas to reduce noise, everyone agres that suspension is a very good thing, but however the idea was to eliminate noise by other means, i.e. software.
I dont agree that software is the BEST way to fix these problems, hardware is, and always will be, however software is cheap, No-Page file is Free, a Ram-Drive is free, but more RAM is better, and I believe that an extra 1GB of RAM will help most peoples PC's become even quiter, due to the HDD getting used less.
Andy