Maximum PC

The idea was, if we're accessing the OS, the app and the swap at the same time, wouldn't a separate hard drive for each be faster? (And a fourth for data).

Lots of guys like everything on one disk, by itself or as RAID 0. I dunno.

Got a Maxtor 16MB/300GB DiamondMax 10 SATA, for what it's worth.

Athlon 64 3000 / 1 GB / LANParty with 4 SATA ports and a free IDE channel.

Currently I run the Swap file on a separate HD. I think it runs fine. With 1GB memory though... What are you doing? Just playing games, what aps, etc. If you ask me, the only time your computer should really swap on the swap file (page file) is when you shut down your favorite game and you see that little red light blinking like crazy. If that is the case, that is why most people use just a RAID0. I would rather upgrade the RAM to 2GB than get the second HD though, then you can get rid of the PF (swap file).

If it is a workstation, RAID with parity is a must, otherwise your screwed and so is your income if you didn't do regular backups.

Hope that answers your question!

Arquero

I also agree that a Raid 0 would run fine for you - I would, however; point out that Even if you were running with 8GB of RAM (which you really can't do in WinXP anyway) you would still need some sort of PageFile...

You can set it to be something small (300MB for example), but Windows and some Windows-based Applications still require a PageFile of some sort. You are much better off setting it for somewhere around 300MB (which is what I run) than to let Windows build one for you on the fly... Even if you disable your swapfile - Windows will still create one if it need it, which can really slow down your machine...

Tuathal

Thanks, guys. I've read a couple of places the swap is a good thing get rid of, as much as you can. Especially the dynamic part, where Windows adjusts the size. There's a lot of CPU overhead to resize it. Check out TheElderGeek.com.

I'm not a gamer, but would like to try flight simulators (jet through a canyon type) and first-person shooters.

Other than that, just lots of security and other utilities and TiVo stuff, video capture and ripping (legally, of course) TV, DVDs and music to a hard drive, MP3 player, whatever. Nothing strenuous (or is it?)