Dragon NaturallySpeaking

[onewecallgod]

i find the built in windows backup perfect. quite foolproof if you ask me (i do have ghost)

[Bryan Crow]

Dave, I'm in the kitchen on my wife's old Dell, because I had to diconnect both towers to open the case of the Athlon 64-bit. I have the tower in here to examine it and install the 1024 MB DIMMs.

Which two slots?

I have a bunch of fans--six of them. I wish you were here, because most of these fans either don't have a brand name, or you can't see them without taking a lot of stuff apart. I'm wondering if I don't already have enough "blow power," but maybe not.
There are two 3" case fans (one says Eiffel), two HD fans, a 3" power supply fan, and the CPU fan, which says AMD. I paid for a bigger fan for the CPU, and this thing does have an impressive-looking heat sink--as big and fancy-looking as the one you recommend. But since the fan says AMD, I have to think it's just a standard fan for this CPU. It's 2.5" in diameter.

The power supply is an Xcase Pentium IV 500W--probably some off-brand, since I didn't know what to get. At least it's supposed to be able to deliver decent wattage.

[davidhammock200]

Originally Posted by Bryan Crow

Dave, I'm in the kitchen on my wife's old Dell, because I had to diconnect both towers to open the case of the Athlon 64-bit. I have the tower in here to examine it and install the 1024 MB DIMMs.

Which two slots?

I have a bunch of fans--six of them. I wish you were here, because most of these fans either don't have a brand name, or you can't see them without taking a lot of stuff apart. I'm wondering if I don't already have enough "blow power," but maybe not.
There are two 3" case fans (one says Eiffel), two HD fans, a 3" power supply fan, and the CPU fan, which says AMD. I paid for a bigger fan for the CPU, and this thing does have an impressive-looking heat sink--as big and fancy-looking as the one you recommend. But since the fan says AMD, I have to think it's just a standard fan for this CPU. It's 2.5" in diameter.

The power supply is an Xcase Pentium IV 500W--probably some off-brand, since I didn't know what to get. At least it's supposed to be able to deliver decent wattage.

Put your new RAM where the old is & the one next to it.

You need to measure your temps to know what, if anything, needs attention, same with the PS & here is how.

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.co...d.php?t=137886

[Bryan Crow]

I have a 512 MB DIMM in each of the three slots. Why don't you come over and help me?

[davidhammock200]

Originally Posted by Bryan Crow

I have a 512 MB DIMM in each of the three slots. Why don't you come over and help me?

Sure!

The middle & one of the sides.

You could read the manual or go to their website, too.

[Bryan Crow]

Since you won't come over, Dave, I'll go read the manual.

Seriously, thanks for all your help.

[onewecallgod]

yo Bryan, where ya from?

[Bryan Crow]

onewecallgod:

Hey, bud. I live in Clarksville, Tennessee, population 120,000, 40 miles northwest of Nashville on I-24. How about you? Where do you live? You a student?

I use Windows Backup too. It's my everyday backup, but Ghost is my life preserver--in case the main HD goes down.

[onewecallgod]

ah darn, guess i cant go down there and give you a hand

i live in California, the middle of silicon valley to be exact. i'm in 10th grade (high school)

[amilian]

Originally Posted by Bryan Crow

....amilian’s defrag program. You're right about its speed. It's amazing. Are you pretty sure the list of DNS files you compiled is complete? (Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth! Thanks for going to all the trouble of compiling it.) I bet it is.......won't the presence of other files that are fragmented slow down the transcription into Word? If so, I suppose I could simply add the Word files to the list, couldn't I? And I bet it would be easy enough to automate the utility. I wouldn't mind a brief interruption every five or ten minutes, because the thing is so darned fast.

I'm sure that sounds like overkill and will become unnecessary anyway when I install the new hard drive system. I only mention the possibility because there's no question DNS runs faster and more smoothly immediately after defragmentation. And then it begins to bog down after less than an hour of dictating.

Yes, it sure is fast, which is why I thought you'd like it. Waiting for Diskeeper to finish can be like watching water come to the boil I mean, Diskeeper is pretty quick, but if you're just looking to defrag those DNS and active program files, then this is the way to go - great idea to schedule it to run every 10 mins or so. Windows scheduler should work right? I agree it makes a difference with DNS. It runs faster when the files are contiguous.

I've made a new .bat file and attached it. It includes ALL files in the program files directory, all files in documents and settings folder, so you're covered now. Just change the .txt to .bat and it'll work.

[amilian]

Originally Posted by Bryan Crow

...I didn't realize you're using both SuperCache and RamDisk. How does that work?

With 2.5 GB of RAM, will I still need SuperCache, or will RamDisk alone do the job? I need to take a closer look at SuperVolume during the evaluation period. I don't know how it works.

It's very appealing to go to what I suppose amounts to a virtual pagefile and eliminate it from the hard drive (actually, two hard drives in RAID 0 configuration). That ought to streamline the process. I suppose it's easier to keep disks defragmented too when you have no pagefile.

I only tested the demo of RAMDISK and settled on Supercache because of my RAM limitation. I also tried the CENETEK ramdisc and succeeded in putting my pagefile on a ramdisk. That was fast! But you'll have plenty of RAM and windows won't fuss when you set the pagefile to 0.

With 2.5GB of RAM, and your fantastic SCSI solution I would likely not worry about supercaching c: and would make a Ramdisk and put dragon and all my other programs on it. (I might be tempted to compare the 2 to see if there were differences of course, but RAMDISK is faster than Supercache - I think I read 10% faster or so). The fact that your SCSIs will make your C: wickedly fast, I'd feel OK about the RAMDISK. In that case, you won't have to partition your RAID0 main partition.

[amilian]

Bryan,
Ghost 2003 will work for RAID0 fine. I know this, because I've done it without incident. But you must use the bootable floppy method to get into Ghost. You won't need to buy another version. Ghost 9 is a great program too - I've got the demo, and I like it, but I don't have the recovery disc, so I have to go through a lot of rigmarole (sp) to restore my c: But Ghost 2003 is great for RAID ghosts.

BUT: if you take a Ghost of your current setup, and then wish to put it on your new scsi setup, I'm thinking you'll have to do a 'repair' of your existing windows installation so that you can install the SCSI RAID drivers. So what you'll want to do is this:
1. Take a ghost of your current system.
2. Set up your new hardware.
3. Create the raid array (I suggest 16kb stripe with intentions of changing the default NTFS of 4kb to 16 with Partition magic or similar later).
4. Boot to the ghost floppy and restore your ghost image and reboot to your WINDOWS XP disc.
5. During bootup, hit F6 key and specify your SCSI RAID drivers.
6. When windows finds your existing partition and windows system, tell it to install windows onto that partition (yes, that's right, DON'T choose R for repair there, since that will only take you to the windows repair console).
7. The next screen should show you your existing windows system, and you want to tell it to repair it. It should then check your disk for errors, then copy some files over to it (including your RAID drivers) and reboot, go through the repair process (Yes, all your programs and files will still be there).
8. It will reboot and take you to your old desktop. And you're done.

P.S. Later this week I will be going to that cheap SCSI solution I mentioned earlier in the thread. I picked up a cheap one of these and an Ultra160 controller off ebay today. This particular SCSI has 3.5 ms average seek time, and 4 ms average write time, which is a whole lot faster than my current WD400JBs!! I can't wait to see the boost it gives me.

[Bryan Crow]

Yeah, I like Contig—more for its potential than for what it's doing right now. I say that because even when I dictate into DragonPad instead of Microsoft Word, I see far more fragmented sectors left than eliminated after running the application. (I'm sure you understand that I begin each test with a fully defragmented hard drive, so any fragmentation I find at the end of the test must be created by using Dragon NaturallySpeaking to dictate into DragonPad.) My assumption or hope is that it won't be much trouble to identify the files that need to be added.

But that makes me wonder how much advantage I'm going to see (when I get a chance to identify all those files) compared to Diskeeper.

How much advantage could there be to running Contig exclusively on the files involved when the defrag engine was designed by the creators of Diskeeper (in collaboration, to some extent, with the people at Microsoft who wrote NT 4 .0)? I suppose by concentrating solely on defragging each file internally without moving them around the hard drive, you'd potentially save a great deal of work. But doesn't that assume that dictation hasn't swollen the files to the point that they've spilled out beyond their previously-assigned sectors? How often is Contig going to find the files scrambled by dictation still contained in the sectors they were in before dictation?

Well, amilian, that's useless speculation on my part. The proof of the pudding will be Contig's performance after I identify the files getting fragmented by dictation and insert them into the list.

Thanks for going to all the trouble of providing the newer list, but it doesn't seem to be as inclusive as the original. Was I supposed to combine them? I may be smearing egg on my face by asking these questions before ferreting out the files for myself. I bet Mondays are busy for you too. I rushed this reply without preparing very well, because after you went to all the trouble to get this thing together, I didn't want to take too long to acknowledge it.

Thanks again.

[amilian]

Just a quick answer Bryan, 'cuz dinner is on the table , the /s stands for all subdirectories in the folder, and the *.* (you probably know this) means every file in the folder.

[Bryan Crow]

You said:
"... /s stands for all subdirectories in the folder, and the *.* (you probably know this) means every file in the folder."

Hate to tell you, amilian, I didn't know either one. Y'll don't realize what a beginner I am! I see now, though, how it works.

[Bryan Crow]

Amilian:

UPS just brought the hard drives, but I didn't order the SCSI card until yesterday, so you may have your SCSI setup up and running before I can deploy mine. Be sure to let us know how it performs. There might not be any discernible difference between yours and mine.

One reason I put off ordering the dual-channel RAID controller was that I hoped to be able to order the cables at the same time. It comes with a five-position cable, but I want to use two single-position cables so the data packets (or whatever you call them) won't have to wait on each other as they go back and forth. So far, I haven't been able to find a source for Adaptec cables of that type. If anybody here on the forum knows where I can buy them, please let me know.

I hope the cables and a copy of Partition Magic will be the last purchases I have to make. Thanks for the good news about Ghost 2003. I'm glad I won't have to upgrade in order to Ghost the RAID 0 array. Your step-by-step instructions are pure gold.

[Bryan Crow]

Amilian:

You wrote: "The fact that your SCSIs will make your C: wickedly fast, I'd feel OK about the RAMDISK. In that case, you won't have to partition your RAID0 main partition."

I'll hold up on buying Partition Magic. I still haven't tried RamDisk, but the more I think about what you've said about it, the more it sounds as though it might work better than SuperCache.

[Bryan Crow]

The OC FAQ web site has a great review of the Gigabyte K8NsPRO nForce3 150 written last March, replete with overclocking data. I'm wondering if a conservative overclocking approach for me would be to adopt the settings the article cites.

http://www.ocfaq.com/reviews/Gigabyte/K8NPro/

My mobo is a later model, a Gigabyte K8NsPRO nForce3 250, which Dave thinks it is better. I like the way the article begins: "See how overclocking underdog Gigabyte put together one of the most impressive OCing boards ever made."

OC FAQ tested the board with an Athlon 64 3000+ Socket 754, while I have the 3400+.

[davidhammock200]

Originally Posted by Bryan Crow

The OC FAQ web site has a great review of the Gigabyte K8NsPRO nForce3 150 written last March, replete with overclocking data. I'm wondering if a conservative overclocking approach for me would be to adopt the settings the article cites.

http://www.ocfaq.com/reviews/Gigabyte/K8NPro/

My mobo is a later model, a Gigabyte K8NsPRO nForce3 250, which Dave thinks it is better. I like the way the article begins: "See how overclocking underdog Gigabyte put together one of the most impressive OCing boards ever made."

OC FAQ tested the board with an Athlon 64 3000+ Socket 754, while I have the 3400+.

Need this info before OC'ing.

What are your case & CPU temps, both @idle & @load?

[Bryan Crow]

Dave, I'm always embarrassed when you guys ask questions I can't answer. I did find the CPU temperature at idle: 120°F. Well, actually I had several applications open when I checked it. I don't know how to find the temperature under load, but when I dictate to Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the temperature only rises by 7°F. I've mentioned before that only one of my six or seven fans is running, and I guess my old age is showing, because I can't remember how to set them to run continuously instead of kicking in only when things get hot. To be fair to myself, I haven't really pursued the issue. I need to go into the BIOS. Or maybe EasyTune gives you a way to set them.

The more I think about my question just using the overclocking recipe from OC FAQ, the more naïve I realize it was. Settings depend on each other, I take it, and on the readings you get—all in such complicated interweaves, that I can't just copy what they did.

If you read the article, you saw that they really backed up your comment about the superiority of the 250 chipset over the 150. This one has AGP lock, and you can apparently adjust a lot more things. From the manual, it looks as though the new version has a fine PC Health Status screen too.

Will I be OK with the BIOS that came with the board? I was about to buy an ASUS board one day last June, but when I called the salesman back the next day, he said, "Wait. We just got in a new Gigabyte board for about the same price that I think you'll like better." Everybody assumes I know more about these things than I do. My point is that the BIOS is a nine-month-old version.