New system new opportunities.

[Gala]

<p>I recently bought parts for a compleate new system. And now I have a few questions on how to setup sertain details.</p><p>First off. My new system (estemated cost 2000 Euro)MB: MSI 790FX-GD70CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black EditionGPU: 2x XFX HD4890 Black EditionMEM1: D3 4GB 1800-888 Plat K2 OCZMEM2: D3 4GB 1800-999 Gold K2 OCZ(They where out of 2000 Plat and i had trouble finding an other vendor who still had some)HDD: 5x Seagate 1 TB SAT2 31000528AS</p><p>I also have bought a few ... extra nice things.Cooler Master HAF932(A nice wind machine, though loud at times ... its getting used 2 quite quickly.)Cooler Master V8(Need to keep that CPU cool)Cooler Master UCP 900W(For that nice save power source)Trust PW-4130M(USP 600W 1300VA:When playing EQ2 uses up to max of 55% with monitor at 3%Power down gives me about 9 a 10 min to shut down savely.I bought this to savely turn on the write cache 2nd option where you need a UPS or battery)</p><p>It took me quite some time to fit everything together and i had some trouble with the cooler as the back of the MB did not align with the opening of the HAF932.</p><p>Also i installed Windows 7 RC (x64) ... until it comes out. (And just in case i got a vista 64 ordered)And i have a fast USB 16Gb for readyboost. (Though unable to set some of it as virtual mem(Flash has a quicker responce time i think) and i tried formating diff ways)</p><p>But now to the questions and stopping with the grooming of my ego.The MB has a SB750 south brige which enables me to set the 5HDD's to raid 5.(Windows drivers are latest (MSI and AMD use same files) but on startup still sais same: Hoping update bios will fix that)The question is: What unit allocation size is best for playing Everquest 2?While Win7 only allows NTFS i still have a choice on whats unit allocation size i take. Lower is best for small files and takes less space and is fast for calling those small files. Though big unit allocation is great for big files but makes small files slower. So. Should i take 1k 4k 64k 128k or other?</p><p>Next question is about AA of the GPU. Is it better to use the AA settings of the GPU or the application? I often wonder whats best for preformance of eq2. (I have played with the settings of eq2 to turn on and off AA and i found that in lavastorm the heat shimmers of the land show when AA is on but not when off but the FPS does not notisable drop or rise)</p><p>And maybe you guys got some other tips on enhancing preformance.</p>

[Gala]

<p>Small confusion fix:</p><p><span >(Windows drivers are latest (MSI and AMD use same files) but on startup still sais same: Hoping update bios will fix that)</span></p><p>The windows drivers are version Microsoft Windows storport driver   3.1.1540.81 (Microsoft Windows storport driver   3.1.1540.127) but on boot when checking HDD's it sais 3.1.1540.39.The bios of MB is 1.3 and latest is 1.4 and i am hoping that the bios update will lchange the drivers on boot to 3.1.1540.81 as well and making it a little faster on start up (takes the longest of the boot <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />)</p>

[Gala]

<p>Also  turning on GPU shadows increased my FPS with 20 in most cases.But still spell effects are taking its toll. (Wished i can turn that to my GPU as well <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />)</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p>Greetings,</p><p>It's really hard to say what would be your best stripe size without knowing a lot more about your computer, how you like to use it, and what you store on it.  The best thing I can do is direct you to a website that explains your options.  Try taking a look at the following page:</p><p><a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/RAID-SCALING-CHARTS,1735-4.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews...RTS,1735-4.html</a></p><p>Regarding AA, I believe that would need to be done through the graphics card control panel.</p>

[Gala]

<p>Stripe? what about Unit Allocation SizeIve checked around for stripe. It seems that 128kb stripes is prefered by games.And the question was about Unit Allocation Size of the partition format (NTFS) and not the Stripe size (RAID5)So the question remains. Is it best to use a small size of 1kb or a larger one of 64kb or a different size for format the partition in?</p><p>AAThe question was: if its best to set the GPU configuration of the Catalyst Control Center to set the AA settings to use the AA settings of Everquest 2 or set the settings so that the GPU controls the AA settings.</p><p>Also i just updated my BIOS trough MSI Live. It updated it to 1.3 while it was already 1.3. And i stressed out as i could no longer set the SATA drives back to RAID. Finely after 2 hours of getting a good guide i was able to create a bootable USB and installed 1.4. Still i could not set the RAID. A moment later i rememberd that the raid settings for my SATA was somewhere else. And i was happy again.</p><p>For those interested here is what helped me to install bios udate trough USB.</p><p><a href="http://www.msicomputer.com/support/images/BIOS_FD.pdf" target="_blank">GUIDE MSI FLASH THINGY</a></p>