Ram Disk

[jcr4990]

Anyone had success playing P99 on a Ram Disk or whatever you call it? My P99 folder is only like 4 gigs and I have 8 gigs of ram atm. Got me thinking I don't see any reason why I couldn't do like a 4.5gb partition and load it in there. I know there's programs like Dimmdrive that will automatically save info to your HDD as well so you don't lose stuff. I just don't want to spend $30 on it and find out it won't work for whatever reason. Obviously prefer a free alternative if a good one exists.

Anyone tried to do this? What programs work well?

[Oleris]

a flash drive? It works.

[Thulghor]

Yeah, I use the AMD Ramdisk by AMD and Dataram.

http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/memory/ramdisk

I can't believe I played this game without it. I zone so fast sometimes it is shocking. Load times are nearly non-existent, other than the initial startup one, which goes by pretty fast.

You can trim down your EQ installation for Project 1999 to 2 Gigs or less (think there is a guide around here somewhere, might have to search "EQ Lite" or something), so the free version, which is only 4 gigs of space, will easily fit.

I highly recommend it.

[jcr4990]

Awesome that's what I wanted to hear. Does that program automatically backup to HDD so you don't lose your whole directory on power loss or whatever?

Edit: Nvm answered my own question. Just read the page you linked. Will try it out as soon as I find that guide to lower my P99 folder size. Thanks pal!

[Cholk]

I use ramdisk and love it. The major problem i encountered was running windows 7, its a memory hog. I was able to run eq and that was about it on 8 gigs of ram, forget about watching youtube or opening a web page. In the end I installed 16 gigs and its been fine since.

[Atmas]

I also use Ramdisk, I think my partition is only actually 2GB. As you probably already discovered you can save your state on shutdown. Remember to keep an eye on the size of log files and the such.

[Wisteso]

Using a RAM disk isnt going to be much better than using an SSD (unless you have a shitty SSD).

Sorry to spoil the party.

[quido]

I have an old shitty SSD and it runs the same speed as Ramdisk for me.

[jcr4990]

Using a RAM disk isnt going to be much better than using an SSD (unless you have a shitty SSD).

Sorry to spoil the party.I don't even have an SSD yet :( I managed to get ramdisk up and running. It's definitely faster than my HDD but not like 10x faster like I was told it would be lol. It's maybe like 15-20% faster to zone? Without timing it just a rough estimate. Kind of a disappointment I expected a lot more. Not sure its worth it cause I'm paranoid about losing power or whatever and losing data.

[Swish]

Anyone else try it after seeing this thread? Kind of tempted but I'm bad at replacing comptuer hardware if the pixel shit hits the fan.

[Wisteso]

I don't even have an SSD yet :( I managed to get ramdisk up and running. It's definitely faster than my HDD but not like 10x faster like I was told it would be lol. It's maybe like 15-20% faster to zone? Without timing it just a rough estimate. Kind of a disappointment I expected a lot more. Not sure its worth it cause I'm paranoid about losing power or whatever and losing data.

Yeah not surprising. Most of the zoning process is due to waiting for the server.

SSD drives have a read speed of 500+ MB per second, and EQ itself is barely over 1000 MB. So yeah... the only way an SSD (or RamDrive) really helps is by providing much faster seek times.

[Thulack]

Anyone else try it after seeing this thread? Kind of tempted but I'm bad at replacing comptuer hardware if the pixel shit hits the fan.

If you can make gifs you can change computer hardware.

[Nuggie]

If you can make gifs you can change computer hardware.

For real. If you are paranoid like me get a bag of nitrile gloves and use something to ground yourself before you touch each component.

[Swish]

If you can make gifs you can change computer hardware.

What looks easy to some people isn't easy for others. PC building and messing with components was never my thing.

[dafier]

Yeah, I use the AMD Ramdisk by AMD and Dataram.

http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/memory/ramdisk

I can't believe I played this game without it. I zone so fast sometimes it is shocking. Load times are nearly non-existent, other than the initial startup one, which goes by pretty fast.

You can trim down your EQ installation for Project 1999 to 2 Gigs or less (think there is a guide around here somewhere, might have to search "EQ Lite" or something), so the free version, which is only 4 gigs of space, will easily fit.

I highly recommend it.


I want to personally thank you. Ever since starting P99 I've had horrible chop problems, especially when using my mouse. I made a Bard and when kiting I would chop and do a 45 or 90 degree angle instant turn and die half the time. So I stopped playing my bard. I tried putting P99 on 2 different SSDs and still had the issue.

Ever since installing AMD's RAMDisk I do not have that issue anymore.

Thank you,

[Swish]

OK fine I'm trying it, if I never post again there was probably a fatal explosion.

[dafier]

OK fine I'm trying it, if I never post again there was probably a fatal explosion.

Yo, the difference for me is night and day. And, honestly I don't understand.

AMD 8350 FX
8GB DDR3
2 SSDs (240GB and 480GB)
1 HDD for backup
GTX660 MSI TF

I tried both SSDs which have mid range stats when running AS-SSD. I run around with out lag at all, and ....I am still in awe.

EDIT:

I used the free version and used the max amount of ram which is 4096MB. I did trim my EQ folder down by removing all the zone info that is from Luclin and PoP. Well not all but I went from about 4GB EQ folder to 2.8GB.

Also I am running Win7 x64

[Swish]

It was a bad idea...I don't know what other people are running but if you've got 8GB of RAM and create a 4GB ramdisk, your PC ages about 3 years and can't cope with doing much else lol.

Had the whole "not responding" thing going on a lot of stuff. Black screen, everything seemed to want to shut down.

I'll stick with my ghetto zone loading times.

[dafier]

Unfortunately for me, I have a really nice Heatsink and Fan, but the way my MB is laid out I have to remove 2 of my 4 sticks, or else I would have 16GB.

As for age...I built this PC about 4 or 5 years ago, but updated the CPU and the video card since.

It will play all my games on the highest video settings without issues. Witcher 3 and more.

[Thulghor]

I want to personally thank you. Ever since starting P99 I've had horrible chop problems, especially when using my mouse. I made a Bard and when kiting I would chop and do a 45 or 90 degree angle instant turn and die half the time. So I stopped playing my bard. I tried putting P99 on 2 different SSDs and still had the issue.

Ever since installing AMD's RAMDisk I do not have that issue anymore.

Thank you,

You're welcome. Glad to help. :-)

[Thulack]

What looks easy to some people isn't easy for others. PC building and messing with components was never my thing.

Literally to build a computer all you need to start is the motherboard. You buy a case that fits the motherboard. You buy a CPU that fits the motherboard. You buy ram that fits the motherboard. Its just a matter of matching up numbers and plugs. I'm a moron when it comes to software or programming but i'm smart enough to know how to match 2 sets of numbers and put a plug in its correct hole. And if you cant do something there is always Youtube. Youtube you can find visual guides on basically how to do anything. Hell i'm sure there is a guide to masterbaiting on Youtube if someone needed to actually see how to do it :P

[Swish]

Literally to build a computer all you need to start is the motherboard. You buy a case that fits the motherboard. You buy a CPU that fits the motherboard. You buy ram that fits the motherboard. Its just a matter of matching up numbers and plugs.

How do you pick a "good" motherboard? How do you know which components are compatible with that motherboard? It's a minefield.

What about installing software etc after you've got components fitted? What about compatibility, IRQ ports and shaking out weird bugs?

Nope, not for me thanks :p

[jarshale]

What looks easy to some people isn't easy for others. PC building and messing with components was never my thing.

It's basically Legos. Or whatever the euro version of kids' building blocks is.

[Thulack]

How do you pick a "good" motherboard? How do you know which components are compatible with that motherboard? It's a minefield.

What about installing software etc after you've got components fitted? What about compatibility, IRQ ports and shaking out weird bugs?

Nope, not for me thanks :p

You do research on what a "good" motherboard is. Then as i said you match up numbers to get correct components. Motherboard has a LGA1150 socket. You buy a LGA1150 socket CPU. Any site to go to will let you sort by types of things you need. Motherboard accepts DDR3 1866 Ram. You find DDR 1866 Ram. Its pretty simple.

[dafier]

IRQ ports

HAHA! This isn't 1995 bro.

IRQ and DMA related issues with HW components. I last trouble shot that ....in the early 90s I believe.

[Swish]

I'd rather buy a ready built one - that probably upsets some of you :)

[dafier]

I'd rather buy a ready built one - that probably upsets some of you :)

It doesn't upset me. All sarcasm aside...

When you build your own PC, you learn to use the same amount of money as you would when purchasing a pre-built computer but you get better items, therefore in the end you get a better computer.

It turns in to an obsession and becomes a hobby. Being content with buying a pre-built PC is just fine. Throughout the years large manufactures have become better at building PCs for the public. They are less expensive and you get fairly decent items (video cards, RAM, CPUs and more).

[Thulack]

It doesn't upset me. All sarcasm aside...

When you build your own PC, you learn to use the same amount of money as you would when purchasing a pre-built computer but you get better items, therefore in the end you get a better computer.

It turns in to an obsession and becomes a hobby. Being content with buying a pre-built PC is just fine. Throughout the years large manufactures have become better at building PCs for the public. They are less expensive and you get fairly decent items (video cards, RAM, CPUs and more).

It can also be out of necessity. Being a 16 year old kind and having my video card go out i had to scavenge up enough money just to buy a new card. No way in hell i could afford to pay someone to install it. Learned how to install it and setup myself and it went from there. A computer has less then 10 pieces to it. Its not rocket science. Just recently built a $1200 Rig(pcpart*****er.com estimate) for around 900 after finding deals. You would be lucky to find it for under 1500 prebuilt. Saving money can be a nice motivator too.

[Dizey]

I've been using RamDisk for just under a year now on a fairly decent desktop:

i5 2500k
8GB DDR3 1600 (16GB Now)
GTX 560ti
240 GB Crucial M500 SSD
1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HDD

I previously kept my client on the Crucial M500, but I still had the camera flipping issue, which is supposedly caused by others zoning into your current zone. If you're a bard trying to level up via swarm kiting, that's game breaking. I guess for a wizards and druids trying to quad it could be a pita too. Other than that, it's just super annoying, especially when it makes you double zone. Anyhow, RamDisk fixes that. As for zoning in general, a lot of the time it's instant for me, but there are still several occasions where it takes 10s or more to zone. RamDisk isn't going to completely eliminate zone times, it's going to reduce or eliminate your HDD/SSD as a factor in zone times.

If you want to try it out, and have a 64bit system with 6-8GB, you should be fine, but I wouldn't recommend it on a system with less. Just be wary of how much ram space you're actively/normally using, which you can view via the windows resource monitor. You only need an approximately 2GB RamDisk for P99, so if you observe plenty of headroom, go for it.

To get your P99 EQ Client under 2GB, you just have to create an EQLite version, which will remove anything past Velious, and still leave you room to run the higher res textures. You can find the EQLite instructions here:

https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7186

For the RamDisk software, I like Softperfect Ramdisk, which I've linked below. I previously used DataRam's free version, but the new versions limit it to 1GB. Softperfect actually benchmarks significantly higher, it's free, and it comes with no size or feature limitations. The downside is that it's a little more complicated to setup your disk. You have to create the 2048MB NTFS image first, and then add the 2048MB disk that uses it.

https://www.softperfect.com/products/ramdisk/

Here is somewhat of a tutorial on setting up the Softperfect RamDisk. You can also view their online manual from the link above as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_R2uyuqVxw

[Dizey]

You do research on what a "good" motherboard is. Then as i said you match up numbers to get correct components. Motherboard has a LGA1150 socket. You buy a LGA1150 socket CPU. Any site to go to will let you sort by types of things you need. Motherboard accepts DDR3 1866 Ram. You find DDR 1866 Ram. Its pretty simple.

You can't always simply go by the numbers. For example, Intel released both Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge on LGA1155. If you bought a Z68 motherboard, which is compatible with both, you would need to upgrade the firmware before the Ivy Bridge would work. Without an SB cpu to do so, you would be S.O.L.

Building your own PC by far a lot easier than it used to be, but there are still plenty of little common issues that will stonewall a first timer.

The biggest benefits of building your own are:


You'll save a good chunk of money.
Most retail parts come with 3+ years of manufacturer warranty. Some parts even come with lifetime. With a shelf system you'll get 1 year manufacturer, and have to pay a premium for any extended coverage.
Better quality parts.
You'll become much more familiar with the hardware in your computer, making you more comfortable in maintaining and upgrading it, which will also save you money.


The Downside:


Your nerd level will increase just enough to push you over 9000.

[Kevris]

How do you pick a "good" motherboard? How do you know which components are compatible with that motherboard? It's a minefield.

What about installing software etc after you've got components fitted? What about compatibility, IRQ ports and shaking out weird bugs?

Nope, not for me thanks :p

Here:

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

http://www.tomshardware.com/

The top one especially makes it very, very easy.

[Swish]

Here:

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

http://www.tomshardware.com/

The top one especially makes it very, very easy.

well shit, that's more like it for the first timer :)

[Dizey]

Another very useful tool:

http://www.pcpartpicker.com