The Glade 4.0

So I had decided to go out and buy the latest Sims 3 expansion yesterday and after installing it I was disappointed to learn it ran like crap (ran great on the same computer with XP) so I tried a clean install of the game, no-addons enabled, updated my video driver, overclocked my CPU up another 200Mhz, moved my swap file to my 3rd HDD so the game, the O/S and the swap file were all on their own drives to speed up things but bubcus, putting my USB thumb drive in readboost did seem to help some though, but i've pretty much come to the conclusion that is the only 2GB of ram, which is odd cause dragon age runs flawlessly maxed out at 1080p on that system, I would have thought that would have needed more processing power/ram over sims 3.

Of course being an older system with an older motherboard using the old 284 pin DDR there was always copatability issues on the higher end gaming boards and 4 sticks, I had once tried adding two 512 sticks I had laying around with no luck, but I did find out 4 of the exact same memory i'm using does in fact work and after a bit of googling I was able to find some place that still carried it so any ways that leads me to my actual question..

With 4GB of ram is it worth while to reinstall my OS with the 64bit version,I know 32bit will only see 3.25gb, but as far as gaming goes will games make use of more than that now?

4gb will give a substantial increase over 2gb.

That said, if you can run DA perfectly in 1080p (which my desktop cannot even do) without lag, the problem is with Sims 3, not your comp.

I'm convinced development is crappy and prices are high for Sims games because the market for it is primarily female.

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The Dude abides.

Yeah, I know 4GB is substantial increase over 2GB, i'm going to be getting 4GB regardless, the question is is 4GB with 64bit better than 3.25GB with 32bit, given that I know my windows 7 package said 64bit had a higher memory requirement, just want to know if it's worthwhile for me to format C: and install the 64bit or if the differences there are negligable.

Yeah, it definitly seems the World Adventures expantion is not very well optimized, the base game ran great on my system (at least when I had XP on it), now granted my computer isn't blazing fast or anything near it at this point, athlon 64 X2 4200+ @ 3Ghz, 2GB of cas 2 ram and an 8800GTS 640GB, but DA does look like it's more taxing on the system.

Min requirement DA looks to need more too, DA 1.6Ghz intel core 2, sims P4 2.4Ghz, both 1.5GB ram, DA 256mb video card, lowest listed card geforce 7600, sims 128mb lowest listed card geforce 6200

I think in the very least it'd be optimal to install the 64bit so you aren't wasting any RAM and if the game is designed for it, making use of that chip architecture.

Answer: There wont be any harm in the upgrade, and there could be some good.

Yeah, no harm, just the hastle since it's an upgrade disk, so it would be format, install xp & register, then run 7 upgrade, format and install again them reinstall drivers, some programs, etc, just kind of wanted to make sure it was worth while before going thru all that.

If I do I should probably order a new HDD too then cause the vista experience thing doesn't exactly care for my current primary HDD and it's the low point on my score of 5.3, I have my OS on an old 36GB 10k rpm WD raptor, and while they were great in the day speed wise now not so much, my cheapo 200gb 7200rpm drive is faster, so thinking of getting a new larger one and moving the 74GB raptor to be the OS drive as that one is quite a bit faster than the 36GB one was.

You don't have to install XP and register first, just do this.


How to Clean Install Windows 7 with a Upgrade DVD Disc or ISO Image

Note: User who has downloaded Windows 7 boxed ESD installation files should follow these steps to create a bootable Windows 7 ISO image from unpacked Windows 7 installation files and burn to DVD prior to follow guide below.

1. Boot up the PC with the Windows 7 Upgrade DVD disc media into DVD-ROM drive.

2. Follow the Windows 7 Install Wizard to install the operating system on the blank, empty and clean system. During installation, when prompted for a product key, DO NOT enter the upgrade version product key.
Tip: This step is to prevent “Invalid Product Key” error. User can try to input the serial number to check if setup accepts the key. If it’s accepted, all the rest of steps can be skipped.

3. Unselect and untick the Automatically activate Windows when I’m online check box during the installation process. After Windows 7 is installed, boot up to desktop, and manually enter the Windows 7 upgrade product key to activate online or activate via phone.

If you run into issues, there's some more tips in the original article - http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/10/27/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgrade-media-and-product-key-on-formatted-or-empty-blank-hard-drive/

I can personally speak for the process above as I just went through it two weeks ago.

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The Dude abides.

Great, thanks! I'll do it that way once I get everything in, decided to get a few upgrades all at once including a new HDD so I could ditch the old 36gb one so would be doing a reinstall cause of that anyways, new HDD, 2 more gb of ram, 5770 video card, ew quieter fans, drain & flush out the cooling loop and swap out the old noisy water pump for the other quiet one I have, hope it plays the sims fine after that, and hopefully does it a whole lot quieter too.

What's this ESD thing? Some sort of download copy of Windows?

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I'm assuming that's what it is, I do know they sell a digital download version of the windows 7 upgrade.

Pretty sure its Electronic Student Download or something like that. That's what mine was.

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The Dude abides.

Thanks for the guide, it worked great. Now I just need to figure out how to get it overclocked at least close to where it was, it wouldn't even post with 4gb at my old overclock, and right now at stock speeds i've lost 1 point off my CPU and .8 off of memory in the windows experience score.

Windows 7 can smell your fear...

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The Dude abides.

Sweet, glad the guide worked for you Sasandra. Time to start the long slow process of OC, reboot, test, OC, reboot, test!

Holy hell, ok, draining a sealed watercooling every 4 years, def to long, pulled the computer to the sink and opened the drain valve, the stuff that came out looked like it came straight out of a horor film, it was all black with i'm assuming aglge, even though I used algecide, took quite a while to clean everything before I could refill the system, but the new pump is wisper quiet like the old one used to be

Just wait until a few years from now when it becomes sentient and claws its way back up out of the drain!

Eeep! Maybe I should just keep the garbage disposal running, whirlling metal blades of death should stop it

Did you use demineralized/distilled water?

Don't some of those systems use alcohol as the working fluid? I think that would probably perform better and negate bacterial/fungal growth.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

I used distilled water + algecide. Alcohol doesn't have a good thermal conductivity compaired with water, 100% distilled water is the best but there's the agle concerns so people usually use different additives to prevent growth, algecide didn't seem to be that good though, when I used to use water wetter that worked better, this time around i'm using a 10/90 antifreeze & water mix, a glycol water mix is what a lot of people use to but you have to mail order that.

MAke sure you're not using anything that will corrode the containment.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."