MaximumPC 2004 10

new pair of speakers that are
absolutely great, but the problem
is that when I play my MP3s
the sound crackles and pops. I
think the culprit might be the
onboard RealTek AC97 on my
motherboard. Is there anything I
can do to fix the problem? I’m on
a tight budget so I’m hesitant to
purchase a stand-alone soundcard,
but if I’m forced to go that route,
are there any quality, value-priced
5.1 channel soundcards out there
you could recommend?
—MARCEL DORMA

You should have no problems playing
MP3 files on a properly configured
system, even if it’s using lowly
onboard audio. The crackling is likely
the result of a device that’s hogging
the PCI bus. You may first want to
check your device manager to see
if everything is configured correctly
and there are no conflicts. You may
also want to try removing your PCI
cards (NIC, RAID, modem) to see if
that clears up the problem. Of course,
also make sure you have the latest
drivers and BIOS for the motherboard
and sound device. And get the latest
drivers for all your hardware devices
(NIC, RAID, modem) as that may cor-
rect any problems. Finally, if you’re
really into high-quality sound, you
shouldn’t be running onboard audio.
Consider Creative Lab’s Audigy 2 ZS
(about $85) or M-Audio’s Revolution
7.1 card (about $75.) Both feature
high-quality 24-bit components
and because they’re off the moth-
erboard, they’re less prone to the
noise that most onboard AC97 com-
ponents demonstrate.

DEFRAGGING RAID
I’ve got two Western
Digital Raptors in a RAID 0
configuration and was curious
as to how defragging affects
performance. Whenever I have
the defrag utility analyze my C:
drive, there’s always an inordinate
amount of info on the latter half
and I want to know if the cleanup
process sends all the data to a
single drive, negating the benefit
of splitting the labor, or does it
clean everything up and keep data
spread across the two drives?
—MIKE FONTANA

A RAID array is effectively a single

drive as far as your defragmenting

software is concerned, so we rec-

ommend treating it just like a single

hard drive and defragging relatively

often (at least once a month). When

you perform this task, the software

treats the two drives’ data stripes

just like bits of data on a single

drive and rearranges them in order

to be as contiguous as possible for

optimal performance. We’re not sure

what’s causing you to think most

of the data is residing on only one

drive, but that would never happen

with a RAID array and is physically

impossible because RAID striping

works by dividing data into blocks

and divvying it up between the

two drives. In RAID, data is always

spread across both drives by the

RAID controller.

On a semi-related note, be very

careful running RAID 0 because it

doubles your chances of suffering

drive failure and losing all your

data. In general, you should never

keep anything on a RAID 0 array that

you would mind losing.

TO RAID OR NOT TO RAID

I’ve recently gotten into video

editing and now want to

upgrade to a dual SATA drive

configuration. Everything I read

about video editing says the ideal

situation is to have two hard

drives with the OS loaded on

one drive and the video files on

another. How does this compare

with a RAID 0 configuration that

has two (or more) partitions?

—FRED WILSON

Because you’re doing video edit-

ing with your PC, a RAID 0 configu-

ration is ideal for this purpose. As

you are probably aware, stream-

ing video requires some serious

horsepower, especially if you’re

trying to render multiple streams

at once. If your hard drive can’t

write as fast as the speed of the

incoming video stream, the result

is dropped frames, gaps in audio,

and jerky performance. This sce-

nario is highly unlikely in a RAID

0 setup, as both drives can handle

an obscene amount of bandwidth

(more than 100MB/s sequential

reads for late-model hard drives!)

and are thus totally capable of

handling any major spikes in

throughput as well as multiple

streams simultaneously. The only

problem with the RAID 0 approach

is it doubles your exposure to

catastrophic data loss, so you’ll

need to run frequent backups.

UPDATING DRIVERS

AUTOMATICALLY

Do you know of a way I can

automatically detect the

hardware in my system and

locate the correct or updated

drivers for the components? I

recently reformatted my hard

drive to reinstall Windows 98

and it’s a pain to have to hunt

down the drivers I need.

—TODD

That would sure be swell, wouldn’t

it? Unfortunately, we know of no

such beast, and we’d be very cau-

tious if we found someone advertis-

ing such a service. A site that would

install new drivers when Windows

is freshly installed could also install

all sorts of nasty malware when your

computer is at its most vulnerable,

before the firewall and antivirus soft-

ware are onboard. n

HARD OF HEARING

I jog regularly in Central Park

and always take some music

along to keep me going, but

the volume levels are never

loud enough. I’ve tried using

both an MP3 player and my

Samsung SPHi-700 phone.

I have tried to enhance the

audio levels of my WMA and

MP3 files via MP3Gain but

the audio becomes static or

noisy. Is there a way for me to

enhance the audio level of a

song without distorting it?

—ALEX

In a word, no. MP3s, as you

probably already know, are com-

pressed by throwing out a certain

amount of audio data in order to

reduce the file size. You can use a

program like MP3Gain to increase

the volume a little bit, but you

can’t crank an already com-

pressed file to Dr. Feelgood levels

without some consequences.

You have some options,

though. You can rip your CDs over

again and use an audio-edit-

ing application to increase the

Is your Dream Machine turning into a nightmare? Are you wak-

ing up in a cold sweat because your PC can’t cope with today’s

hardware? Look to the west, my sons and daughters, for the

Doctor is here to save you. E-mail all your PC problems to

[email protected] , and if your problem is dire enough,

the Doc will come to the rescue.

volume of each track

(look in the Help file

for “volume increase”

or “gain” control)

before compression.

But that’s a drag.

You can also buy

better headphones.

Sony’s MDR-EX70LP

and MDR-ED268LP

series earbuds ($50,

http://www.sel.sony.com)

pump incredibly

juicy bass from even

weak-sounding, poorly

compressed tracks,

while remaining light

enough to be comfort-

able for jogging. Even

better, Shure’s E3c earbuds ($100,

http://www.shure.com) provide a better

fit, blocking out more outside noise

and thus reducing the amount of

volume you need.

You also have the option of

buying a louder MP3 player. The

iPod gets brutally loud (fun fact:

European iPods are quieter, for

sensitive European ears). And if the

iPod still isn’t loud enough for you,

crank it up with euPod , a third-party

OCTOBER 2004 MA XIMUMPC 67

There’s no easy way to

increase the volume of your

MP3 files, but you can get a

louder MP3 player. The iPod

is one of the loudest players

we’ve ever tested.

hack available for free at http://www.

espen.se (keep in mind that there’s

an inverse relationship between

volume and battery life).

Finally, you could go get a

hearing exam at the free clinic.