xp optimizing performance

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gamenutt

Guest
just seeing if anyone has any tips on optimizing performance.
P4S8X mobo
P4 2.53 GHz 533 FSB
2 x 512 ddr 333 crucial ram
audigy 2 platinum
Nvidia geforce 4 mx 440
40 Gb hard drive
windows xp
 
K

kameleon

Guest
optimising performance for what?

I think you are taking the pi55

I run it on a p2 350 compaq with 64 meg ram

if it isnt running fast enough for you on your machine there is something wrong with you.
 
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gamenutt

Guest
Originally posted by kameleon


if it isnt running fast enough for you on your machine there is something wrong with you.
Click to expand...

its running incredibly fast compared to the 800 MHz 256 sdram I was usin. But I always crave a little more performance. You know tryin to shave off 1 second on boot and things like that. But right now mines booting at 28 seconds which is good. Just did pcmark benchmark and got CPU: 6120 Mem: 4539 HDD: 850 which were slightly below other peoples with similar specs.
 
G

GDW

Guest
What altitude are you at? Maybe the other peoples scores are a it faster because they are at a higher altitude.
 
X

xane

Guest
I've been in IT for nearly 20 years now, and amongst my many jobs has been tuning various systems, everything from large "miniframe" machines (Digital VAX), mid-range UNIX boxes, Workstations and PCs, and in my experience the most effective way to "tune" any machine is, in order:

1. Usage.

How you use the machine is the most definitive method of gaining speed, for example, you quote 28 second boot time, why not leave the machine permanently on then you can knock at least 20 seconds off that :) ?

The only time I ever turn off my main machine is for hardware upgrades, it has seen very little downtime in the last three years and zero hardware failure to date (guess who did _not_ buy IBM 75GXP drives :) ). In addition your hardware reliability will probably improve and if you are worried about power consumption then use ACPI or just turn off your monitor when not in use.

Do your _really_ need to start all those apps as well ? How essential is Microsoft Messenger to be there immediately ? Another thing to think of, you need to use an app a _lot_ before you should consider putting it in the startup or having it run in background.

How about downloading and burning ? How much time do we waste watching a little bar inch across the screen and we cant touch any key lest dear old Eminem generates a coffee coaster for us instead (sounds marginally better actually). Can't we start the burn or download just before beddy byes and let it go off into the night, then we can some serious fragging done during the day ?

Even better try using the scheduler or a download manager, even even better get a second low spec machine and do it all on that. My old 850Mhz Duron might take an age to rip a CD but I don't care because I'm doing some serious Battlefield 1942 practice in the meantime on the other machine.

Best thing about this #1 option is cost, most is just a change in working practice, it's mainly all free.

2. Hardware.

Not the world's best graphics card you have there, if you are _really_ serious about performance you shouldn't bother with the "MX" versions of GeForce (of course cost is a factor). Second in the list is RAM, for which you have plenty and at good speed, no problems there.

40Gb is a great disk, but what is the rpm and cache size ? These are far greater factors in performance, I'd forgoe a 10Gb reduction in disk space to get a 7200 rpm over a 5400 rpm, or an extra 2MB cache.

If you want a really fast disk get some 10,000+ rpm SCSI monster with a throughput faster than your LAN can deliver it. Whilst we don't always need these kind of drives, we should have a fairly fast and reliable one to start with, check out Storage Review.

This option, unlike 1, is expensive, you really need to consider whether a cost outlay is justified by the hardware gain, in most cases and for most people it isn't, perhaps a Ti4200 isn't so sucky after all ...

3. Disk Optimization.

Sort of related to 2, but more to do with how the disk is organised, almost every single application is dependent on some form of disk access and making sure the seek and load times are as short as possible is essential.

This is not about swapfiles, if you are concerned about performance then you shouldn't be using a swapfile and need more RAM or make your programs more efficient (don't run them simultaneously for example).

Using RAID or another form of striping is a good advantage, otherwise Windows allows very little control over disk optimization and management, but to be honest it has come a long way since its 3.1 days and the performance management in XP is actually adequate.

The most basic form of disk optimization is defragmentation, this means (a) doing it often, and (b) putting high fragmentation areas on a separate disk or partition. The latter is caused by lots of little files getting created and deleted, like the IE cache or the "TEMP" area, both of which can be moved.

This option is not so easy, there is always a trade-off in disk optimization, for example, FAT32 is generally faster than NTFS, but less secure. Compressed drives and files get you more space but are, on average, less efficient, as many files are compressed already.

4. Operating System.

The lowest form of performance enhancement comes from the OS itself, and the related software. At the very most the best performance gains come from internal file or database organisation, but this is an option not available to regular PC users.

In short, forget it. You'll enhance your system by a far better magnitude using the above methods.

Benchmarking software is very restrictive and limited and only reports on averages and estimates and is geared to industry "fads" - they say you'll get a better benchmark if you've got microscopic wangdoodle filtering on the video card, so go buy one.

If you want better Unreal Tourney performance then use UT to benchmark, not some lame industry promotional stuff.
 
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xane

Guest
sorry it's a slow day already and I've recently grown a beard and started getting "techie" urges ...
 
T

Testin da Cable

Guest
you were quite correct though :) as to "techie" urges...you didn't strike me as a bat-belt yielding, sandal wearing, leatherman brandishing, "got wang?" tshirt sporting, unix techobabble spouting bearded geek when last we had a quiet pint camaxane :)
 
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Testin da Cable

Guest
no, only ti4900's have the microscopic wangdoodle filtering built in to the grafical sub-pixel anthromorphic decompressor
 
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xane

Guest
Originally posted by Testin da Cable
no, only ti4900's have the microscopic wangdoodle filtering built in to the grafical sub-pixel anthromorphic decompressor
Click to expand...

Strictly speaking the Ti4200 uses the required dancing gnome pixies to achieve a wangdoodle effect, but none can sing and one only has a tamborine which is not strictly qualified as a graphical instrument.

The Ti4900 achieves the full pixie compliment with seven string orchestral vectoring as backup in VRAM, but Q1/2003 will see the "SO/Solid" artifact rendering of the Ti5xxx series with unparalleled numbers of gnomes, pixies, ballet fairies and even some custard pie touting rap-leprechauns.
 
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GDW

Guest
So in lay mans terms its all sing all dancing then?
 
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xane

Guest
It's all singing, all dancing, all shooting members of the audience, matey.
 
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GDW

Guest
hmmmm something that good is bound to be illegal:(
 
O

old.LittleDwarf

Guest
I oc mine and now have fourteen string orchestral vectoring and a conductor with a little brown stick.
 
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gamenutt

Guest
so this thread doesnt get to far off topic....this is mostly to xane.... I know usage is a big part of performance. I have 3 computers running all the time never shut them off. But with the one I just built im still troubleshooting some stuff like with the P4S8X when I have to optical drives plugged in it doesnt see anything but with only one plugged in works fine. The graphics card mx 440 I know its not a great card but I bought to use for the next 6 or so monthes. Where I will then buy a good video card. All of my hard drives are 7200 rpm I have a 60 and 2 30 Gb drives still to throw in but ive never gone below a 7200.
 
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gamenutt

Guest
I think win2k is better than windows xp. I ran it on my last machine for awhile. But has practically no support for games.
 
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Testin da Cable

Guest
but not so you'd notice in the real world imo :p
 
W

Will

Guest
Originally posted by gamenutt
I think win2k is better than windows xp. I ran it on my last machine for awhile. But has practically no support for games.
Click to expand...
Funny, there is one game I own which doesn't run under 2k.
 
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.cage

Guest
Originally posted by gamenutt
I think win2k is better than windows xp. I ran it on my last machine for awhile. But has practically no support for games.
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I use win2k fine, no problems at all gaming (touch wood) as opposed to xp, crackling shit sound with every ver of creatives drivers I could find.
 
K

kameleon

Guest
Originally posted by .cage


I use win2k fine, no problems at all gaming (touch wood) as opposed to xp, crackling shit sound with every ver of creatives drivers I could find.
Click to expand...

there has to be something wrong with either your version of xp or your sound card. The generic XP drivers work fine with my sb live

there is a know problem with the audigy cards, but creative have sorted this out now, which is amazing considering how long XP Has been out for.

Also XP has a compatibility mode , which will run most older games
 
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gamenutt

Guest
Yea the only time I had problems with creative and xp was with xp when it was first releashed and an sb live value. Had some trouble working that out. But now I have an audigy 2 platinum and that runs great.
 
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