optimizing XP

[stalk]

I use a program called Tune Up Utilities. It does a lot to optimize your PCs performance. I have an old P3 with 1GHz and 1GB RAM and an Audigy 2.5 Platinum Pro. It works well with Audition 1.5 SOmeimes it creates noises when I play music on my computer but this is only due to my computer being too slow.

[Guest Deeswift]

Me and Sig both know that program (TuneUp Utilities). I don't like it, personally, it actually slowed my PC's boot process and I couldn't get it back to normal (no idea why), but I think Sig uses it, or he used to use it, at least.

 

You can't beat manually tweaking though. No program is able to better what you can do with a little knowledge and patience!

[Steve]

I still use it mate. I'm on day 202 of my 30 day trial.

 

[Guest Deeswift]

LOL!

[stalk]

haha, dope! I have the 2003 version. The thing that helped were the registry and harddrive cleaning. When I use the Mem Optimizer I had my computer crash sometimes, so I don't use that. It didn't do much anyway to optimze performance. Never had my computer crash on me since Windows XP Professional is on it. Other than that it has tweaked my computer nicely. And yeah, I agree with you, manual tweaking will eventually give you better results.

[Guest Deeswift]

I also have Windows XP Pro, and both my machines have crashed a couple of times. XP will crash occasionally (rarely though).

 

My tweaks are mainly to the services (I use a custom registry patch I made based on Black Viper's "SAFE" config, but mine disables a further 5 services. I also tweak the performance options and turn all those silly fading effects off. I use a good defragmenter, Raxco PerfectDisk, and the biggest tweak of all is I create my own custom version of XP using nLite. See my guide to nLite here. Other than than, not too much needs doing in terms of performance tweaks to the software, I just keep it in check with RegSeeker and CrapCleaner on a daily basis and make sure that when I install any programs, they don't have some process running at start up. Many programs do. This includes stuff like Nero Filter Check, Adobe Photoshop puts it's "Adobe Gamma Loader" on your system which boots with Windows unless you delete it, and many other software's put some kind of startup entry on your system. Some of these are not bad things, but they are pretty useless and don't need to run. Things like update checks to Real software are a little worse. All these things add up, and you shouldn't need much more than just your firewall starting with your PC. Maybe an anti-virus software (I don't use this but some people probably want to).

 

I also run my RAM at super tight timings of 2-2-2-5, 1T (fastest possible memory timings) which helps performance a lot.

[Clownstyle]

I have no idea how to test or change my memory timings :s

 

Is there a decent memory release program out there?

[Guest Deeswift]

To check your timings, use CPU-Z, which you will find here:

 

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

 

As your PC was built by overclockers.co.uk Clownstyle, they will most likely have set it up properly. If you wanna change anything though, RAM timings are adjusted through BIOS. Tap the delete key as your machine is booting up, you'll get to the BIOS screens. On mine and your mobo (which uses Award v6 BIOS), go to the Cell Menu page, and there you can see your RAM timings. Make sure that it's set like

 

2

2

5

2

 

...which yours should be at already because you use Corsair XL Pro memory modules, and their default timings are 2-2-2-5. There is sometimes a little confusion because BIOS can vary in the way the numbers are displayed. The actual way to refer to the timings is 2-2-2-5, but yours will look like 2-2-5-2.

 

Other than that, make sure it's using a command rate of 1T. 2T is more stable, but if the RAM can handle it, set it to 1T. Your RAM most definately can. Mine can too (Crucial Ballistix PC3200 with default programmed timings of 2-2-2-6).

 

All you gotta do then is change those settings and press F10 to confirm and exit.

 

CAS = should be set at 2

RAS = should be set to 2

RAS to CAS Delay = 2

tRAS = should be set to 5.

 

Those are the main "impoortant" ones. You may have more settings displayed underneath those top 4, but these are less important. You will also have an option called Aggressive Timings = enable it. This puts the other, less important timings at their fastest.

 

*** To anyone else -- unless you have high performance memory, don't mess with the timings unless you know what you are doing! **

 

EDIT: Also, if you ever do any tweaks to RAM, BIOS, etc, and your machine fails to boot, you need to clear CMOS. This means you should take that little silver battery out for approximately 30 seconds or so and possible switch some jumpers. Your motherboard manual will explain all this.

[Liam]

Don't forget, regardless of OS some programs are going to crash simply because they're not written well. Lots of games are rush released and the average app will contain dozens of bugs here and there.