Speeding Up My Computer

[froztbit3]

Any tweaks to make my computer run faster? Ive got a 3.0 C i think it could act a little faster with program loading and loading when i start it up. Any tips. Ive defragged so that isnt a problem. Any tips. ( I also have 512 RAM soon getting 1 gig.) Thanks!

 

[DyslexicHobo]

If you want to make startup faster, I know my computer did a lot of unnecessary checks when it booted up. I disabled the SATA On-Board BootROM, Onboard Promise controller, and the RAM tester.

It brought my startup time down by at least 25 seconds, a HUGE improvement.

Just go through BIOS and disable the startup options that you don't want.

 

[KoolDrew]

There are many tweaking guides floating around the net and quite frankly most suck. Most reccomend settings saying they will increase performance when it is not true. One example is the IOpagelocklimit registry tweak which supposedly boosts the Input/Output performance of your computer when it is doing a large amount of file transfers and other similar operations. However, starting with W2000 SP1 and continuing with every release from 2K to XP to Server 2003 and everything in between, there is no reference to this registry value. Yet many tweak sites list this tweak as a Windows XP performance enhancer.

The best performance tweaks for Windows XP (assuming that is what you are using) is to turning off eye candy and other settings that can be found in the control panel. Most registry tweaks do nothing for performance. BIOS optimization is also very important. Make sure you also have the latest drivers etc..

 

[Aspenth]

http://www.tunexp.com/tips/mai...soft_bootvis_exe_tool/ - cut my boot time by 30 seconds

 

[KoolDrew]

Yes bootvis works very well. I can't believe I forgot that. My reccomendation to avoid tweaking programs too. Many just apply all these tweaks that do nothing or even reduce performance and they do all of this on its own without you applying the tweak yourself. The only programs I might reccomend is TweakUI and X-Setup. Maintence is also important. I ussually do the follwoing probally every week:

- Scan for malicious software (viruses, spyware etc.
- Update Windows
- Remove startup items added by other programs. Also unessacery services added by third party software
- Run disk check
- Use CCleaner and delete files I don't need manually. I may remove programs I may not use anymore too
- Clean registry using Regcleaner
- Optimize registry using NTRegOpt
- Defrag
- Run bootvis
- Make sure I have backups of important stuff

If you do want a good tweaking guide visit http://tweakguides.com. It is probally the best and most in depth tweaking guide, but it still contains many tweaks that do nothing. However it does coverjust about all of Windows settings and gives you reccomendations for best performance.

You could also go to the software forum here at anandtech and Shad has a free performance guide that covers a bit of usefull stuff. You may also be able to use Intel® Application Accelerator, but check if your particular chipset is compatible before installing it or you may run into problems and Windows may not boot.