Methods Of Optimizing Your Pc's Performance A sure and effective ways that works.

[odomike 0]

Methods of optimizing your PC for higher performance.

 

1st of all, let us start with my computer's hardware configuration.

I am pasting the report generated by Lavalys' Everest Home Edition about my system.

 

Note to Admins and Moderators: I pasted this report only to stress the effectivenes of the optimization methods and to proove to people that everything I am saying is true and not some fabricated story, but not for hosting credits purposes.

 

The Report

    Computer                                          RIDHIMA (My personal computer, named after my love, Ridhima.)

    Generator                                         Michael

    Operating System                                  Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)

    Date                                              2005-06-16

    Time                                              04:59

 

 

--------[ Summary - RIDHIMA (My personal computer, named after my love, Ridhima.)

 

]-------------------------------------

 

    Computer:

      Computer Type                                     Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC

      Operating System                                  Microsoft Windows XP Professional

      OS Service Pack                                   Service Pack 2

      Internet Explorer                                 6.0.2900.2180 (IE 6.0 SP2)

      DirectX                                           4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)

      Computer Name                                     RIDHIMA (My personal computer, named after my love, Ridhima.)

      User Name                                         Michael

      Logon Domain                                      RIDHIMA

      Date / Time                                       2005-06-16 / 04:57

 

    Motherboard:

      CPU Type                                          Intel Celeron-S, 1333 MHz (10 x 133)

      Motherboard Name                                  ECS P6S5AT  (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 AMR, 2 SDR DIMM, 2 DDR DIMM,

 

Audio)

      Motherboard Chipset                               SiS 635

      System Memory                                     256 MB  (SDRAM)

      BIOS Type                                         AMI (11/02/01)

      Communication Port                                Communications Port (COM1)

      Communication Port                                Communications Port (COM2)

      Communication Port                                Printer Port (LPT1)

 

    Display:

      Video Adapter                                     NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro  (32 MB)

      3D Accelerator                                    nVIDIA RIVA TNT2 M64

      Monitor                                           Dell D828L  [15" CRT]  (84766A1KUL87)

 

    Multimedia:

      Audio Adapter                                     Creative SB PCI128 (Ensoniq ES1371) Sound Card

      Audio Adapter                                     SiS 7012 Audio Device

 

    Storage:

      IDE Controller                                    SiS PCI IDE UDMA Controller

      SCSI/RAID Controller                              A347SCSI SCSI Controller

      SCSI/RAID Controller                              Virtual CloneDrive

      Floppy Drive                                      Floppy disk drive

      Disk Drive                                        WDC WD400AB-00BPA1  (37 GB, IDE)

      Disk Drive                                        WDC WD300BB-00AUA1  (27 GB, IDE)

      Optical Drive                                     MATSHITA CD-RW  CW-7586  (8x/4x/32x CD-RW)

      Optical Drive                                     MATSHITA CD-RW  CW-7586  (8x/4x/32x CD-RW)

      Optical Drive                                     SCSI DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device

      Optical Drive                                     SCSI DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device

      SMART Hard Disks Status                           OK

 

    Partitions:

      C: (NTFS)                                         9538 MB (2296 MB free)

      D: (NTFS)                                         9538 MB (2416 MB free)

      E: (NTFS)                                         9546 MB (1208 MB free)

      F: (NTFS)                                         9538 MB (2319 MB free)

      G: (NTFS)                                         9538 MB (2003 MB free)

      H: (NTFS)                                         9538 MB (1917 MB free)

      I: (NTFS)                                         9538 MB (2120 MB free)

 

   --------[ Debug - PCI ]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

and below is also a pic of my desktop and list of all programs. This is for you to know that I have losts of softwares installed on my PC and it is still running comfortably without any hitch. I have counted the softwares I installed in my PC and everything arrived at 156 (Imagine That!!!, I think that I am going crazy). Ave. boot time......Start Up=22secs and shut down=15 secs. Not too bad for a computer which is carying more than 150 softwares.

 

http://echo.cx/

 

1st of all, Partitioning is one of the tools that help to accelerate your PC's speed. Here is how it works. 2 people buy 2 HDDs with, say, 30 GB of memory. The first guy partiotions his into 3 (10GB each) and the 2nd guy installs the OS without the partitioning (that means that the whole 30GB is his C:\ Drive while the other guy will have C:\, D:\ andE:\ Drives).

Let us assume that the 1st guy also labels his partitions ROOT, Graphics and Web applications consecutively while the 2nd guy installs everything into his root directory. Assuming these 2 guys have all the web and graphics designing applications in the PCs and they are both into web and graphics designing. while they are running the programs (say, Adobe Photoshop CS2, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and probably playing music with Media Player at the same time [thats normally what I do]), the 1st guy's OS sees the applications which are running as running from different HDDs while the 2nd one sees all the appz as running from one single HDD. Then the paging files (called the virtual memory paging file.....a memory allocation from your HDD which your OS uses like your RAM). They really help a lot in executing programs faster. If the 1st guy allocates 500MB each from his partitions to the Virtual Memory Paging Files and the 2nd guy allocates 1GB. By default, the 1st PC is bound to be faster. By simple logic, (500MB x 3=1.5GB)>(1GB) and that does make a lot of sence.

 

2ndly, defragmenting your HDD/partitions from time to time. I normally defragment my partitions every 7 days. Defragmenting helps to increase your PC's speed and this is no joke. Below is a little summary which I copied from the program's help.

Disk Defragmenter analyzes local volumes and consolidates fragmented files and folders so that each occupies a single, contiguous space on the volume. As a result, your system can access files and folders and save new ones more efficiently. By consolidating your files and folders, Disk Defragmenter also consolidates a volume's free space, making it less likely that new files will be fragmented. The process of consolidating fragmented files and folders is called defragmentation.

So, as you can see, defragmenting always helps to speed up your comp a lot.

 

3rdly HDD format: I am running all my partition in the NTFS (Windows NT file system) format. why are my doing this? I know that the NTFS format enables you to compress the data in the HDD to save disc memory. For instance, there was a time I compressed my C:\ Drive and I ended up recovering more then 1GB of memory from the 7.02 GB I have already used up in the Drive. And not just that, the compression also increases your computers' operations as it enables it to have access to more files in less time.

 

Below is an image of my Windows Explorer.

 

http://echo.cx/

 

That is for you to know that I have lots of files and folders stacked in there.

 

I have added more boot screens and configured my desktop to look like a Mac OS X desktop. Pic is below. All these help to slow down your comp but they never affected mine in any way. It is 'cos of all the optimization techniques I use to ensure optimal system performance.

 

My Desktop Image.

 

http://echo.cx/

 

Try all these methods and I assure you that your PC's performance will increase by 20% at least.

 

Enjoy...

 

Notice from BuffaloHELP:

Image too large to be posted together. Next time use the thumb nail link or cut down the size of your picture. Turned images to links.

Edited June 16, 2005 by BuffaloHELP (see edit history)

[Saint_Michael 3]

hmm plausible but why go to all the trouble of getting another hard drive and splitting on the information like that. but i got a few more suggestions on thatremove programs that you know you will not use for you computer to make room. then disk clean then defragalso make sure you scan your computer for spyware and adware programs as well thats the big reason while computers run slow most of the time cuz they take up so much ram (which makes the computer run slow or fast ***correct me if im wrong on that***)also try to look for the better programs that suit your needs that don't take to much room in your computer (good luck with that)and somewhat knowing odo hes mostly graphic and web design programs and 1000's of porn videos too

[Adamrosso 0]

wow, you have loads of programs . Your pc looks cool too. Great tutorial btw . Always fun to do stuff like this

[Inspiron 0]

Hey dude doesn't your PC lag after you mod your explorer and desktop?I used to mod my computer also and it became very lag. I couldn't play games then as my computer just goes too slow for games already.I might give another try if your method works...

[odomike 0]

Hey dude doesn't your PC lag after you mod your explorer and desktop?

I used to mod my computer also and it became very lag. I couldn't play games then as my computer just goes too slow for games already.

 

I might give another try if your method works...

172246[/snapback]

Nope...not at all. It is all due to the powerful and very effective optimization strategies I have been applying to my OS that It has been able to run at peak performance irrespective of all the installations and customizations I have done to my dexktop and explorer.

 

Mind you that I am using only 256MB of SDRAM and right now, I am not even thinking of buying and using a p4 motherboard.

 

That should tell you that all my optimizations are really effective. And come to think of it that I am running such system stressing programs such as Adobe Photoshop CS2 and the likes and you know what? sommetimes, I even run these programs with WIndow Media Player 10.0 (simultaneously) without any qualms. Thats kool i think.

 

So, do yourself a very big favour and follow my optimization tips...to save your computer and also make it run at peak performance.

 

and somewhat knowing odo hes mostly graphic and web design programs and 1000's of porn videos too

 

LMFAO.......well, the question about if i am into web and graphics designing...the ans is yes...a lot. But on the other hand, am i into porn? That ans is best known to me and to me alone.

[thablkpanda 0]

Nice Idea, but It won't transfer from paper to real life so well.I didn't just purchase my computer, and the 30 Gigs of space I currently USE I don't have a media to backup to. So Partitioning my drives isn't a viable solution, seeing as I don't trust any partitioning software after what Partiton Magic did to me..I defrag every few days also, so you're right there.Nice job, good idea about the partitioning.

[wow 0]

Also never install your apps to boot on startup if so msconfig them out,and only run them when needed.

[nelimitat 0]

You could use several tools to optimize your PC performance like deleting unused files / temporary ones, partitioning your hard disk and uninstall programs that you do not need.Also the fonts in the Windows folder take a lot of resources so you should download a font viewer and delete the ugly ones.Some Windows Services (if you are using Windows XP) could be disabled in order to suit your needs.Also I uninstall the tools used for optimization after I use them. A very good tool is CleanSweep indeed.

[Unregistered 015 0]

I know a good "tool" to increase PC performance. It's called MONEY. Yea, right, money. Put a few $ and I'm sure your performance is going to flourish.Ok, now to get real :PI'm going to get a bit more into virtual memory thing, then the frist poster.Virtual memory is used whenever your PC runs out of physical memory, not always. It just help's your computer to run some big nasty program that can't fit into RAM by themselfs. Having more virtual memory does not mean better performance! Actualy, if you have too much VM, your PC might run a bit slower then usual (if you force VM usage), because Hard Drive is much, much slower then electronic component such as RAM chip. The best combination to go for (on average) is to have a lot of RAM, and use VM very rarely. If your procesor is running at, let's say 1Ghz, you might want at least 512MB of RAM. If it is a 3GHz processor, go with the 3GB of RAM. It's cheap and it's the best way to improve performance. I dont want to go into details here, there is a lot behind this, but it works. If you are not sure if your PC needs more RAM or not, just look for that LED (light emitting diode) showing HD activity. If it is offten light then you need more RAM (or if you hear your HD running all the time).When it comes to defragmentation, well, that's a good thing to do. But, there is no need for offten defragmentation if your disk is not used that much (if you have enough RAM, and not using VM a lot). In WinXP, you can have the report by analysing your disk (or partition) and Windows recommends defragmentation if there is need for it. So "obey the law". I would also add that you should scan your drive using scandisk from time to time (once a month would be nice) but with surface scan included. Some of you will find their PC's running much faster after that. I would not go into details here too, but it fixes some errors (bad setors, allocation, etc.)One more thing: don't put to many programs in startup routine. That is, dont have to many icons in taskbar (windows) Everything you see there is acctualy a program, a piece of software which need resources (and sometimes those resources need other resources). So, dont do that. If you for example have "Weather watcher" installed (or any similar program) dont make it run at the startup. Rather, put an icon on your desktop, and whenever you need to know what's the weather like, run it! (and close it imedietly)Conclusion:- don't spare $$$ on RAM, (your disk will run smoothly and will last longer)- defragment your disk from time to time (twice monthly is ok)- use scandisk when needs arise (you hear strange sounds inside)- dont have to much programs run at startup (and at all times, close any you dont use right after use)- don't kick your PC if it's not responding, reset!

[icemarle 0]

This thread has been a great help. I've been going nuts recently, due to a 10 minute startup, and very slow performance. Since I haven't cleaned the CPU for over a year, I started to clean it 2 days ago and it reminded me so much of an archeological dig! I thought that would do it, but once again I was subjected to slow speeds. I removed a lot of startup programs and searched for adware. It didn't help much... Then I found this thread, and I decided to defragment depite my HD being only 4% free. I slept on it, as I didn't want to wait around doing nothing, and finally! A breakthrough!Heh, it's practically my fault that my computer is so slow. I've been very lazy to defragment it, since I had to use the computer often. Anyway, it finally runs like a charm. I'm glad I found this thread, or my sense of responsibility wouldn't awaken...

[jlhaslip 4]

Another tip is to uninstall programs when you no longer need them in the foreseeable future. I depend on having the zip or exe files on the drive and install them when I foresee their being needed. The main programs I use regularly, of course are kept installed. Clean your registry after you un-install the software you don't need. With Windows, the registry can get awfully bloated and it retains information about programs you have un-installed, so a good registry cleaner is importnt to have. They are cheap, too.