New PC tweaks

[ReadyMan]

What should I set the page file to? Initial size, maximum size? I have 2gb of RAM.

I turned windows auto updates off, any other tweaks to make that you suggest?


Thanks!

RM

[Krom]

Pagefile: 3072-6144 MB
Automatic Updates: ON
System Restore: off
Indexing Service: OFF

[Vindicator]

System Restore: off

I would have to disagree here. System Restore has saved me more than once when a driver install went wrong. It wouldnt hurt to reduce the size that it takes up on the hard drive, but turning it off completely is foolish, not to mention unnecessary considering the size of modern hard drives.

[Diedel]

More than 2 GB pagefile doesn't make sense with 2 GB of RAM, because Win32 cannot address more than 2 GB anyway.

[Krom]

Know the limitations, W32 cannot address more then 2 GB at once per application. Page file is just a standard size ratio I always use, 1.5-3x the size of the system ram.

[CDN_Merlin]

Make your swap file a constant size. Turn it off. Reboot, run defrag. Reboot, turn on swap and set it to whatever but like this Min-1024 Max-1204. This way it will always be one size and won't get fragmented.

[SuperSheep]

I have two harddrives on my computer and if you do as well, this tweak can get you some really good performance tweaks...

1) Format the second drive (non-OS drive).
2) Set your paging file to None. Reboot.
3) Set your paging file to the second drive and for 1GB min/max. Reboot.

Now, run a defrag and make sure you have a paging file on the second drive and that it's at the beginning of the drive and one continuous block.

This has the benefit of speeding up your machine because both the paging file and applications can be accessed simultaneously.

Turn Off Automatic Updates. Only enable for updating, then disable again. This has to be done through the services program, not through the Automatic Updates dialog.

Turn Off System Restore unless you do a lot of updates, and/or don't consider yourself savvy. In many cases a system restore will save your a$$ but in many more, it will screw things up worse than before.

Visit this site and read about the services installed on your setup. Disable those you don't need or pose security risks...
http://smallvoid.com/tweak/index.html

This site has a lot of great software that can aid in fixing, tweaking your system...
http://www.sysinternals.com/

Disable anything you don't need or use in the Startup folder. Start/Programs/Startup.

Turn off unneeded features in Control Panel/System/Advanced/Performance.

Disable desktop wallpaper and disable themes if you don't care about them.

If you use IE, make sure to \"Delete Files\" often and if you have broadband, set the max size of the Temporary Internet Files folder to 1MB(smallest size).

I don't know if this impacts system performance but I try to keep my My Documents folder fairly clean. In your User profiles, it will show how much space is used by your user and this is effected by how many files are in the My Doc's folder as well.

Defrag...Defrag...Defrag. Don't run just once. Keep runnning until you don't see a noticeable difference between Before/After.

Disable, Remove System Tray Apps that you don't need.

If you feel really savvy, Disable your Anti-Virus. There are plenty of sites like http://www.antivirus.com/ that you can run once a week or so.

Get Windows Updates frequently. Once a month or so.

Update your drivers frequently.

There's more, but I got to go to work. Have fun!

[ReadyMan]

I set the pagefile to:
Initial size: 3072
Maximum size: 6144

I turned off auto updates (I check each month or so anyway)
I left on System Restore (I dont mind having it off, but when I click to turn it off it says it will delete all existing system restore points....and the restore points have saved my bacon more than a few times).

I'm not sure what Indexing service is... ?

I have tons of room on my HD (My last drive was 80gb and I only ever used 40gb, and now I have 250gb...)


I only have one HD.

thanks for the tips!

Now I gotta dl a benchmarking program and see what this rig can do...havent OC'd anything yet btw.

What is the best benchmarking program? 3dmark, sandra, other?

--EDIT-- dle'd 3dmark05 and got 7589. I dont know if that's good or not. I think I have a bunch of stuff running in the background (havent gotten to turning off things yet)....

[ReadyMan]

these were my processes running during the test.
which ones can I get rid of using msconfig?

Open Processes
Name PID Memory Usage
3DMark05.exe 3764 24 MB
alg.exe 880 3 MB
csrss.exe 892 3 MB
CTDetect.exe 1004 4 MB
CTDVDDET.exe 452 3 MB
ctfmon.exe 708 4 MB
CTHELPER.EXE 356 4 MB
CTSVCCDA.EXE 156 1 MB
CTXFIHLP.EXE 376 5 MB
CTXFISPI.EXE 540 5 MB
DLLML.exe 552 8 MB
explorer.exe 1336 17 MB
Idle 0 28 KB
InCD.exe 480 5 MB
incdsrv.exe 1376 4 MB
lsass.exe 1012 1 MB
MDM.EXE 224 3 MB
NotiMan.exe 1812 3 MB
nvsvc32.exe 268 3 MB
rundll32.exe 428 3 MB
services.exe 1000 4 MB
Skype.exe 176 35 MB
smss.exe 840 388 KB
spoolsv.exe 1896 5 MB
svchost.exe 1180 5 MB
svchost.exe 1236 4 MB
svchost.exe 1356 22 MB
svchost.exe 1560 3 MB
svchost.exe 1624 5 MB
System 4 240 KB
VolPanel.exe 572 9 MB
WCESCOMM.EXE 720 1 MB
wdfmgr.exe 516 2 MB
winlogon.exe 916 3 MB

[SuperSheep]

http://www.liutilities.com/products/win ... sslibrary/

Example...
http://www.liutilities.com/products/win ... /CTDetect/