How to improve performance...

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nightscope

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Jan 20, 2007
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Hey guys,

I just built a computer out of older parts and I installed Windows XP 32 Bit Professional. Since this build is obviously outdated, I was thinking of doing whatever I can to get the most performance out of it. Do you guys know any tweaks or customizations to the OS itself that I can do to boost that performance?

All I know is: Disk cleanup on a regular basis, disk defrag, adjust for best performance (not appearance), ccleaner, msconfig (reduce the # of programs at startup).

Do you guys have any other suggestions on what I could do to improve performance? This will be used mostly for business/office work, and maybe some light gaming. However I would love to squeeze every bit of performance out of it that I can.

Specs:
Athlon 64 3500+
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
1 GB Corsair DDR3200 (2x512)
500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM
Sapphire X800GTO Graphics Card

Would adding another 1 GB of memory make a big difference? (Another 2 x 512 sticks)
Should I adjust the clock speeds of the CPU or memory in the bios at all?

Right now my CPU is running at 38-39 degrees Celsius with my system at 32 degrees celsius.
 
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Harry Potter

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Jun 26, 2012
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Try a RAM drive! It is like a hard drive stored in RAM, making it much faster than a real hard drive. Storing temporary and often-used files on the RAM drive can greatly increase access time to those files. I recommend the Data Perfect RAM drive (I don't remember the exact name because I don't currently have access to my computer.) You can find it on download.com.

BTW, can somebody describe how to change the value of an environment variable? I don't remember off-hand, and changing the TEMP and TMP variables to a directory on the RAM drive can considerably speed up access to temporary files.
 
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Hawkeye22

Hawkeye22

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Feb 10, 2006
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Right-click "my computer" and click on properties. Look under the "advanced" tab. There should be a button that says "environment variables". Click on that.
 
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

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Mar 25, 2010
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A RAM drive with 1 gig or even 2 gig of RAM won't do you much good.
 
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

Titan
Mar 25, 2010
60,387
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If you don't install every software you find online on the system, you will not need to run ccleaner or msconfig at all. Avoid things like "memory optimizers" and "Make My PC Fast!" type of stuff, as well as automatic driver or software updaters unless they are from the actual vendor of the item.

Defrag will help, maybe once a month at the most you'd need to run it.

Get all the RAM that system will take, up to 4 gig total if it's a 32 bit system, which with XP you should keep it at that. 64 bit XP has pretty poor support.
 
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Harry Potter

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Jun 26, 2012
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