Is there a general rule that can be followed in order to get a fast boot up machine

It shouldn't cost a fortune (no SSDs)
Preferred OS is XP

My current system is listed in my Sig (I have 7900 GS). How can I fasten its boot up time ( I am willing to change mobo/ hds or anything else)

I would be willing to build a new computer if you have a killer setup at around US$1200ish range


Thanks


ps: if you have other strategies to get faster boot up times (not hardware related), You are welcome to share

1st go into bios and diable and or select "not installed" to any port that is not used.

now with the system you have you should be botting pretty fast anyhow. also when in xp/vista go into msconfig and turn off all non-critical funtions as this too will greatly speed up boot times and improve gaming performance as well. so actually i would start there 1st before going into bios.

building a new pc is going a little overboard for faster boot times as you already have a beast of a PC to begin with. so understand that your long boots is software and not hardware (especially your hardware!) related

I'll venture into msconfig. Thanks for the tip

As far as hardware, My gigabyte mobo bios loadup is the longest I've seen (this is my first build, so I am comparing it to what I've seen at other computers and all the Dells i've owned before)

First it has to show me that my GFX is 256mb, then it goes to gigabyte splash screen. Then it does some hardware checking which easily takes up 10-15s (dont know what it does there).

Originally I had setup Raid0 in hopes of cutting on bootup time. It didn't help because the intel raid configurator had to do some dumb thing for 10-15s of its own on every boot.


EDIT: In other words any more tips on reducing the time it takes for the windows loading Logo to show up

Some BIOS have options for skipping memory post checks etc... which speed it up a little

Then it does some hardware checking which easily takes up 10-15s (dont know what it does there).


there's were disabling or selecting "not installed" to some features in the bios comes into play. for instance sata ports! the ones you're not using mark them as "not installed" and if you're not using firewire then diable it in bios. some of the ports on the back of your mobo (the i/o ports) diable those as well.

these things will cut down the time as well. do these things in steps.


check this out: http://www.pchell.com/support/how_ [...] time.shtml

this will help ya out! good luck.

also go to msconfig-boot.ini click advance options- check mark /numproc and set to 2. This will utilize both processor to boot up.

Get the Gigabyte iRam. Faster than any hard disk.
Product is 2 years old, still uses DDR Ram.

Disable Unused Services in Windows.

http://www.jasonn.com/turning_off_ [...] windows_xp

(Note: I did not read the article, just the first one I googled. There are tons more. But you should get the idea.)

if you cant wait 1 minute for your computer to boot up, then why shut it down?

I have to know what you are doing so important that you cant wait a minute for it to boot???

The idea is not that he can't wait, it's that he's wondering what is particularly wrong with his machine that is causing the 20s delay on startup. I would recommend first of flashing your BIOS to the newest revision, and resetting it all to defaults. Turn of the "Extended Memory Tests" on startup. Turn off any serial/parallel/onboardsound/modem ports you are not using. Turn off any RAID controllers that are currently not being used, or even turn off the RAID functionality if you are only using JBOD (Just a bunch of disks). Hopefully this helps, and remember DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR MACHINE DURING THE BIOS UPGRADE, and use Windows-based tools if you are unsure (Giga-byte used to have a little tool called @BIOS, it seemed to work well, and also back up your BIOS to a secondary flash).

Best Regards,
dg6464

Note: Windows Services and startup files will not matter much with a machine like yours anyways so don't stress that; look at the BIOS for now, you should not have 15-20s for boot times. Especially on newer Intel S775 DDR2, and Socket AM2 and above motherboards, bootup times are crazy fast. If they are not when the board originally comes out; the manufacturer generally releases a BIOS fix that by default fixes the bootup times (this is why I told you to update your BIOS). I just went through the same thing with an Intel S775 DG946GZIS... and BIOS fixed it instantly.

Also, in Bios, there should be a place for you to select the boot order, make sure that the Hard drive is set to the first boot option so that it won't try to read floppy or cd or lan before going to the hard drive. Also, if there are any fast boot options, like things that let you do just a fast check on memory instead of full checks, enable that as well.

Why is boot-up so important? Isn't it what you do AFTER the boot the most important thing? I have a Gigabyte 965P motherboard and it will eat up 10s alone with the RAID controller. Sometimes the best hardware will take a little more time to boot because of the features. Also adding extra CD drives and hard-drives will slow down boot times. So if you have more than one CD drive, you may do well to buy a combo drive that does it all and get rid of the rest. Likewise, either sticking with one HDD or going to RAID-0 (speeds up boot-times by 1s or so, I think), but make sure you have a backup disk. RAID can be more volatile than having a single drive. Processor speed can have a little to do with Windows boot-times, but HDD performance and disabling any unnecessary items will also help a lot, such as ports in the BIOS, floppy-seeking, make sure the HDD is the first boot device, disabling the RAID controller if you have one, Windows services you don't use, shutting off startup items in MSConfig, etc.

I realize a lot of this was already mentioned! But that's all I gotsta say about that. Good luck

If you have a lot of network mapped drives, that will slow up the loading of Windows also.

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Add case. Change anything you want.