Ways to increase PC performance

[Vicker]

About two weeks ago I saw someone post a list of multiple ways to increase performance while multi-boxing. This list included things turning off the background process that Windows uses to make file searching faster, as well as using some form of file sharing on the "data" file of WoW. I was going to try some of that stuff, but now I lost the post. Does anyone happen to remember where it was?

[leukos]

I've found the methods I linked to in that post really only help to establish a good foundation on the available hardware. For example, getting a Windows XP install down to about 80 MB of RAM used, or a Vista install down to the low 200 MB range. However, vLite can help get the hard drive requirements for Vista down to something a little more respectable. I think my functional Vista install is around 2.5 GB without a page file. In many cases, a clean install of the operating system with very little additional software installed (read, just Warcraft) can accomplish the same goal of a cruftless computer.

At the time, I was using those pieces of software to store many operating systems on a very small array of very small compact flash cards - where every megabyte counted. With the presence of Western Digital's Velociraptor and the decreasing costs of solid state disks, I'm not to sure those efforts are really worth it any more.

In terms of turning off services, I'll give you the method that has worked best for me - scorched earth.

Take a thread like this one from the MSFN forum, http://www.msfn.org/board/What-Not-To-Remove-For-Some-Programs-t66361.html, that talks about what not to remove in Windows XP, and this random collection of Tips and tricks for Vista at http://www.msfn.org/board/Vista-Tips-and-Tweaks-t57697.html and then figure out what you want your machine to do. The http://www.speedyvista.com/ site may help too.

Develop a couple test for that functionality, and then you get to the fun part. Disable services one by one until something breaks, then turn it back on and make sure it works again.

But to be honest, these time consuming steps won't take a slow system and suddenly turn it into a speed daemon - you still need high performance hardware for that.

[SonyUSA]

A lot of people mistake Vista's show of higher memory usage to applications and processes using it, which isn't completely true. Vista likes to pre-buffer some of the applications data into the memory. It's not actually in use, so windows can dump it and use that space for other applications if they start exceeding the maximum threshhold without it causing any problems for the original program or the new one, it makes programs work a bit snappier. Shut off all the extra BS like sidebar and the search cacher and turn off all the themes and you basically run enhanced XP (though I still don't like it).

[Vicker]

Thanks for the replies, but those aren't quite what I was looking for. The post that I was thinking of listed specific steps to take. One specific suggestion that it had was disabling the thing that your computer uses to make file searches faster.

[Groovy]

You could take a look at CCleaner, www.ccleaner.com

[Simulacra]

Hi Vicker,

it would be handy to know the specs of your machine(s). The most dramatic change I've seen to performance was a change I made over the weekend. I'd noticed that I was getting a lot of runaways once entering outland and that zone load times were very slow, even leaving a flightpoint was ridiculous and video was jarred. 4fps in Shattrath >.< My setup at that time was 1 high end pc Q6600 etc with a separate directory for each of my 5 instances. I changed that to have 4 instances using 1 directory on a physically separate drive and ran my main on a drive by itself. The difference in performance blew me away, it was like having a new pc. Instant loads into instances, instant leaving and arriving at FPs (I use the multiboxing addon where everyone flies at the same time) and a healthy rates in shatt (i didnt check the fr but my guys were no longer being left behind). My clones now fire at EXACTLY the same time - gotta love that.

Another change to make is wind down the graphics of your clones to a bare minimum and turn everything off, turn off the sound as you dont really need it, leave your main as is. If you're running a quad core then make sure you're using all the cores just not the first 2 which is the windows default with wow.

Hope this helps

[yarr]

also, adding a maxfps on the clones (they really dont need to be any higher than 5-10 fps) helps a lot for framerates on main. I forget how to do this, should be in one of these stickys somewhere, i think.

[FunkStar]

5-10 is really low thou.

U can do this in keyclone as well if you use that.

I'm using 20 atm, if I go any lower epic flyers tend to loose follow for me

[Frosty]

You could take a look at CCleaner, www.ccleaner.com ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forum/js/www.ccleaner.com')I get a little nervous with freeware. I see they also have a defrag program too.
I've had a huge problem with my WoW folders not getting defragmented (other large files also fail during XP's defragmenting).
Does anyone know if this software can be trusted? Or of a better solution?