Ways to speed up current systems?

[.chad]

are there any good (free) ways to increase performance of existing machines short of upgrading components? i am trying to get more memory ordered for them, but until that happens they tend to crawl along. i have disabled as many things as i can from the start-up sequence, they have at least 50% open HD space, and are free and clear from spyware / adware / viruses from all the scans ive run.

machines are p4 3.2GHz / 512 ram 70+gig HD

[H-Angus]

Just out of interest what programs are you running?

[Ogre]

To tell you the truth, if you are not comfortable overclocking your hardware, then you should just stick with buying new stuff...If you have nVidia cards, you can overclock them by adding a new dword in the registry...Google it and you can see where to put it...

Other than that, you may just have to set windows to have the maximum page file size and disable the XP look to Win95...I think that is all you can do...I hope this helped...

[.chad]

ADT 2006 / ADT 2007
outlook 2k / xp (varies by machine)
firefox / IE 7 (i think im the only one with firefox atm)
ms office 2k / xp (varies by machine)
i believe there is one client app that is being run on one computer, but it isnt always open
windows explorer
photoshop

nothing else major i can think of.

these arent all open at once, but is a general list of what we use on a regular basis.
network is just a fileshare from a central computer that is pretty beefy compared to the workstations.

[.chad]

To tell you the truth, if you are not comfortable overclocking your hardware, then you should just stick with buying new stuff...If you have nVidia cards, you can overclock them by adding a new dword in the registry...Google it and you can see where to put it...

Other than that, you may just have to set windows to have the maximum page file size and disable the XP look to Win95...I think that is all you can do...I hope this helped...ive never overclocked anything, but am not adverse to trying it - except for that nagging feeling in the back of my mind that says the one time i do try it will fry the computer and i will be up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

[H-Angus]

I would have thought that the only thing that would be slowing you down is the RAM, and then only if you use 3D a lot. What sort of problems are you having?

You have pretty much the same spec as we do except we have upped our RAM to 2GB, you also use pretty much the same programmes and our systems run quite quick.

Another thing that I do is restart the PC every now and again, it always seems quicker when its first woken up (unlike me :razz: ).

[H-Angus]

ive never overclocked anything, but am not adverse to trying it - except for that nagging feeling in the back of my mind that says the one time i do try it will fry the computer and i will be up the proverbial creek without a paddle.


Just my pessimistic nature but I would leave well alone unless you know exactly what your doing, or can accept the risk.

[Ogre]

Just my pessimistic nature but I would leave well alone unless you know exactly what your doing, or can accept the risk.
I agree...It is at your own risk...It is something that can really mess up your machine if done improperly...

[Ogre]

I would have thought that the only thing that would be slowing you down is the RAM, and then only if you use 3D a lot...
Even if you bump it up to 1 Gig, you will see a difference...Windows and Virus scans take up a lot of processes and RAM...512 is the bare minimum and really should only be for "office" machines and not CAD machines...

That is something that actually bugs me...The fact that management sees a difference in the work that I do than the Data entry person, sees the fact that my job is more complex and thinks that a slimline computer w/integrated video that cost US$300 that they gave the data entry person can get my job done...:banghead: very frustrating...

[.chad]

I would have thought that the only thing that would be slowing you down is the RAM, and then only if you use 3D a lot. What sort of problems are you having?
we dont do enough 3D work for it to be an issue, and when we do i am usually the one doing it, and i have 1gb of ram.

the user that mentions the speed issues frequently does alot of grocery store remodel work - files range from less than 1mb to about 8mb.

problems are just overall sluggishness when working. commands take several seconds to innitialize, drawings take several minutes to open, panning and zooming takes several seconds to a minute to take effect. seems to be alot of system lag while working in cad.

[H-Angus]

There is also no reason I can think of that a 3.2ghz speed processor should ever be over-clocked, that is pretty much the top of the pile already (ignoring duo or quad cores).

[Ogre]

we dont do enough 3D work for it to be an issue, and when we do i am usually the one doing it, and i have 1gb of ram.

the user that mentions the speed issues frequently does alot of grocery store remodel work - files range from less than 1mb to about 8mb.

problems are just overall sluggishness when working. commands take several seconds to innitialize, drawings take several minutes to open, panning and zooming takes several seconds to a minute to take effect. seems to be alot of system lag while working in cad.
Sounds like a Video card issue...What do your workstations have???

Also, 1 gig is preferred for 2d work and I would go with 2 gig for 3d work...There is a difference just by adding the extra 512 mb...

[H-Angus]

Another thought is maybe your network is holding you back, I don't know much about it myself but we just had our LAN overhauled it it now runs at 2gbps, and in general everything is a lot quicker.

[Ogre]

There is also no reason I can think of that a 3.2ghz speed processor should ever be over-clocked, that is pretty much the top of the pile already (ignoring duo or quad cores).
True, but you can increase RAM speed along with FSB (or HTT if AMD) speed increasing the performance of your machine...Believe it or not, you can notice quite a difference with each mhz increase of the processor...I was (so far) able to get 350MHz out of my RAM from 318 MHz...I have noticed quite a difference when opening programs and files...I also overclocked my processor (AMD) from 2.4 to 2.5 and it performs exceptionally well...

Very true about your network...If your network has collisions and other problems, the performance of your workstation accessing those networked resources will be greatly impacted...

[.chad]

Another thought is maybe your network is holding you back, I don't know much about it myself but we just had our LAN overhauled it it now runs at 2gbps, and in general everything is a lot quicker.that actually may have alot to do with it. the connections to his computer are daisy-chained a few times. we are in an old house that has been (poorly) modified to be an office, and there at one time was another company upstairs, which is where the user that mentions speed the most is located. hardware wise the internal pieces are new, we bought a new router a few months ago, and other than the daisy-chained wires going upstairs everything is directly connected.

we are moving to a new office in a couple months, so i will pay attention to how speeds change with direct wireing.

[s_morgan_b]

Have you checked to see what other background processes are running? Pressing CTRL ALT DEL (at the same time) will bring up the task manager and provide a list of the programs running in the background.

I've found that iTunes has caused some performance issues on my machine here (running a Dell GX620 w/ Pentium D 3.2 Ghz, 2 Gig RAM, 80 Gig HD, XP Pro sp. 2 and on network).

Keeping things as clean as possible you'll find that around 2 dozen processes (minimum) should be running in the background.

[Ogre]

that actually may have alot to do with it. the connections to his computer are daisy-chained a few times. we are in an old house that has been (poorly) modified to be an office, and there at one time was another company upstairs, which is where the user that mentions speed the most is located. hardware wise the internal pieces are new, we bought a new router a few months ago, and other than the daisy-chained wires going upstairs everything is directly connected.

we are moving to a new office in a couple months, so i will pay attention to how speeds change with direct wireing.
Forgive me, but what type of network topology do you have??? Is it ThinNet or UTP??? If it is UTP, I am not sure that Daisy Chaining will work at all...If you guys got it to work, that would be a miracle...

[.chad]

Forgive me, but what type of network topology do you have??? Is it ThinNet or UTP??? If it is UTP, I am not sure that Daisy Chaining will work at all...If you guys got it to work, that would be a miracle...no clue. you might as well have asked me the atomic weight of molybendium.

the connection to upstairs goes:

wire from router heads upstairs - ends in female connector - patch cable into workgroup switch - cable heads around towards desks - another female connector - cable into computer.

we also just uninstalled one of those desktop weather apps and he said that it made a big difference once it was gone.

thanks for the help so far :beer:

[Ogre]

no clue. you might as well have asked me the atomic weight of molybendium.

the connection to upstairs goes:

wire from router heads upstairs - ends in female connector - patch cable into workgroup switch - cable heads around towards desks - another female connector - cable into computer.

we also just uninstalled one of those desktop weather apps and he said that it made a big difference once it was gone.

thanks for the help so far :beer:
OK...I see what you mean by Daisy Chained...Really all things like Itunes and spare programs like that should be removed...I would keep that machine as clean as possible...Anything that is taking up processes that does not need to be there needs to be removed...

I hope this thing starts to get better for you...

[robert.1.hall72202]

The IT department at my comapny will tell you to turn off Outlook.
That would free up some resources.

I wish I could do that.....no more emails.........woohoo!

[H-Angus]

The IT department at my comapny will tell you to turn off Outlook.
That would free up some resources.

I wish I could do that.....no more emails.........woohoo!

That would be nice :wink: I guess thats where the duo cores start to help.

[Railrose]

We've tried to run background programs similar to the Weather Channel, & those had to be taken off because they eat the resources. Then, corp changed our server & this one is slower.

I constantly work with image files & anything that can slow down a machine really shows. I had to start pulling the image files from the server to work with them locally & save them back to the server when finished.

[dzatto]

Even if you bump it up to 1 Gig, you will see a difference...Windows and Virus scans take up a lot of processes and RAM...512 is the bare minimum and really should only be for "office" machines and not CAD machines...

That is something that actually bugs me...The fact that management sees a difference in the work that I do than the Data entry person, sees the fact that my job is more complex and thinks that a slimline computer w/integrated video that cost US$300 that they gave the data entry person can get my job done...:banghead: very frustrating...
Amen to that. That happens to me all the time, not to mention the owner's granddaughter gets all the new stuff to do data entry, fast computer, dual 22" wide screen monitors, etc. I may as well be drawing with crayons on napkins. :confused:

[sgoodmansen]

If you are running XP, have you trned all the fancy visual features off? I've discovered you can gain a lot of speed, just by turning it off regardless of how much RAm you have.

right click My Computer, Advanced, Performance.

I turn all of them off except the bottom 3, so XP still looks the same, but performs faster.

[.chad]

i havent turned those things off yet. we did get some more memory for them and it made a pretty noticeable difference, so for now im going to see how things work out over the next week or two, and if there are still speed issues ill move to turning off the fancy windows gimmicks.

[robert.1.hall72202]

If you are running XP, have you trned all the fancy visual features off? I've discovered you can gain a lot of speed, just by turning it off regardless of how much RAm you have.

right click My Computer, Advanced, Performance.

I turn all of them off except the bottom 3, so XP still looks the same, but performs faster.

IE crashed after trying out your suggestion......imagine that!

You may want to smooth edges of screen fonts. Without keeping that item selected, text can be harder on the eyes.

[avdesign]

Turn off all the useless apps and services MS runs in the background and anything thats not needed.
There was at one time a great web site called Black Viper that listed every service in 2000/XP what it did and if you really needed it. It's gone now but a link archive has the info
http://web.archive.org/web/20041128084144/www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

I must preface this though if you have a IT department they might get miffed at you doing this , although you must always remember IT and HR are not your friends so tweak carefully.

[.chad]

Turn off all the useless apps and services MS runs in the background and anything thats not needed.
There was at one time a great web site called Black Viper that listed every service in 2000/XP what it did and if you really needed it. It's gone now but a link archive has the info
http://web.archive.org/web/20041128084144/www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

I must preface this though if you have a IT department they might get miffed at you doing this , although you must always remember IT and HR are not your friends so tweak carefully.i am the IT department ;)

[avdesign]

i am the IT department ;)DOHhh!!!!

Run Away .......:lol:

[dzatto]

DOHhh!!!!

Run Away .......:lol:
IT is watching us. but who is watching them?????

My IT guy has us blocked out of every web page associated with shopping, message boards, adult stuff (obviously), news, media.
I can barely do anything on the web except for come to AUGI!!!!!
Oh well. He even has our machines locked so we can't install programs or anything.

You are here to _ork, no fun for you!!!!

[sgoodmansen]

IT is watching us. but who is watching them?????

My IT guy has us blocked out of every web page associated with shopping, message boards, adult stuff (obviously), news, media.
I can barely do anything on the web except for come to AUGI!!!!!
Oh well. He even has our machines locked so we can't install programs or anything.

You are here to _ork, no fun for you!!!!
Be careful he doesn't ever notice AUGI's CWC corner then.

[dzatto]

Be careful he doesn't ever notice AUGI's CWC corner then.
I know, I was just thinking about that.