Am happy with games , picture viewing etc when they finally open. Take a
picture ...click on it and it takes so much longer then my old XP machine to
open it but then if I click on next pic it is quick. Or when I start a game
I g make a cup of coffee, go to the toilet and when I get back its just
about ready to start. Even games like Crysis run ok when started.
Now its new system with enough grunt so is a problem with Vista ?
Vista does have a few problems, which SP1 corrects, more or less.
A few suggestions I have found which DO work speeding Vista up:
Above all, make sure your system has the fastest Core2 Duo processor
you can afford, the fastest and most memory your MB will support, and
the best and fastest Video card you can afford.
1) Download and install (or purchase for about $10 from Microsoft) the
Vista SP1 Release Candidate. This will speed up Vista's response to
almost everything. Especially media files of all kinds.
2) MAKE SURE any "dual-channel memory" is installed CORRECTLY. I
found this one out by noticing that my memory was running at 333MHz,
rather than the speed I purchased. This was caused by the one who
built my machine, supposedly a gonzo tech for Pacific Solutions in
Portland. He put BOTH 2GB sticks into slots 0 and 1, Channel A,
rather than ONE in Channel A, slot 0, and ONE in Channel B, slot 0
(this is the CORRECT method of installing matched dual-channel
memory).
I suspected this was the correct installation method to have
dual-channel memory work properly under Vista, so I made a call to
their support for permission to open the case, who ALL advised me that
doing that would make absolutely NO DIFFERENCE to the speed of my
Micron memory. I assure you, I will NEVER purchase a machine from
them again, nor will I ever allow them to work on my machine again.
Once I opened the case and put the memory sticks in their PROPER
channels/slots, I gained an EXTRA half-point on my Vista Performance
Score.
It was at 5.0 (because it was NOT installed as dual-channel memory),
and is now reporting a VPC of 5.5. Additionally, Windows now displays
my memory speed at 667MHZ, as it is supposed to be, rather than
333MHz.
3) The BEST ways to speed up Vista:
a) Buy a modern computer, with a minimum of 2GB DUAL-CHANNEL @667MHz
(matched pairs) memory. Make SURE the builder installs this memory
correctly, as Dual-Channel. Otherwise, it will run at about half its
rated speed.
b) Install the newest drivers for all your devices. DON'T use drivers
which are NOT rated for Vista.
c) Save all downloads to a separate external drive.
d) The larger the HD is, the better Vista will run.
e) Give Vista and your user-programs a MINIMUM of 120GB. The more,
the better.
f) Do NOT separate your System and Data partitions, as was helpful
under DOS and earlier versions of Windows. It doesn't help at all,
other than (maybe) making your next install a little easier.
REMEMBER, the reason for separating system and data partitions was if
your System partition became corrupted.
If the drive itself goes bad, this will not help at all. In fact, if
your data and downloaded program installers were on that drive, you
will have lost it all if the drive goes bad anyway (unless you have
fairly-expensive recovery software and a free weekend to attempt to
recover the data.) Even then, depending on how damaged your data
partition is, you will still have a good chance of losing it all.
This is why I save my downloaded program files on an EXTERNAL drive,
rather than the same drive I installed Vista on. Additionally, I back
up all my user-data to my external drive(s) on a regular basis. This
makes it extremely easy to reinstall my entire system in an hour or
two, if necessary.
Of course, I could use something like Norton Ghost, and just reinstall
a disk image, in only a few minutes (maybe 45 minutes maximum -- I
have a 500GB system drive)
g) Purchase the BEST video card you can afford, making sure it has a
MINIMUM of 256MB of on-card DD3 memory (if possible) for EACH display
you plan on using with it.
("g", above is extrememly important, especially if you use two or more
displays at the same time. Otherwise, the on-card memory assigned to
your displays will be divided among all displays.)
h) If you find certain programs are slowing down Vista (and they
aren't provided with Vista), get rid of the suckers, and find ones
which don't. Of course, all programs will slow Vista down somewhat,
so never expect to get the full advertised speed of your devices and
programs.
i) FULLY defrag your System partition on a regular basis (at least
once per week).
j) Check for (and install) Vista upgrades on a regular basis, making
sure you use Microsoft Update. This will display ALL Microsoft
updates for installed Microsoft products . Otherwise, it will show
ONLY available updates for the OS itself.
Hope this helps someone...
Donald L.McDaniel
Please reply to original thread and newsgroup.
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