What have YOU done to tweak your system? (Hardware + Software)

[isuru]

I'm looking to fiddle with my computer and tweak it. I was wondering what you guys have done to tweak your own systems. Both in terms of installing software to tweak your computer and tweaking the hardware itself.

For me all I've done is fiddled around with tweaking windows with a program called TweakUI. But I'm hoping to get some ideas from you guys

 

[DaejangNim]

overclocked fsb, ram, cpu, and video card. as for software mainly just mtu tweaks ^^

 

[Jeff H]

Mostly minor things, such as:

- mods to system.ini:

[386Enh]
Com2Irq3Buffer=1024
ComBoostTime=1
DMABufferSize=64
PageBuffers=32
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1
LocalLoadHigh=1
EMMExclude=C000-CFFF
PagingDrive=D:
MinPagingFileSize=256000
MaxPagingFileSize=256000

[vcache]
MinFileCache=8096
MaxFileCache=65536
ChunkSize=512


- MTUSpeed to improve web work via dial up connection

- check DMA box on hard drive in Device Mgr.

- set fixed swap file (see [386Enh] section above)

- change Typical role of this computer to Network Server

- shut off Search for new floppy drives each time your computer starts

 

[Budman]

1 of the best tweaks you can do is add more ram & install Windows2000.

 

[bacillus]

<< 1 of the best tweaks you can do is add more ram &amp; install Windows2000. >>


hey Budman, that's 2 things!

 

[Budman]

If you install ram &amp; win2k in 1 day,would'nt this qualify as 1 major tweak?

But yeah you're right it's 2 tweaks,i stand corrected.

 

[MichaelD]

LOL @ Budman! I'm still toying w/that idea myself...still reading way too many posts like &quot;my game xyz crashes under W2K..what can I do?&quot; I'm sticking w/98 for awhile. Who knows? Maybe XP will turn out to be decent...I'll wait for you guys to test it first though

Oh yeah, back to the topic.

Uh, I run 98SE, so I have had to do lots of stuff to keep it happy.

Get to 256kb RAM=huge diff from 128kb
conservativeswapfileusage=1 Reg tweak
Reserve IRQ for vidcard in Bios
Disable bootup floopy seek in Bios
AGP aperture (sp?) size to 128kb in Bios
Typical computer use=Network server
All graphics settings maxed-out
Disable V-sync
Religiously check WindozeUpdate page (g'head, laugh) and install all security patches and &quot;service pack&quot; type updates
Check my system regularly at DSLReports and make suggested changes. Got that one down. Score a &quot;0&quot; on the advanced security check. No response from any ports.
OC CPU

Most folks use that TweakUI thing, which I've heard is awesome...I've never been inclined to play with it though. So far, so good. I'm mostly a gamer, so keeping my old and piddly Win98 OS happy is of paramount importance. Good luck.

 

[Budman]

If you guys are waiting for XP to solve all your Win2k problems then you'll be dissapointed.

If it doesnt run well in Win2k it will not run in XP any better.

I tried the latest RC1 and the same old gaming bugs are still there,by default all games still run at 60Hz.

There are workarounds &amp; tweaks to fix it but YOU still have to fix that,i dont understand why Win2k &amp; XP cant run games at the same HZ as your desktop (2d) settings. Win9X does it fine so why cant XP &amp; 2K.