OK, my main computer is now my MacBook Pro. It does everything I need from a computer. Internet, email, work, photos, music, movies, etc...

Now, I also have a computer I bought about 2 and a half years ago (March 2007) which was initially a top end PC and it can still play a lot of games at medium to high settings.

The spec will soon be...

Asus P5N32-E Sli plus mobo
2GB 667MHz RAM
E6600 C2D CPU @ stock speed
1 NVidia GTX 260 (55nm) GPU
1 NVidia 8800 GTS (dedicated PhysX card)
2 320GB 7200RPM HDDs in raid 0

Recently I was thinking of buying a games console like a PS3 or XBox 360 but then I thought I should upgrade my PC (hence the new GPU) and use that as a gaming only PC.

Now, it hasn't had a reinstall for a while (or ever) but I only have Vista Home Premium 32bit.

I have a few problems with it like programs that haven't uninstalled correctly etc... driver crashes and so on. I also need to update the mobo BIOS.

Once I have done all this and have a fresh install of Vista and new BIOS and GPU what's the best way to set up my PC so that it is as quick to turn on as physically possible and so it is as dedicated to gaming as possible. (i.e. no Aero crappiness etc...)

I know with XP there were a few things you could do to take start up processes down to a minimum but I'm not sure with Vista.

Thanks for any tips or links.

Right, first off you'll want to disable Indexing so it doesn't thrash the fook out of the HDD. Then, when its been run atleast twice, enter into a command prompt

to turn off last access. Useless really.

Then enter

to turn short filenames off.

Now, go to Control Panel, fonts and delete the fonts that you'll never need or use.

Win key + R, MSCONFIG and disable everything from the startup tab, then go to services, click hide MS services and disable what you don't think you'll need.

Go to System, click Advanced System Settings, and get to swap file. You want to click manual config, and set the minimum and max size to about double your RAM size. EG, on my PC its set to 4096mb, as I have 2gb RAM.

Now, Win key + R again, and type in Regedit. Ctrl+F and put

in. Then change LargeSystemCache and DisablePagingExecutive's values to 1.

Thats what I do on my PCs, and it makes quite a considerable difference.

Oh, and make sure you download CCleaner, and run a full scan on a regular basis. Helps keep your PC crap-free and running sweet. And defragment like once every month, and scandisk about the same.

Hope this helps you.

Thanks for the tips!

I've done everything you said (apart from the fonts as I'm not sure how to get them back if I need them).

I'll let you know how it goes!

Nice one, should be able to tell the difference it makes.

Does the PC stay on for long periods (like torrenting or something?) If so, you could scedule a defrag for it after its been idle for a hour or so.

Also, get that C2D overclocked! You'll be surprised just how much difference it makes. Also, fire up RivaTuner and overclock the GTX260.

I still need to do a reinstall of Vista though.

I think I'll do it this weekend.

Just order the 260 it'll arrive on Monday (do you reckon I should wait until after I stick the new card in to reinstall)?

RE OCing the E6600... the mobo has "AI overclockability" where I can select a percentage. Or should I go for full on customisable settings? ATM it has the stock HSF, should I get a better one?

Get an Artic Freezer 7, best £15 you can spend, the get it OC'd manually. Should hit 3GHz easy (3.6Ghz is possible)

W00t! Mega GHz's by the ov3rcl0ckz0rz ftw!!

Yeah, put the new card in, then reinstall with a fresh set of drivers. There's new WHQL drivers out for it, so bung them on a separate partition or USB stick before running the Windows disc.

The AI overclocking is pretty poor on most of these boards. You are better off getting into the BIOS and inching the FSB up carefully, benchmarking and stress testing as you go.

for a good fast bootup, use "ccleaner>tools>startup" and "control planel>admin tools>services" to disable any crap you dont need starting every boot. keep readyboost enabled, as this facilitates readyboot, which cuts startup times loads. get defraggler and set it to defrag "c:\windows\prefetch" whenever your PC is idle. this folder holds all superfetch/readyboot data, and fragmentation of it will slow boot times, and app launch times.

another trick i learnt is to use a .bat file to delay the startup of any large applications at system boot. this helps the responsiveness right from the off as it allows the OS to load in files without bulky programs stealing hard drive access time. i use the following example:



replace [delay length] with how long you want it to delay, in seconds, [application location] with the programs command prompt, and [arguments] with any postmodifiers the program might have for special startup behavior, such as -boottime or /startup. you can find these in the listings on ccleaner

place a shortcut to the .bat in your startup folder and it should bring up a DOS-like prompt with a countdown in, wait for the countdown to finish and the listed programs should launch

Can't wait!

I take delivery of my new GTX 260 tomorrow

I've already done the Vista reinstall so all I have to do now is stick the new card in!

In the words of Borat, "Woowaweewa!"

I just got the new card and put it in!

Installed GRID and the default settings was everything on ULTRA! Played it and OMG! It's amazing!

Mirror's Edge still crashes when I turn PhysX on but that's an issue with the game not with my PC.

I'm just downloading Terminator Salvation (came free with the card) and that has PhysX also. My 8800GTS is now a dedicated PhysX card I'll see how it goes with Salvation. If that crashes also then I'll try swapping for the other 8800GTS instead as it could be the card?

So glad I decided not to buy a console now!

Ooh! I haven't tried Crysis yet!

I would try the GTX 260 on it's own personally. Mirrors Edge never crashed for me with Physx on and even Cryostasis runs ok on the one card.

What PSU do you have? Are the two cards getting enough juice?

Yeah, the PSU should be fine.

I'll try taking off the 8800GTS.

Very cool!

Putting the PhysX onto my GTX260 worked!

Mirror's Edge at 1680x1050, Highest settings, 4xAA and PhysX on and it plays like a dream!

Thanks for the advice guys!