Optimize playback / Improve performance
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Optimize playback / Improve performance
Make any changes to your system with some care, don't blindly follow advice including the advice below. The suggestions listed below don't (in general) look as if they will harm your system but ... take care.
The italics below are mine (MikeLacey) and are based purely on my experience. As I said, take care :-)
- Defragment your hard drives regularly. This will make for smoother playback and reduced latency. - Reasonable advice, unfragmented files are easier for XP to read
- If you only have 1 hard drive, partition it into 2 drives: 1 for the operating system and programs, and one strictly for audio files. - It's not clear how much resource this will save but it will probably not do any harm and could make your system easier to mantain.
- You can improve your DAW system by adding another hard drive that is used solely for audio files. - Reasonable advice as far as it goes in that it will separate audio file disk i/o and other disk i/o to some extent. Separate disk drives though, may not work completely separately unless you set them up to do so. Reads and writes on one disk may well block reads and writes on another. You will get some perfomance improvement but if your system really *is* i/o bound you need to talk to an expert and, probably, do more than just add another hard disk.
- By default, Windows 2000/XP logs the I/O traffic of your hard drive. It doesn't do anything except use up system resources. To disable it, go to the run menu and type diskperf -n and hit enter.(Note that there is a space before the minus sign). - Reasonable advice as this will save some CPU and disk resource. Not much though and you'll have to remember to do this each time you boot your machine.
- Visit www.musicxp.net for a listing of things you can do to optimize your Windows XP install for audio.
The suggestions below have come from various sources. I've arbitrarily missed a couple out because they seemed, to me, to not make sense or were too risky, or both. Read the warnings.
- Disable indexing - save CPU
- Open Windows Explorer, right-click the partition, select properties and un-check 'Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast searching'
- Disable themes - save RAM
- Set a fixed pagefile size - Reasonable advice - reduce disk fragmentation, but make sure you allow enough space for the pagefile
- Disable quick user switching - It's not clear how much resource this will save but it will probably not do any harm.
- Disable secondary logon - It's not clear how much resource this will save but it will probably not do any harm.
- Disable remote assistance - It's not clear how much resource this will save but it will probably not do any harm.
- Disable system restore - But make sure you have a convenient way to get back to a working system configuration.
- Set visual appearance to best performance. - Save CPU'
- Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Visual Effects Tab > Adjust for best performance
- Processor scheduling should be set to background services and not Programs. - Reasonable advice. DAWs, including REAPER, run processes in the background.
- Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Advanced Tab > Background Services
- Switch off desktop background image - save RAM
- Right Click Desktop > Properties > Desktop Tab > Background None
- Disable Screen Saver - save CPU and RAM
- Right Click Desktop > Properties > Screen Saver > None
- Disable Fast User Switching - It's not clear how much resource this will save but it will probably not do any harm.
- Start > Settings > Control Panel > User Accounts > Change the way users log on or off > Untick Use Fast User Switching
- Switch Off Power Schemes - It's not clear how much resource this will save but it will probably not do any harm.
- Start > Settings > Control Panel > Power Options > Always On > Turn off monitor and turn off hard discs to Never
- Switch Off Hibernation - It's not clear how much resource this will save but it will probably not do any harm.
- Start > Settings > Control Panel > Power Options > Hibernate > Untick Hibernation
- Disable System Sounds - It's not clear how much resource this will save but it will probably not do any harm.
- Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Sounds Tab > Sound Scheme to None.
- Do Not Map Through Soundcard - It's not clear how much resource this will save but it will probably not do any harm.
- Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Hardware Tab > (highlight your soundcard from the list) > Properties > Audio Devices > (highlight your soundcard from the list) > Properties, and check the "Do not map through this device" checkbox.
- Disable Automatic Updates -- Reasonable advice. Only do updates when you choose to.
- Switch off Automatic Updates by going to Control Panel, System, Automatic Updates and ticking the box labelled "Turn off automatic updating. I want to update my computer manually.".
- Disable Offline Files - Reasonable advice. Offline files are CPU intensive.
- Start > Settings > Control Panel > Folder Options > Offline Files > Untick "Enable Offline Files"
- Disable Hide Inactive Icons - save (some) CPU
- Start > Settings > Taskbar and Start Menu > Taskbar TAB > Uncheck "Hide Inactive Icons"
- Disable Automatic Desktop Cleanup Wizard - save CPU
- Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Desktop > Customise Desktop > Untick "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days"
- Disable NTFS Last Access Time Logging (NTFS Only) - save CPU Do this very carefully if at all, editing your registry using regedit is risky as regedit WON'T tell you if you've made a mistake that will stop your machine from booting, or worse.
- Start > Run > regedit > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CURRENTCONTROLSET > CONTROL > FILESYSTEM Add a new DWORD value - "NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate" (without quotes) and set the value to 1. Then reboot to make changes effective
- Disable Notification Area Balloon Tips - save some CPU Do this very carefully if at all, editing your registry using regedit is risky as regedit WON'T tell you if you've made a mistake that will stop your machine from booting, or worse.
- Click Start , click Run , type regedit , and then press ENTER. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced Right-click the right pane, create a new DWORD value, and then name it EnableBalloonTips. Double-click this new entry, and then give it a hexadecimal value of 0. Quit Registry Editor. Log off Windows, and then log back on.
