Want Tips on Optimizing the Unholy Fuck Out of a Weak Ship

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Ship Specs:

CPU: P2 400MHz (OCing isn't an option)
HDD: One 10GB Maxtor 5400RPM C:> ; one 60GB Maxtor 5400RPM D:>
RAM: 192MB PC133 (want to upgrade to 256 PC2700 if that's possible)
OS: Win2K SP3 (plan on reinstalling soon)
Video: GeForce2 MX 200 with Generic nVidia Drivers (yes I know, weak as hell. But it's good for 60-70FPS on a really good day)
CD: One 52x CDROM F:> ; One 48x CDRW Burner E:>
Other: Standard 3.5 Magnetic Disk Drive A:>
Internet: D-Link Ethernet Card with Cox Cable Internet (no problems with that whatsoever)

My problem is this. Every time Windows does something or another program so much as breathes on the CPU or HDD C:, my FPS in Quake 3 goes from 20-50 FPS to 2-10FPS. Whoops!! My other programs I usually have running are Mozilla, Trillian, Winamp (I love my MP3s during Quake!) and at least one Explorer window. I also have AVG Antivirus, Kerio Firewall, and SpywareGuard running to keep me safe from un1337 h4x0rs. Before anyone screams at me to stop all my stuff, I monitored CPU usage for a while and noticed the biggest two CPU wh0res are Mozzie and (yup you guessed it!) Explorer. Trillian needs very little processor time, and the other programs barely register if at all. The only time Winamp ever hogs the proc is when I accidentally hit a RIAA-boobytrapped MP3 (the ones that screech some ten or twenty seconds into the song, completely destroying my audio hunting/tracking capability anyway).

What would the best course of action be? Close the Explorer windows, kill everything but Quake and Kerio, update my video drivers, start upgrading hardware like RAM, maybe even Get A Real Computer™?

Actually, considering Dell and Gateway are currently in a bloody price war ($400 Pentium 4, anyone?), that last option is looking quite attractive...

[Hotfoot]

Whatever you do, don't buy a gateway. They will gleefully fuck you sideways with a chainsaw as they take your money while offer some of the crappiest tech support imaginable for your trouble.

[Vendetta]

Ship Specs:

RAM: 192MB PC133 (want to upgrade to 256 PC2700 if that's possible)

Won't be. Different modules, 184 pin rather than 168.

What you might want to consider is creating a new user on the computer to use exclusively for gaming, and configure it as minimally as possible. Take almost everything out of the start menu "Startup" folder, and HKEY_CURENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run, leaving only your firewall.

Then when you log on to that account, go to task manager, processes, and terminate the explorer.exe process. Run programs manually through either the 'run' dialog (winkey+R) or the task manager.

[lukexcom]

Also, goto administrative tools>>services and shut down and disable anything and everything you absolutely, positively don't need. Not printing from the computer? Shut down and disable Print Spooler. Not running a network? Shut down things like telnet, server, remote registry, remote access, computer browser, ect. Oh, also shut down and disable the system restore, automatic updates, netmeeting, messenger, fast user switching compatibility, routing and remote access, telephony, smart card....there really is a lot of crap on the 2k/xp O/S's that most people will never use.

Once I clean those things out from my computer, and get a clean boot with no 3rd-party programs running, and I disconnect my computer from my network, I can get Windows XP running at only 71 megs or so.

[Pu-239]

Do you even run linux? (despite your antiMS comments I kinda doubt you do). There's a linux version of Quake. Yes, X is slow, but you can kill all daemons, except essential ones, and only run the X server and a terminal to start quake from, without a window manager. If you run X from kdm,gdm, or xdm, make a file in your home directory named .xinitrc , then add the command to run quake in it. I haven't ever run it this way, since KDM allows a "failsafe" login option, which only runs the xserver and a terminal, without a windowmanager.

[namdoolb]

Exploratory changes are the way to go...

Try killing Mozilla, Trillian and Winamp seperately and together to see how much effect it has on your framerate and game quality.

I assume your mp3's are on the 60GB D: drive, right?
do you mind me asking how the HDD's and CD drives are connected; primary, secondary, master, slave....

It's entirely possible that Winamp is the root of your evils, it may not demand much cpu usage, but it soaks quite a bit of memory, and accesses the HDD frequently.

[Sea Skimmer]

Whatever you do, don't buy a gateway. They will gleefully fuck you sideways with a chainsaw as they take your money while offer some of the crappiest tech support imaginable for your trouble.

I don't see why people knock Gateways tech support, there the only company I've ever gotten any useful information from and it took ten minutes rather then six hours.

[Coaan]

Winamp

Please for the love of...well...anything...tell me that's not winamp3?

[aerius]

If your video cards and other stuff can take it and your motherboard has the option, start playing with the jumpers. Instead of running at the standard 4x100 MHz to get the 400Mhz CPU speed, try running at 3x133MHz. The CPU stays at the same speed while the motherboard & memory run faster. Depending on the motherboard this may put all the PCI, AGP & other slots out of spec and crash things, but it's worth a try. I'm happily running a P2-400 at 3x133 and it's worked great for years, well, actually it was a P2-350 but it didn't stay that way for long.

[Hamel]

Get a router and uninstall your software firewall. Keep your antivirus turned off unless you really need it. In fact, if you're super careful with what you download, you will only want it installed occasionally for the odd virus check.

RIAA only sabotages music from modern popular genres, which 99% of the time suck shit like a scat addict. Nothing I've downloaded has been fake or fucked with by them.

[lukexcom]

RIAA only sabotages music from modern popular genres, which 99% of the time suck shit like a scat addict. Nothing I've downloaded has been fake or fucked with by them.

Yeah, I kind of noticed that they don't give a rat's ass about Techno and the stuff out of Europe....well, maybe except for Tatu.

[Vertigo1]

I don't see why people knock Gateways tech support, there the only company I've ever gotten any useful information from and it took ten minutes rather then six hours.

Wow, you're one out of many that have ever had a good experience with Gateway. A very good friend of mine worked at a call center that did tech support for Gateway, Dell, and a couple other companies. You wouldn't believe how many calls he got about Gateway and how much crap wouldn't work right, etc.

My problem is this. Every time Windows does something or another program so much as breathes on the CPU or HDD C:, my FPS in Quake 3 goes from 20-50 FPS to 2-10FPS. Whoops!! My other programs I usually have running are Mozilla, Trillian, Winamp (I love my MP3s during Quake!) and at least one Explorer window. I also have AVG Antivirus, Kerio Firewall, and SpywareGuard running to keep me safe from un1337 h4x0rs. Before anyone screams at me to stop all my stuff, I monitored CPU usage for a while and noticed the biggest two CPU wh0res are Mozzie and (yup you guessed it!) Explorer. Trillian needs very little processor time, and the other programs barely register if at all. The only time Winamp ever hogs the proc is when I accidentally hit a RIAA-boobytrapped MP3 (the ones that screech some ten or twenty seconds into the song, completely destroying my audio hunting/tracking capability anyway).

Dude, the general rule for gaming is that you don't want anything running in the background unless you ABSOLUTELY need it. You can kill Trillian and Mozilla with no trouble. After all, you're not surfing the net and IM'ing people while playing Q3 right? As for the firewall, get yourself a hardware router if possible. They're pretty cheap these days. WinAMP isn't even a memory whore so that can still run. (as long as its the 2.x version) Personally, I run 2.68 while I play Freespace with no trouble at all. As for explorer....its always been a memory whore. No getting around that other than to close that explorer window. (which will only help just a LITTLE on Explorer's memory hogging) You don't need spyware tools running 24/7. A weekly scan is fine for anyone. Hell, a clean install of 2k would do you a world of good. Just make sure you block off port 135 before you even hop online or you get MSBLASTed. Be sure to slap on SP4 this time before hopping on WU.

[phongn]

Is DMA enabled on your hard drive?

Also, try dropping the process priority of various other apps when gaming or boost Quake's priority. Winamp lets you change it in preferences; everything else requires that you go into the Task Manager.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Thanks guys. I'll try that. Don't worry, Winamp's 2.91. As for Gateway's tech support: Let's just say I have people calling ME for Tech Support (my dad just asked me to fix two badly Sabotaged, Trojaned, Virused, Spywared, AOLed, and generally quite thoroughly PhuX0r3d computers. Mission Accomplished for the most part, although I'm sorely tempted to just nuke his big comp and put Win2K on it. Then we went to the levee in his Chevy and drank whiskey and rye...) 'Nuff Said!

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Is DMA enabled on your hard drive?

Also, try dropping the process priority of various other apps when gaming or boost Quake's priority. Winamp lets you change it in preferences; everything else requires that you go into the Task Manager.

DMA: Yup!

Can't go into TM when Quake's on. Ungfriendly way of changing the screen rezz.

Exploratory changes are the way to go...

Try killing Mozilla, Trillian and Winamp seperately and together to see how much effect it has on your framerate and game quality.

I assume your mp3's are on the 60GB D: drive, right?
do you mind me asking how the HDD's and CD drives are connected; primary, secondary, master, slave....

It's entirely possible that Winamp is the root of your evils, it may not demand much cpu usage, but it soaks quite a bit of memory, and accesses the HDD frequently.

Yup, the D drive has my MP3s, and it's been freshly defragged. No measurable boost in performance. It's the C Drive that chatters like a freezing man's teeth. I think I'll try fragging that.

C: Primary Master. D: Primary Slave. E: Secondary Master: F: Secondary Slave. Then there's A:

RIAA only sabotages music from modern popular genres, which 99% of the time suck shit like a scat addict. Nothing I've downloaded has been fake or fucked with by them.

Yeah, I kind of noticed that they don't give a rat's ass about Techno and the stuff out of Europe....well, maybe except for Tatu.

Good point. I still think fux0ring up an MP3 to overload the CPU should rightfully be considered a DoS attack. The RIAA needs a violent, grisly death.

[YT300000]

Arck. Einhander, get a new machine. Der Fragmachina (or however you spell it) has a cool name, but is totally obsolete.

[Vendetta]

No getting around that other than to close that explorer window. (which will only help just a LITTLE on Explorer's memory hogging)

Terminate the entire process.

Run cmd.exe as a shell program.

Only uses 1.4MB of your RAM, as opposed to Explorer, which uses 22.


(Edited, as changing the NT shell is trickier than the '9x one.)

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Arck. Einhander, get a new machine. Der Fragmachina (or however you spell it) has a cool name, but is totally obsolete.

Will do.

Der Fragmachine IV will R0X0R j00r S0X0rZ, trust me

EDIT:

[phongn]

You can use the START command with a flag to execute a process at a certain priority.

[YT300000]

Arck. Einhander, get a new machine. Der Fragmachina (or however you spell it) has a cool name, but is totally obsolete.

Will do.

Der Fragmachine IV will R0X0R j00r S0X0rZ, trust me

I doubt it will stand up to the might and power of THX-1138.

[namdoolb]

C: Primary Master. D: Primary Slave. E: Secondary Master: F: Secondary Slave. Then there's A:

Might help to make D: the secondary master, and E: the primary slave.

But to be honest, it's an awful lot of messing around in the guts of your pc, for a fairly small amount of optimisation. It might help you, considering that you're accessing both HD's simultaneously, but personaly I'd only bother if nothing else fixes your troubles.