Windows XP Hacks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 97 Check Your PC's Pulse and Tweak It for Better Performance

Find out how well your PC performs, peer under
the hood to get diagnostic information, and get advice on tuning it,
with Sandra.

Do you know how well your PC is
really performing? How well do you think it does
compares to other systems? And do you have any idea of nitty-gritty
information like its memory bank layout, the current video refresh
rate, which currently running process consumes the most memory, or
which services you can most likely safely disable [Hack #4]?

Better yethow about using that information to get tips to get
your PC to run faster?

My favorite hardware analysis and tune-up program, Sandra
(http://www.3bsoftware.com), will
do all that and more. Sandra is shareware and free to try for 30
days, but if you use it beyond that you'll have to
buy Sandra Pro for $29. Sandra Pro also gives you access to about a
half-dozen analysis modules that Sandra doesn't
have, such as modules about your network or fonts.

When you first run Sandra, you may well be overwhelmed, because
you'll see several dozen icons, each of which runs a
different diagnostic and benchmark test when double-clicked upon. For
example, run the Memory Bandwidth Benchmark and Sandra returns
results similar to the results shown in Figure 12-5,
which measure the performance of one of my PCs. As you can see, it
measures the speed of your memory and compares it to other memory
chipsets. It also shows you the layout of your
motherboard's memory bank, including the exact
memory configuration in each bank. This is important when you want to
add memory. Figure 12-5 shows me that I have two
memory banks, each of which has a 128 MB memory chip in it. That
means if I want to upgrade I'm going to have to take
one of those chips out and essentially throw it away.

Figure 12-5. A memory bandwidth test and diagnostic for my PC

Sandra doesn't just give you diagnostics; it also
offers recommendations on how you can fine-tune your PC. In this
instance, it notes that my main system and my video system share
memory, which reduces performance, and suggests that I install a
video card with its own memory, as a way to improve performance.

The fastest way to get an overview of your systemas well as to
get comprehensive advice on fine-tuning every part of your system,
not just one subsystemis to run the
Performance Tune-Up Wizard. It analyzes
your entire system and offers tips on tuning up each subcomponent, as
shown in Figure 12-6. For my PC, it offered about a
dozen tips, including which background services I might want to
disable, ways to make my video system perform faster, among other
advice.

Figure 12-6. Sandra offers system-wide tips for fine-tuning your PC's performance

12.4.1 See Also

Aida32 (http://www.aida32.hu) is
a freeware diagnostic tool that gives you comprehensive information
about your system.