Optimizations for computer

T

tpb

New member
Quick question I am currently using a dell with xp for my hard drive recording. My wife got me a ACER with dual processors 4 gigs memory, this computer is much more than I currently use and will enable me to run dual moniters. My question is it has Vista installed. I know there are optimization guide to help XP run more efficiently is this necasary to do with Vista. This computer will be using using sonar 7Xl for recording with a toneport interface for mic and guitar and a PCR 300 controller for synth. I do not use the computer for anything but recording and store all files on a seperate portable harddrive. Just want to make sure I get it setup right as I have played with XP only for the last few years.
Appreciate any and all assistance
Thanks Tim
 
Personaly I'd strip it and put XP on it but that's just me. I have a lot of stuff hooked up to my comp and vista doesn't like to play nice with a lot of it. It's a very overbloated operating system and I'm sure there are sites out there where people are stripping the useless stuff out of the sytem to help it run a bit better.

All you can do is try it and see if it fits your needs. If it doesn't you can buy xp for buttons which would be buttons well spent in my case but YMMV.
 
The best advice I can offer is try it and see. If it works great if not you may need to to get XP but I wouldn't worry about that until I knew for sure that the current system didn't do what you need it to do. Since you already have vista installed it costs you nothing to try it out. Assuming right off the bat that it won't work means you have to buy XP (at your expense) re format the computer and reinstall everything which is a pain in the ass.
Sonar 7xl is set up to run on vista 32bit according to cakewalks specifications page.

I think a lot of the negative hype about windows Vista is no longer justified (12-18 months ago a whole different story)
Personally I have been using Vista on my own machines for over 6 months now and have really not encountered any problems that I haven't also seen on XP based systems.
 
Bristol Posse said:
Personally I have been using Vista on my own machines for over 6 months now and have really not encountered any problems that I haven't also seen on XP based systems.
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The main problem with Vista is...I don't know enough about how it works to go hacking chunks of it out.

Boot up Vista and open task manager...check how many services and processes are running and how much RAM it takes to run the OS. My XP boots up with 8 processes running on 82MEG of ram :eek: Vista needs a gig of RAM to tick over smoothly and when you start running a bunch of VSTi's and CPU hungry reverbs you're gonna want all the spare RAM you can muster...4GB in the system or not.
 
Thanks

I have been looking at different sources this morning to make sure my gear had vista patches which they all do now, Also found a strip guide to lean the machine Like I said I only use it for recording so I do not need most of the applications. I appreciate everyones assistance and will let you all know how it works
Thanks Tim
 
LemonTree said:
The main problem with Vista is...I don't know enough about how it works to go hacking chunks of it out.

Boot up Vista and open task manager...check how many services and processes are running and how much RAM it takes to run the OS. My XP boots up with 8 processes running on 82MEG of ram :eek: Vista needs a gig of RAM to tick over smoothly and when you start running a bunch of VSTi's and CPU hungry reverbs you're gonna want all the spare RAM you can muster...4GB in the system or not.
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Exactly, the OS itself is a resource hog.
 
buckkillr8 said:
Exactly, the OS itself is a resource hog.
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I have mixed feelings about this

XP uses less resources but it was designed in an era when a pentium 3-4 and a gig or less of RAM and a 4800-5200rpm HD was the norm. On a 1995 Ibm/Amiga 386 XP would have been a disastrous resource hog however.

Vista comes from an era where new machines are now shipping with 2-4 cores, High end rigs can be had with 8 cores and 3-4 gigs of RAM and 7200 -10000RPM HD is the norm in 32 bit systems. The hardware has changed and the developers are using more resources because more are available to the average user

So as an OS it uses more resource but most new systems currently have way more resources than anyone actually needs, 200-400% more CPU power, 400% of the RAM running at about double the bandwidth (Triple if you have an i7) and almost double the HD Speeds with much improved read/write performancemore
I don't advocate putting Windows on a 5 year old PC as it will be noticeably slow but on a new system it really doesn't present any problems and a lot of the headaches in downgrading to XP just really isn't worth the major hassle for a virtually un noticable performance increase (again on a new system) so now that Vista isn't so glitchy I don't see a lot of reason to change unless you are running software that absolutely doesn't run on vista

All of that said however anyone looking at 64 bit hold off on Vista. I have a dual boot sytem with a BETA version of windows 7 and it looks a whole lot better than Vista for the long term
 
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LemonTree said:
you said it yourself.... Vista is so good they're scrapping it for windows 7 :rolleyes:
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Yeah true enough.
However I don't see a good reason to backstep to XP on a newer system preinstalled with vista any longer

If you're running into CPU performance issues with the very high number of VSTs you are trying to run on a home recorded then your problems probably run deeper than a more resource hungry OS :p

Windows 7 is also more resource hungry than XP
 
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