The Logic Off Topic list

With a system spring clean in mind, I checked out Kevin Perry's DAW
Tuning Tips site: 
http://freespace.virgin.net/kevin.perry/PCMusic/tuning.htm
(he contributes, I believe, to the U.K. magazine 'Sound On Sound')
   As it was hotly debated a few weeks back on the LUG, I took the
liberty of sending him some of the thread for maybe some clarification,
which he kindly attempted, below.
   As to the original LUG posters, I'm afraid I've no idea who said what
as I've cut & pasted too many times but I guess it will be in the
archives.

Ade
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> 1) "Don't mix SCSI and EIDE/UDMA on the same system"
>
> This doesn't make sense at all. In our studio, we use SCSI and UDMA
> together all the time without any side-effects.

Yes, it can and does work.  But I've also seen machines slow down when
both IDE and SCSI devices are used and also one SCSI card which totally
stopped one IDE channel from working - and it's easier not to mix them
with respect to IRQs etc!

> 2) "Reduce the AGP Aperture setting to 4MB"
>
> Sounds very strange... why on earth reducing the address space of AGP
> should *improve* graphics speed? I tested this with both WinTune and
> 3DMark 2000. Both 2D and 3D speed suffered serious damage. Some tweak!

We really care about 3D speed in a DAW.  And it does increase
performance on a lot of card/driver combinations.  He's lying.
Or at least hasn't seen as many systems as I have (I ended up saving my
last employer about \ufffd7000 in new PCs because of this tweak).

> 3) "Disable all shadowing and caching of ROMs"
>
> Shadowing increases speed, so it beats me why it should be disabled?

No it doesn't - it would only affect real mode OSes (ie. DOS) and anyway
only makes a difference for very old hardware - he should find out more
about PC hardware before making blithe statements.  There have also been
incidents (some time ago admittedly) where shadowing caused hardware
incompatibilities.  Caching of ROMs can slow down Windows boot time -
OK, not drastically important.

> 4) "Disable power management (APM and ACPI)"
>
> I wouldn't do this on BIOS level. Better to let Windows handle this.

Windows can't cope with APM on a good day - disable it everywhere you
can!

> 5) "Disable seeking the floppy at boot-up"
>
> ?????

Because the noise is annoying when the head seeks!

> 6) "Windows 95B has a smaller footprint (disk and memory) than Windows
> 98, uses memory more efficiently, is faster and more stable"
>
> Total BS. By the way, for all Win95 users out there: Win95 doesn't
> support AT ALL hard disks bigger than 32 GB!!!

The memory one is simply true: check it yourself: Windows 98 uses more
swapping than 95 - it's simple fact.  It is faster to use because of the
lack of I.E. integration. I - and a lot of sys admins I know - will go
for 95 or NT and will avoid 98 like the plague because it's less
reliable. 
I don't know about the 32GB limit - I don't think that's true (FAT32 is
FAT32) but I wouldn't swear to it: the books I've seen on 95/FAT32 don't
list this limit.

> 7) "Format the boot disk (operating system and applications) using
> FAT16"
>
> Nope. FAT32 is a safer bet for boot partition also.

'Safer'?  Why?  FAT16 also gives you maximum compatibility.

> 8) "When installation is complete, delete config.sys and autoexec.bat
> from the root of the C drive "
>
> I'd rather use my own, optimized files instead, thank you.

That comment is irrelevant - so would I, but the Windows default ones
load things that aren't needed and I've seen clashes between real-mode
CD drivers (for example) loaded in config.sys and Windows, forcing
Windows into compatibility mode.

> 9) ", do not install the Windows 95C (USB and AGP support) update - AGP
> cards work perfectly well and performance is slightly better without it"
>
> Bogus.

Funny - I'm running 3 machines with AGP cards under 95b with no AGP
patch. I even occasionally run a 3D game on one of them (works fine). 
Try it and see.

> 10) "Remove unnecessary drivers such as audio and video compressions
> CODECs, MCI CD audio drivers, etc Multimedia"
>
> Why? They don't eat any resources, if they're idle.

Because they get loaded into memory hence take up resources.

> 11) "Trim your ini files: it is possible to reduce these two files to
> virtually nothing, as shown below for system.ini"
>
> Guaranteed way to blow up your system....

That's an example, not a 'one size fits all': it's not a guaranteed way
to blow up your system if you know what you're doing.

I'll point out that I use all the tips myself (although I have just
increased my AGP aperture to 64MB, but only after updating the video
card drivers - Matrox G200), so I know they work.

---
Kevin Perry
Sonic Energy Authority
http://www.mountaingrill.co.uk/
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