Advanced Performance Options

[Mark Haupt]

I've got XP Home SP1 running on a P4 2.2Ghz with 512mb of
DDR ram and 60 gb 7200 rpm hard drive.

I've read conflicting accounts of what the two best
performance settings should be for CPU priority and memory
on the Performance -> Advanced tab.

I've got both set at Programs.

Does anyone have the definitive answer?

[grahamilton]

Depends on what the computer's primary task is, if you use to computer for
general computing tasks like internet, office apps, gaming ,etc, leave them
set on programs for best performance.
If your computer is used as a some sort of server and only time a person
physically uses the computer is for maintenance tasks, you should change
Processor Scheduling to background services. Setting the Memory Usage
setting to System cache will allow programs and the O.S. to use all but 4MB
of the physical RAM as a system cache, not very useful for general computing
tasks, but works wonders if a large number of files is being used or
transferred over a network from that computer.
So basically if you spend most if the time physically using the computer
leave them set on Programs, but if the computer is mainly accessed through a
network, i.e. nobody ever uses it physically, but is accessed from another
computer over a network, background services & system cache settings would
be of some benefit.



> I've got XP Home SP1 running on a P4 2.2Ghz with 512mb of
> DDR ram and 60 gb 7200 rpm hard drive.
>
> I've read conflicting accounts of what the two best
> performance settings should be for CPU priority and memory
> on the Performance -> Advanced tab.
>
> I've got both set at Programs.
>
> Does anyone have the definitive answer?