I'm rebuilding my box as a DAW again - last time around it was slow as molasses in January. Had too much junk on it. I need expert opinion on what needs to be installed on it and what may interfere. Also, any links to sites that may contain info about optimizing XP for DAW application are welcome!



Here's my list so far:

-Windows XP SP1a, plus hotfixes
-Video, Sound Card (on board), RME Drivers (HD interface), USB 2.0, and other drivers
-Norton AV 2004 <-- need advise how I should have it running
-Nero 6.x
-PowerArchiver
-Diskkeeper (sheduled jobs only)
-Cubase SX 2.0
-Sonar 3 Producer Edition
-FL Studio 4
-Audiograbber
-Ableton Live
-Buzz
-Rebirth 2.01
-Spectrasonics Atmosphere
-NI Kontakt
-NI Pro 53
-NI FM7
-Traktor
-Emagic sounddiver
-Novation BassStation
-Mozilla Firebird
-Java JRE 1.4x
-Steinberg Karlette
-Winamp
-Word viewer
-Adobe Acrobat Reader


List any concerns in the above application stack if you can see anything jumping out at ya.

Thanks!

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Proud member of the "Filthy Zionist" coalition

I would not suggest Norton AV, go with NOD 32 instead. It is unobtrusive and doesn't hang at shutdown. CNET gave it a higher rating than NAV.

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Business is very food.

^^^^ Thanks for advise... Do you have rtv scan (real time virus scan) enabled? I wonder how it affects performance?

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Proud member of the "Filthy Zionist" coalition

PM C mang

es

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Don't take me too seriously.

Well, I read that the background scan doesn't take up many resources and my own experiences can substantiate this claim.

I also recommend two other programs that may or may not be on your list.

A spyware program. I love Spybot.

and

A registry cleaner program. I love registry Mechanic.

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Business is very food.

I agree with Spybot but this system will not even touch the net. I will setup either a separate machine next to it or setup a vmware session to do the online surfing - i don't want any risks of getting the box fuxored with and infected or what not. Besides, all those temp files from browser frag the shit out of HD - so that means more defragging time (not that it really matters if it runs at night) but I still want to keep the box clean. this way I am not tempted to install any crap I pull from the internet on it. I got a 700Mhz box sitting collecting dust. So, it'll probably be my web browsing/junk/NAS machine .

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Proud member of the "Filthy Zionist" coalition

Hey. Well if you're saying that this machine will not eaven touch net, than you wont's need any antivirus program, or anything virus related. I have a machine just for music, and it's not connected to the net. I don't eaven have a network card in it, took that out as son as i updated my windows, and I did check for any viruses than but after that i uninstalled any programs that are not nessesary. If i wont to get something new on to the machine i ussually transfer it through a 512 meg mem stick from my sony camera.. I it's larger than 512megs I just burn it to cd, and check it for any viruses. It's good that way cause i backup the stuff at the same time. And so far the computer has been running really stable, unsing xp and sx 2.01.

^^^^Ah, the pleasures of having a dedicated machine - well, I'm too lazy to be arsed with moving mem sticks between machines, have flashbacks of "sneakernet" networks. Besides, you still have a chance of getting a virus on a stand-alone machine, especially if your primary net-connected machine has been compromised. I found out the hard way that viruses can be very sneaky. My primary machine was infected but Antivirus ( with latest engine and definitions) wasn't picking it up. When I rebuilt the box anew and reinstalled AV - it found (get this) 12!!!! different strains of virus on the same box. So, that's some scary crap. New viruses knock out your AV first and then infect the crap out of the system - so you don't even know it.

Other than that, are there any optimization articles floating around besides the ones I found on tomshardware and sos websites? Please assist!

danke!

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Proud member of the "Filthy Zionist" coalition

Check out this site, It has been very helpfull with setting up my xp for music.

http://www.musicxp.net/

awesome post dj dirty. very helpful. you deserve respect on this post. more people should post quality websites like this and share how you did. great job. I think etherium would also agree.

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Don't TECHNO for an answer

I highly recommend disabling all services you don't need.

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Business is very food.

I've seen that site before, and some those things are ones that I just did on my own. Some just didn't make sense, so I'd be wary before you radically change all of the settings on your OS.

es

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Don't take me too seriously.