Quick Guide to OS Bench Optimisation & Tweaking.
Hi Guys,
I've been asked a few times to post some tweaks I and others use so below I've put together the tweaks I use when preparing to 2D bench. I must stress not each tweak will work and its totally dependent on what OS and hardware you use as it can vary a bit. This is where many hours come in your end to play around with these tweaks to suit your current bench setup before doing a fresh install and benching with the knowledge you have gained from trial and error.
1. Fresh install of your preferred OS – Google around and search for Tiny XP, Tiny Vista & Tiny 7. For this guide, I use Tiny XP REV.9 for 2D benching.
2. Create 3 partitions on the HDD – 1x 10024MB (10G
, & 2x 4096MB (4G
partitions. Install the OS on the 10GB partition.
3. Once installed, go to themes and choose the Silver Luna wallpaper.
4. Go to System > Advanced > Performance – Choose Best Performance.
5. Go to Power – Choose the highest performance level.
6. If using Vista/7, turn off UAC.
7. Disable indexing on C: Drive.
8. If using Vista/7, go to Programs > Windows Features – Turn off Games, Media Features, Remote Differential, Tablet PC, Gadgets, XPS.
9. If using Vista/7, run WEI.
10. Restart.
11. Go to System > Admin Tools > Defrag – Turn off Defrag on C: Drive.
12. Install HWBOT 2D Applications – CPU-Z (latest available), wPrime v1.55, Super Pi v1.5 XS, & Hexus Pi Fast.
13. Install Ccleaner (latest available).
14. Go to Run (Search) > Type regedit > Local Machine > System > Current Control Set > Control > Session Manager > Click Memory Management – Choose Large System Cache & change value 0 to 1. Choose Disable Paging Executive & change value 0 to 1.
15. Restart.
16. Go to Run (Search) > Type msconfig > Choose Diagnostic (Debug) Startup/Mode.
17. Restart.
18. Start Ccleaner and run the cleaner. Do not scan registry as this may harm your scores.
19. Restart & Done.
There you have it. By doing all the tweaks above, you should gain a lot better times/scores out of benchmarks like SPI, PI Fast, wPrime & CPU-Z. Some people prefer to install updates, motherboard and GPU drivers after installing Windows. I prefer to keep it all bare.
Super Pi v1.5 XS 1M & 32M Tweaking
Next up is Super Pi v1.5 XS. This is a favourite of many including myself. You will loath SPI 32M at first but you will soon love it.
After applying all the tweaks above, please follow the steps below. Make sure you are running XP Pro 32-bit (Tiny XP preferred).
1. Go to Run (Search) > Type msconfig > Boot > Advanced – If you are running SPI 1M, choose Max. Memory > 104 & tick PCI Lock (note, you can only choose 104 when running XP). If you are running SPI 32M, choose Max. Memory > 600 & tick PCI Lock.
2. Restart.
3. Make sure you've changed the Registry (regedit) values (see Step 14 above).
4. Prepare the OS for the "Copy Wazza" tweak. This isn't needed for SPI 1M, but is a vital tweak for SPI 32M that you must do. Some prefer the easy application way such as OCX Tweaker or the Bench Tec Toolbox which you can both download off the net. Others (like myself) prefer to do this the manual way.
5. For the manual way, go to Run (Search) > type fsutil file createnew c:\largefile.txt 1000000
6. Go to C: Drive root and find the file "largefile.txt".
7. Create a new folder in C: Drive called "WAZZA" (for your reference).
8. Move the txt file into the folder.
9. Move the folder to D: Drive (the first 4GB partition).
10. Open the folder > Copy the file 500x > Select All > Copy > Paste 8x. You should have a folder approx. 3.5GB in size once completed.
11. Open Ccleaner & run the cleaner.
12. Restart.
13. Open Super Pi v1.5 XS > Expand the window from the top to the bottom of the screen (needed for SPI 32M). Open Task Manager, and D: & E: Drives (the second partition). Note – Only open the two partition folders for SPI 32M.
14. Go to Task Manager > Processes Tab > Super_Pi_Mod.exe > Right Click > Set Affinity to CPU 1 > Set Priority to Realtime. Note – Do this for both SPI 1M & 32M.
15. Go to SPI window and run 16K x2. Once done, your set to run 1M.
16. For 32M, do as above but have 32M ready to go but don't click OK to run it. Leave it for now.
17. WAZZA TIME! Go to your opened D: & E: Drive windows. Move (not copy) the WAZZA folder from D: root to E: root. Once done, move it back again so you have the WAZZA folder back where it started.
18. Close the folder windows quickly.
19. Go to Task Manager > Processes Tab > Kill explorer.exe
20. Close Task Manager.
21. Click 32M OK to run.
22. Once SPI 32M has finished > Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to load Task Manager > Click File > Run > Type explorer
23. This will bring back Explorer so you can load any and all verification windows like CPU-Z to screenshot and submit your score(s) to HWBOT.
By doing these tweaks for SPI 1M & 32M, you should shave off seconds, especially the WAZZA tweak for 32M. With practice, you should be able to memorise this and do this very quickly. At first it looks hectic, but you'll soon get the hang of it.
BIOS Optimisation
This is all very subjective and won't apply to everyone as each motherboard is different. Please use this as a point of reference only.
1. Turn off all Green & Energy saving features.
2. Disable LAN.
3. Disable USB Legacy Support.
4. Disable IEE 1394.
5. Disable e-SATA & unused SATA Ports.
6. Disable Audio.
7. Disable C-States, C1E & Phase Controls.
8. Disable Turbo Boost, EIST & Spread Spectrum.
9. Disable HT (Only if the application doesn't need it like CPU-Z, SPI, Pi Fast etc).
10. Choose two cores active (Only if the application doesn't need it like CPU-Z, SPI, Pi Fast etc).
11. Save this as Profile 1. This saves you time if you need to clear CMOS.
12. Save & Restart.
I hope you find this whole guide fruitful. You should get more points from now on if you follow these simple steps which means more boints for the team!
Thanks.
Linear Mode
