Tips For Setting Up A New (or Like New) Computer
Har_Har_the_Pirate
Join Date: 2003-08-10 Member: 19388Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2003-08-10 Member: 19388Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">just need tips</div> Im thinking about reformatting my computer soon, wiping the board completely clean buying a few new parts, I plan to continue useing windows xp. I just need suggestions for what i should do to set it up so it runs smoothly. A few questions
1 How do i format my harddrive so the whole drive is set up in NTFS format? (i heard that converting it does not do the same thing as have it start fresh in NTFS)
2 What programs should i delete as soon as i have windows xp setup?
3 Should I use the windows xp format cd/windows reinstall that came with my computer?
4 What are some quick/easy performance enhancers that i can use
5 Does my use of 2 different qualities of ram really bottleneck my system?
6. Should the use of PortForwarding.com help me to be able to use p2p(and blizzs update program?(i know that that crap will screw up ur computer, doesnt mean i dont wanta use it javascript:emoticon(':p')
smilie
My computer specs are as follows
Amd Athlon Xp 2100
Field Value
Motherboard Biostar M7VIB
768 mb ram
Not posting video card cuz i dont want people to say THATS YOUR PROBLEM
80gb 7200 hd
dvd writer
cd writer
floppy and so on
1 How do i format my harddrive so the whole drive is set up in NTFS format? (i heard that converting it does not do the same thing as have it start fresh in NTFS)
2 What programs should i delete as soon as i have windows xp setup?
3 Should I use the windows xp format cd/windows reinstall that came with my computer?
4 What are some quick/easy performance enhancers that i can use
5 Does my use of 2 different qualities of ram really bottleneck my system?
6. Should the use of PortForwarding.com help me to be able to use p2p(and blizzs update program?(i know that that crap will screw up ur computer, doesnt mean i dont wanta use it javascript:emoticon(':p')
smilie
My computer specs are as follows
Amd Athlon Xp 2100
Field Value
Motherboard Biostar M7VIB
768 mb ram
Not posting video card cuz i dont want people to say THATS YOUR PROBLEM
80gb 7200 hd
dvd writer
cd writer
floppy and so on
Comments
Poor you.
<!--QuoteBegin-Har Har the Pirate+Mar 27 2005, 09:06 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Har Har the Pirate @ Mar 27 2005, 09:06 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->1 How do i format my harddrive so the whole drive is set up in NTFS format? (i heard that converting it does not do the same thing as have it start fresh in NTFS)<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The windows installer will ask you what you want to do, it's relitivly easy.
<!--QuoteBegin-Har Har the Pirate+Mar 27 2005, 09:06 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Har Har the Pirate @ Mar 27 2005, 09:06 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->2 What programs should i delete as soon as i have windows xp setup?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Um, windows... <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
If you are installing from the Windows XP CD, not some crappy Dell/Compaq/HP/whatever restore CD, then nothing. If you are, most everything, it's all crap.
<!--QuoteBegin-Har Har the Pirate+Mar 27 2005, 09:06 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Har Har the Pirate @ Mar 27 2005, 09:06 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->3 Should I use the windows xp format cd/windows reinstall that came with my computer?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
F*** no.
<!--QuoteBegin-Har Har the Pirate+Mar 27 2005, 09:06 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Har Har the Pirate @ Mar 27 2005, 09:06 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->4 What are some quick/easy performance enhancers that i can use<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Install linux, don't touch Windows <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> But, if you are deadstruck on using Windows XP, there used to be a guide on readyroom.org with a lot of good information.
<!--QuoteBegin-Har Har the Pirate+Mar 27 2005, 09:06 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Har Har the Pirate @ Mar 27 2005, 09:06 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->5 Does my use of 2 different qualities of ram really bottleneck my system?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Probably. the slower of the sticks will bottlenech the better of the two.
<!--QuoteBegin-Har Har the Pirate+Mar 27 2005, 09:06 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Har Har the Pirate @ Mar 27 2005, 09:06 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->6. Should the use of PortForwarding.com help me to be able to use p2p(and blizzs update program?(i know that that crap will screw up ur computer, doesnt mean i dont wanta use it <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What the hell is PortForwarding.com? If by that, you mean forwarding ports through your router/firewall, then yes.
Windows is such a resource hog, and it has **** memory managment, astually, I don't know if you can call what it has 'managment' at all...
Quake 3
Tribes 2
UT2004
Americas Army
Enemy Territory
MOHAA
Doom 3 (although I don't have it installed at the moment.)
That''s the games I run natively, with wine/cedega I can run...
Steam With HL/mods and sort of HL2 (It runs slugishly, and I'm working on fixing that, as it should run better than it does)
Starcraft
World of Warcraft (as soon as I renew my account, but it runs <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->)
BF 1942
BF Vietnam
Star Wars BF
And plenty more OSS games.
And I have a Radeon 9000, you didn't say your video card, but everything you listed is better than what I have <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
:edit:
But in all, if you want to play a lot of Windows based games, then stick to windows, I just prefer linux for a lot of other things, and the games I have run just fine.
Quake 3
Tribes 2
UT2004
Americas Army
Enemy Territory
MOHAA
Doom 3 (although I don't have it installed at the moment.)
That''s the games I run natively, with wine/cedega I can run...
Steam With HL/mods and sort of HL2 (It runs slugishly, and I'm working on fixing that, as it should run better than it does)
Starcraft
World of Warcraft (as soon as I renew my account, but it runs <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->)
BF 1942
BF Vietnam
Star Wars BF
And plenty more OSS games.
And I have a Radeon 9000, you didn't say your video card, but everything you listed is better than what I have <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
:edit:
But in all, if you want to play a lot of Windows based games, then stick to windows, I just prefer linux for a lot of other things, and the games I have run just fine. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
woah, didnt realize that games ran that well on linux, im might give it a try, what version would u reccomend?
It really is a pain in the **** to get set up though, and only the native games run very well for me at the moment.
I used to use Mandrake and cedega ran the games better than it does now, but I'll fix that. The native games do run better than their windows counterparts though.
I used to have Steam set up to run very close to windows speed, and many other people can get games to run better than I have.
I'm liking it so far. I wouldn't recoment it untill you read up on it some more, read a book or somthing, I read linux for dummies a few years back, now it's old and mostly outdated, but I learned from it <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I was mostly being sarcastic about you using Linux though if you have to ask how to format the hard drive to NTFS. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I was mostly being sarcastic about you using Linux though if you have to ask how to format the hard drive to NTFS. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
haha, well, peopel told me that just converting ur hd to ntfs could actually screw up ur files, and ur computer wouldnt run as fast unless u set it up before hand, i was just curious, but linux does seem a lil daunting for someone as lazy as i
1 How do i format my harddrive so the whole drive is set up in NTFS format? (i heard that converting it does not do the same thing as have it start fresh in NTFS)
As long as you format during the reinstall (and select NTFS when prompted), the drive will be NTFS. The converting you have heard about is when people upgrade from Win 98 without a clean format, so the drive is converted from FAT32 to NTFS. You still end up with a NTFS drive, but because the files were orginally written to the disk under FAT32, it's not as clean as a total reformat of the drive.
2 What programs should i delete as soon as i have windows xp setup?
If you have a Microsoft Windows CD, then you will be fine. If you're reinstalling from another type of CD (Dell, Compaq, etc.) then there will be a bunch to kill, but more info is needed.
3 Should I use the windows xp format cd/windows reinstall that came with my computer?
Yes, if you're clean formatting, it's the only way to install windows.
4 What are some quick/easy performance enhancers that i can use
For this, if you have a clean installed system, it will run pretty good. It's more a matter of making sure that spyware and adware doesn't get installed. Therefore, run windows update, get a spyware and virus scanner and run them regularly. Also make sure to d/l the latest drivers rather then using the ones that came with the hardware on the CD. Beyond that, there are tons of tweaking guides out there, simple google will find sone.
5 Does my use of 2 different qualities of ram really bottleneck my system?
No, all your ram will run at the speed of the slowest ram installed. So your higher quality ram is running at the speed of the lower quality ram. Leave it all in there thought. In general, more but slower ram is better then less but faster ram.
6. Should the use of PortForwarding.com help me to be able to use p2p(and blizzs update program?
I have never heard of this and so have no comment.
Hope that helps.
Diazo