Ableton Forum

Can anyone suggest the optimal systems settings to have for maximum power to Ableton?

Im looking to optimize my setup to get the most out of it. Im also considering re-installing XP Pro and partitioning the drive to have half for ableton and half for internet/word processing etc. but im unsure how the do this successfully.

Ive done searches of the forums and there seems to be scattered information on how to reduce CPU load, and given it is a hot topic with Ableton at the moment, it would be good to see all the info in one thread.
Any tips for saving CPU power would be appreciated.

Thanks!


My setup:

Athalon 1.3, 640meg RAM, Edirol PCR-A30, BC RICH electric guitar, Windows XP Pro SP1 + SP2, Ableton 4. Lots of Vst's and Vsti's.

bump

Cmon, im sure you guys know how to minimise CPU load.

http://www.musicxp.net/tuning_tips.php

this is the best site I've found.
root

Jcroot, interesting link. Though will doing all that stuff actually help improve performance? I have to admit I am a bit "scared" of changing stuff around in my PC and Laptop

Regards

You know, I don't think disabling all those background services makes a difference. I disable the task manager, firewall, that's about it. I think setting your performance priority for background services makes a difference, because it gives ASIO priority. That's about all I tweak on my new smokin' machine. Back in the Pentium I/II days I tweaked like crazy, but nowadays I don't mess with it that much and I get awesome performance and stability. I do however have a dedicated DAW, so I don't use the internet or have antivirus running, that will definitely mess with performance/stability. I would recommend to anyone working with alot of audio tracks to get a separate dedicated drive for your audio files. I have my swap file on my dedicated (SATA) audio drive.

I see in your sig you have an Athlon 1.3, I would check to see what the biggest CPU your mobo will support and put one of those in it. CPUs are so cheap these days there's no reason not to get the fastest your motherboard can support.

milfbait wrote:You know, I don't think disabling all those background services makes a difference. I disable the task manager, firewall, that's about it. I think setting your performance priority for background services makes a difference, because it gives ASIO priority. That's about all I tweak on my new smokin' machine. Back in the Pentium I/II days I tweaked like crazy, but nowadays I don't mess with it that much and I get awesome performance and stability. I do however have a dedicated DAW, so I don't use the internet or have antivirus running, that will definitely mess with performance/stability. I would recommend to anyone working with alot of audio tracks to get a separate dedicated drive for your audio files. I have my swap file on my dedicated (SATA) audio drive.

I see in your sig you have an Athlon 1.3, I would check to see what the biggest CPU your mobo will support and put one of those in it. CPUs are so cheap these days there's no reason not to get the fastest your motherboard can support.

i think what alot of the background services take from a computer isn't necessarily cpu stealing, but mostly the ram required to run those background services. and none of us want services that we don't use occupying ram that we DO use. =)

i agree that a cpu upgrade is where to look first,
but i doubt his board could go any higher than a 1.4ghz, as thats where the non-"XP" Athlons stopped.

you can get relatively affordable cpu/motherboard/memory combo's today. Athlon XP 2400 with Syntax motherboard, and 256MB DDR ram for $130US (LINK), often times this is just as cheap or even less expensive than a new processor. For instance, if your motherboard only supports 200mhz FSB, the highest you can go is a 1.4ghz AMD Athlon T-Bird and you won't find those at 200FSB for less than $149 because there are far fewer of them available than the huge amount of surplus Athlon XP's that are available.

Hmmmm......i use Live "live" & in the studio & i've never really "tweaked" much(even had the screensaver & firewall running!) but i still got good performance!?

Thanks a lot for all the help everyone!
Some great ideas there.

though, i think ive now got my eyes set on a 'Laptop' future , rather than upgrade my PC box

sorry for the late reply but I lost track of this thread. I don't know how much all the tweaks helps but I know that in aggregate I got much better performance - could have been due to only one or two changes or to more. I know that cpu power is not in excess on my rig - 1.4 g on a pentium 4. I'm using a lot of hogs though - reaktor mainly, and impulse reverbs that tend to drain it right down to graphics slowdowns - which hurt. The best thing that I've found with the larger drives avaliable now is to just run two separate partitions - that way you can make all the performance adjustments on your daw partition and not worry about all the other services.
root