Experience Optimizing Windows XP for Audacity?

[KenO]

Would like to dedicate an older standalone P4 Windows XP PC for only Audacity.

Hope someone already has done this. Searched the Forum but found nothing.

Appreciate any tips or suggestions on things that have really been effective.

Thanks

Ken

[steve]

Use a fresh install of XP SP2.
Ensure that all hard drives are formatted NTFS.
Thoroughly check the reliability and stability of the machine.
Install plenty of good RAM and thoroughly check it for errors.
Keep the number of background applications and processes to a minimum.
Give priority to background services over programs. (Start > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Processor Scheduling)
Defragment the hard drive regularly.
Don't connect to the internet other than to update your anti-virus, and do that manually.
Ensure that everything is updated to at least SP2, then disable Windows automatic update. If you decide to go for SP3 you should manually update Windows periodically, but personally I'd stick with SP2.
Have a second hard drive for back-ups.
Ensure that DMA is enabled for all drives.
If you have on-board sound, disable it in BIOS and put in a decent music sound card.
If you have on-board wi-fi, disable it in BIOS.
Don't be tempted to install unnecessary programs.
Don't be tempted to install hundreds of VST plug-ins.
If you're unsure if you want a program or plug-in, test it on a different computer, then decide whether you really need it or not.
When the computer is set up as you want it, make a disk image of the drive (a "ghost" image).

There are other tweaks, but I think I've covered the important ones.

[justinburnett]

You might also consider switching the machine to Linux. You could almost certainly find a version that would use less system resources than XP, leaving more for Audacity to work with.