I was wondering, i have a friend who has an alienware with around the same specs as my custom pc i built. his runs games faster than mine does. i know that alot of pc gaming companies trickout their winxp's that they install on the systems. i wanted to know if anyone had and idea or website i could go to that has info like this for xp? i've tried ones from tweakxp and gamexp to no avail. i plan on partitioning my hdd and putting a second winxp on the partition for gaming only. my first partition is for audio/video editing (although its a fresh install atm with nothing but the os). if anyone can help it would be great. i would just like to learn how to remove things i dont need, say for gaming, or audio/video. i noticed here at my work they removed alot of things, like snap-ins and these pc's are fast at just loading regular apps.

Thanks in advaced,
Ron Jackson

Sorry fogot to mention, the 2nd xp will ONLY BE FOR GAMING. so i won't need much else. i will be putting just games on it.

Is it an older alienware to be built with the AMD Athlon XP 2400? I'd say googling this puppy would be the best way to go about it. I doubt the entire config is completely the "same". Luckily your friend has the advantage of buying from a company that can test which components work the best/most efficient with the other hardware where when building a pc, you can't. First step though is to turn off all that xp "eye candy".
System >Advanced >Performance Settings >Adjust for best performance.

Windows Xp Pro x64
AMD Sempron 3000+ 1.8ghz
1 Gig Ram pc2700
Nforce 4 Motherboard
Radeon X700 256mb
Realtek Ac 97 Onboard Audio
Thermaltake 430W Power Supply

It's an amd 64 3000 with 2gb ram.
and i have an amd 3000 also w/2gb of ram.

as far as all the eye candy, i havent used that in years. i always use classic look and i have minimal desktop icons as well as apps running in the background and on the taskbar.

Forgot again! the pc i have listed here is one of my surfing the internet, play music pc's. i have too many to list. the 64 is for music and video production. but i want to use it for gaming too.

How about listing your specs & your friend's specs...I'd be willing to bet there's a difference, & that difference is what makes ALL the difference!

ASUS A7N8X-X
Athlon XP 1800+
8.5 x 200MHz
1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7
Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB
WinME/WinXP Pro SP2

Make sure that the second windows doesn't connect to the internet, that is unless you want to install an antivirus/firewall, or atleast make sure you install all the windows updates (I would say there not needed if its JUST for gaming) you sound like you know all the usuals like, defrag, remove any backround applications.

As far as having the same system, you fail to mention what your soundcard, hard drive speed, graphics card, ect. Get what I'm saying?

But man I just had a trip to the alienware website, there not as wonderful as I used to think, you could easily build the systems there trying to sell, but cheaper. Guess once you learn to build a pc you kinda have a bad opinion of any premade companies.

As far as customizing windows for the very best gaming performance, I've used most of the tricks in the book and to be honest it never more than gets me like a few frames more a second, or no improvement at all. If only windows 98 was built better the system resources it uses are so minimal compared to XP.

Windows Xp Pro x64
AMD Sempron 3000+ 1.8ghz
1 Gig Ram pc2700
Nforce 4 Motherboard
Radeon X700 256mb
Realtek Ac 97 Onboard Audio
Thermaltake 430W Power Supply

Here's some advice that applies to anything you do with computers, gaming or anything else.

#1. The more code or tasks your system runs that isn't related to the functionality of your application, the slower the application runs.

This means you should eliminate as much as possible any programs, codes, or features that don't relate to your application.

Right click my computer, select Manage, and scroll down to Servies. Go down the list of services, and disable anything you don't need. This is sometimes tricky if you don't know what they do, but there are certainly dead giveways.

For example, Windows Zero Wireless Configurator. If you don't have a wireless card, you can obviously disable it.

Google what you don't know, see if it's necessary. Guarantee you there are several services running on your machine that you don't need.

Run MSConfig, click selective startup, and uncheck anything you don't need to run at startup.

Turn off frills in the OS that are unnecessary. Why do you need a screen saver when you have power features? Do you need wallpaper? Do you care about the menu fadings and what not? If not, turn them off!

#2. The less code in on your system the better.

Remove unnecessary components within windows. Uninstall any applications on your machine you don't need. This frees hard disk space up, but it also often removes their entries in the registry, which reduces the amount of memory and time it takes for the system to find what is needed in the registry.

3. Google "optimize Windows XP gaming" for more configuration tweaks.

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Thanks heropsycho for the info. i have tried tweaking my services before, sometimes for the better, some for the worse. as far as my system specs, i have: asus A8N-SLI deluxe, AMD athlon 64 3000+ venice core, 2gb corsair, 160gb seagate sata, bfg 6800GT, benq 1620 dvd writer.
My friends pc is pretty much identical to mine. its not the frame rates im worried about, it's when we both run with settings at high, i get alot of hiccups with game play, we even tried a lan game just to make sure it wasnt my connection. I also agree about the price of all these gaming pc's. they offer you nothing you cannot build yourself for half, if not sometimes, fractions of the price. when he purchased his alienware, he paid $2,400. i paid 1,300 for the identical system that i built myself.

you could try xplite http://www.litepc.com/

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