Windows (7) Setup and Tweaking Guide for Benchmarking

When it comes to benchmarking, at least in some competitive form, every little bit helps. The best place to start that is with your OS. The following information is specific to Windows 7, however the general principal applies to XP and Vista.

After a nice, fresh, clean install I only installed one other program which is certainly not needed for benchmarking and normally not running during a benchmarking session. I did want to mention it though because you will see it in the images that are shown below. The program is called LogMeIn. The reason I have this installed is to allow me to tweak my OS and work on tutorials when not at home. The rest of time it is disabled. Now onto some tweaking.

Step 1

Create two partitions on your hardrive. The first partition needs to be big enough for your windows installation and whatever benchmarking software and drivers that MUST be installed. The second partition will hold all of your non-installed programs and any validation files and screenshots that you take of your bechmarks. You could also use a USB drive instead of the second partition as another option.

Step 2

Install Windows, Drivers, and all available updates.

Step 3

Goto the following website and pick your OS (for this example I am using Windows 7) then follow all the recommendations in the "Tweaked" column. If this is going to be a machine you use everyday you may want to choose the "Safe" column and skip Step 4.

http://www.blackviper.com/

This is similar to what your running services would look like (if using W7):

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 957x750.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 955x748.

Step 4

There are some additional services that can be disabled. Again if you plan to use this machine for everday use you may want to skip this step. The services are listed below and all are stopped and set to 'Disabled' except for windows update which is set to 'Manual'.

Desktop Window Manager Session Manager
Multimedia Class Scheduler
Print Spooler
Security Center
Superfetch
Themes
Windows Audio
Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
Windows Defender
Windows Firewall
Windows Update (Manual)

Now the services you have running should look like something below:

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 856x570.

So with all of these tweaks we have reduced the running services from 58 to 26 (this does not include the LogMeIn services that you will not have). That is over half.


Step 5

Now that we have all of the unnecessary services disabled it is time to get rid of some Windows Features. So lets head to the Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows Features on or off.

By default it should look something like this:


You want to turn all of them off except the ones that are still checked below:



The only reason I left IE8 is simply because it gives a default browser for 3DMark to use when uploading results if I have an internet connection at the time. You can go ahead and remove this as well if you are not planning on having a connection when you bench.

Step 6

Now the tweaking is done it is time to add your benchmarking programs. ONLY install the programs that require it. For instance 3DMark requires you to install their programs to work, however SuperPi does not. If your benchmarking program gives you a choice between one that needs to be installed and one that does not, do not choose the installation. The less bloat in windows the better.

For those programs that do not need to be installed just place them on either the second partition you made or your USB thumbdrive. Place a shortcut on the desktop so that you can easily run them.

Step 7

Once you have everything installed and ready to go create a 'System Image' in case your OS becomes corrupt due to a failed overclock. To do this goto Start -> All Programs -> Maintenance -> Backup and Restore. On the left you should see 'Create System Image'. From there just follow the prompts, select where to store it (external drive maybe) and let it do it's thing.

If you ever need to resotre you can just use your Windows disc. It has a restore from image option. This will save you alot of time if something goes wrong.

Conclusion

I hope this has been easy to understand and informational. If anyone has any suggestions or comments that would improve this in any way please feel free to let me know.