Vista - Music Production Computer-Performance

Computer-Dell Inspirion 530: I530-110B
OS-Vista Home Premium 64bit (Tweaked)
CPU-Intel Q6600 Quad Core
Memory- 6 Gigs
Music Production Computer: Does not connect to internet. Does not need or have Antispyware or Antivirus. Does not need to be updated. Strictly music produciton/mixing/mastering

Anyway, for music production puposes.
Running the Recording Program, Sonar 7 or others
Plus all the plugin effects like Compression, Eq, Reverb,
You know, Music production purposes.
In System Properties>Advanced Tab>Performance Settings Advanced Tab> Under Processor Scheduling
Should I adjust for best performance of "Programs" or "Background Services"?
This is what I read on Swee****er.com, a place you buy music gear.

Processor scheduling determines which types of processing are given a higher priority by Vista. The default setting is to devote more to your programs. This seems good on the surface; however, audio drivers run in the background, and NOT as separate programs. In order to get the most performance from AUDIO gear, it is best to set your processor to handle background services first.

Does this hold any truth?
Thanks for the help guys.

PS- Ive already done most of the other tweaking, such as disabling certain services, and other things. This is the only thing that makes me wonder.

Hello Dozer, and welcome to the vista forums,

the Background settings on windows OS is more related to desktop Vs Server set-ups but as the statement made on the site is basically true then it may well be that running in Background Process mode may improve performance in your specialised role.

I would have to assume that the statement made is from their experience but as each system is unique the only way to truly know in your case, is to give it a try change the setting and use it for a while and see if there is a perceivable improvement.

The correct way would of course be to create a benchmark for your machine. EG process a particular file both with and without this setting and compare time taken, but I have found that often it is the perceived performance that really matters in these things

Hi Dozer,

It only holds true for XP and doesnt apply with Vista

Vista includes a new Audio Scheduling service (Multimedia Class Scheduler) that runs all audio before other programs (even under extreme load)

You only really need "Background Services" set if the PC is being used as anything other than a desktop machine If the program your using is itself lagging you just set a higher priority under Task Manager

Steven

Hello Dozer, welcome to Vista forums!

It is recommended that SP1 is installed on the machine; there are just too many fixes to ignore its potential usefulness to the system, that is if it's not already installed.

You can d'l and save it from here SP1 for 64-bit Vista (just burn it to disc) this way you won't have to worry about connecting the machine to the web.

Keep us informed!









Later Ted

Allrighty thank everyone. Yes I have SP1.
I was checking out this software by Lavalys called Everest Ultimate Edition.