mrbigmouth502

Vista wasn't necessarily a bad OS, it was just released way too early. They should have waited until at least 2008 to release it, as consumer PCs were finally getting to the point where they could run it somewhat acceptably. Vista got its bad reputation from being preinstalled on underpowered machines that really should have been running XP.

I finally got around to installing Windows 7 on my main desktop recently, and it seems to be working well, but I would like to know if there's a way to enable desktop composition while using the classic theme. I can't stand the way the Aero theme looks, everything is just so big and ridiculous, while the classic theme actually has some sophistication to it, and with small icons enabled for the taskbar, I can make it look almost just like 2000, which had my favorite UI of any version of Windows. Anyway, I don't care about Aero peek or any of that other stuff, I just want to enable composition so I can offload some of the work to the GPU, and leave my CPU some more breathing room. I can use desktop composition with any theme I want on Linux, so why not on Windows? I've heard that Windows 8 can do composition for its classic theme, and Vista has more desktop composition features enabled for its classic theme as well, but I'm not interested in using either version. I'm sure someone out there has found a way to hack it in. Even if it's just an Aero theme that looks like classic...

Recently, a friend of mine decided to give me his old machine, so I've taken the opportunity to make a few upgrades to my desktop. I swapped my old Pentium Dual Core E6300 for a Core 2 Duo E8500, and my 512MB GDDR3 Radeon HD4650 for a 1GB GDDR5 Radeon HD5770, as well as adding an additional 4GB of RAM. Even though the board from my friend's machine was newer, I decided to stick with my old P5B vanilla since the newer board had only two RAM slots, as well as way fewer overclocking options (not even vcore control!). Now, I've managed to put a pretty good overclock on this CPU, but I haven't managed to get it as far as the Pentium. I was able to push the Pentium to 3.98GHz, with the RAM, 4GB of Corsair XMS2 DDR2 clocked at 945MHz. I don't remember the exact RAM timings I used, or the voltages I had assigned. Currently, I have my CPU running at 3.74GHz. My RAM consists of 4GB of Corsair XMS2, and 4GB of some random Kingston PC2-6400. I only have the ram clocked at 784MHz, but with really tight timings. If I go any further than these speeds, I start experiencing errors in Mprime, the Linux counterpart of Prime95. It doesn't matter if I loosen up the RAM timings or crank the voltages up, the buck seems to stop here. Now, I know that P965-based boards struggle with having 8GB of memory installed, and they also struggle with 45nm chips, but I wonder if ANYONE would know how I can squeeze a little more horsepower out of my setup, preferably without downgrading anything. I'm big on console emulation, and I like being able to run resource-intensive emulators like the BSNES accuracy core on RetroArch, and Dolphin. Unfortunately, these two programs aren't compiled to work with XP x64, so I have to run them on Linux, which requires more power than they should need. Back when I had my previous hardware, and I was running Zorin OS 8 Gaming, I used to be able to run BSNES accuracy fine, so I don't understand why it would struggle with my current hardware and Xubuntu 14.04. It could be my video driver, as neither of the two fglrx drivers, nor the open source driver provide any decent performance. For reference, here's my jumperfree config from the BIOS: AI Tuning: Manual CPU Frequency: 392 <--- I believe this is the base FSB DRAM Frequency: DDR2-784MHz <--- I have it set to run as PC2-5300 PCI Express Frequency: Auto PCI Clock Synchronization Mode: 33.33MHz Spread Spectrum: Disabled Memory Voltage: 1.95v CPU Vcore Voltage: 1.1500V <--- Actually runs a bit lower than this due to vdroop; I tried the pencil mod for it but it didn't really work FSB Termination Voltage: 1.300V NB Vcore: 1.55V SB Vcore (SATA, PCIE): 1.50V ICH Chipset Voltage: Auto Here's my CPU config: CPU Ratio Setting: 09.5 <--- this is the max C1E Support: Disabled Max CPUID Value Limit: Disabled Vanderpool Technology: Enabled <--- This is the old name for Intel's virtualization tech; allegedly you can increase performance by turning it off, but I leave it on so I can use VirtualBox and VMWare Player. CPU TM Function: Disabled Execute Disable Bit: Enabled And finally, here's my memory/northbridge config: Memory Remap Feature: Enabled Configure Ram Timing by SPD: Disabled DRAM CAS# Latency: 4 DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay:4 DRAM RAS# Precharge: 3 DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge: 11 DRAM Write Recovery Time: 6 DRAM TFRC: 42 DRAM TRRD: 10 Rank Write to Read Delay: 10 Read to Precharge Delay: 10 Write to Precharge Delay: 11 Static Read Control: Faster Initiate Graphic Adapter: PEG/PCI PEG Force x1: Disabled I hope that's enough information. I've been wracking my brain trying to push this machine further, because I know I have it at the bleeding edge. I should probably just buy a new PC, or at least a new mobo, but I'm broke, and I need to figure out how to get more out of what I have.

Does anyone here have a working link for the SB700 AHCI drivers? I'm trying to get XP Pro SP3 going on an Acer Aspire 5253, and I don't want to run it in IDE mode. EDIT: Never mind, I found a working driver in this post http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/135840-integration-of-amd-ati-sb7xx-textmode-raid-ahci-drivers-on-an-xp/?p=1006413 Thanks Fernando 1!

A friend of mine recently acquired an Acer Aspire 5253 laptop, and requested that I install XP on it instead of Windows 7. I have managed to find XP drivers for most of the devices in this laptop, but one thing I have been having trouble finding are the AMD SB700 AHCI drivers, or really any of the other chipset drivers. Does anyone here know where I could find them? Thanks.