Windows boot times improvement

[will101]

Powered off, both my systems draw between 2W & 9W. It usually sits low then spikes every 5-10 secs or so.

I have generally avoided using hibernate or suspend in the past as things would go screwy with XP occasionally. I usually advise people to shutdown completely each time for least problems but if Win7 does it problem free I will give it a try and maybe revise my recommendations!

To the OP, I have found a vast improvement especially in shutdown times with Win7 over Vista. Granted my Vista install is over 2 years old but in comparison it makes like a slug.

[dangel]

Scary. I guess I should power it off at the mains each night then!

Swings and roundabouts - doing so means you'll need to replace the MB battery a bit sooner than normal

A lot of machines leave the USB ports powered (handy for charging yer phone) etc.

[Agent]

I'll grab the kill-o-watt for some exact figures later, but the +5 standby is always active on modern PCs.

[Zak33]

Boot time improvement:

If you use SATA drives, ALSO use a SATA optical drive... not EIDE.

[watercooled]

Mine uses about 3W on standby - the same as shut down

And no, that number of processors option should be left unticked as the computer uses all cores by default.

[TheAnimus]

Also don't forget to partition your drive with care.

You can reserve a faster part of the disk for the system files if your canny.

(actually saying that, anyone have any links to before and after performance figures?)

[watercooled]

As always, I recommend http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...on-theory.html

[no_numb]

Some interesting things here sorry I'm kind of busy at the moment but I will try and read more in depth on friday.

Thanks for the information.