Guide: How to make OS3.x faster and more efficient. (Updated)

[Hyperspeed]

Well I'm going to be a bit more critical here...

I would not use ANY of those patches you have listed there AmigaMance.

If you spend your day dragging Workbench windows about and fragmenting your hard disk I suppose they're great but give me the 'Official is Best' philosophy any day.

Some programs like 'Frogger' demand FBlit but then that movie player is the slowest load of crap there is anyway - better get RiVA(+GUI). Things that patch to this level invariably make your system hideously unpredictable and for very little benefit.

I burn CDs and do a lot of printing, multimedia, emulation, surfing and gaming - I need programs to get along with each other. When I do something to my hard disk I would much rather use DiskSalv (as programmed by a Commodore engineer) than use some 3rd party file system and it's wobbly utilities.

I'd say getting a decent hardware accelerator or graphics card is better than trying to dress mutton as lamb (and making the system untrustworthy at the same time).

If you don't have a GFX card then your best speedup will be by giving the ChipRAM a break. Add more FastMem, keep screen colours 6-bit or below, screenmodes to 15Khz NTSC or therabouts and scale down your icons using Iconian (stripping away any NewIcons bumf in the tooltypes).

Unless you're running a huge database or streaming video then I'm not sure dumping Fast File System is worth the hassle and risk either - particularly if you have a SCSI card with a fast hard disk or Flash drive.

I know I'm sounding like your Grandma here but Cyberpatcher, MultiCX and Executive 2.0 are the only patches I'd pay money for (the latter of which was rated 98% by Amiga Format if I remember correctly).

[Hyperspeed]

I think the urge to improve and meddle is an instinct all Amigans have so this cannot be surpressed, I mean MUI is a bit of a hack but I'm finding this quite a comfortable environment now.

Lots of diehards hate MUI but it gives you nice ways to present applications and a handy snapshot button to keep windows in place (there is a tool on Aminet called 'Snapper' which does this for non-MUI windows though).

Maybe all Amigans should strive to have a workhorse machine reserved for stable operation and a tinkering machine for experimenting with different patch combinations. A sort of quarantine system!

:-D

EDIT:

by AmigaMance:
Yes, Executive really enhance the multitasking ability of AOS. If "you" tend to run more than one CPU intensive program at the same time, it's invaluable.
If you, on the other hand, want to focus all of your horse power to one CPU intensive task only, it's better not to run it, since it consumes some CPU cycles itself and this will lead to a marginal slow-down of that task.
Personally, i have add it on the toolsDaemon's menu and i run it only when i need it.

Yeah I find this... best switch off Executive if you want to play Quake or watch MPG videos.

[Hyperspeed]

Hmmm, some interesting tips for beginners:

· By typing avail flush into a command line/shell window you can flush all unused libraries from memory and display your largest available chunk of free RAM.

· By double-clicking the volumes button in a file requestor you can refresh the list (just in case a file is being constantly written to or you are multi-tasking)

· By using MultiCX you can utilise a 3rd button on Wizard 560-dpi mice to either use Shift or cycle between windows or screens quickly (without needing the Left-A M sequence. You can also use shortcut combinations such as Ctrl-Alt B to start a screen blanker instantly.

· Right-A C will copy text, Right-A X will cut text and Right-A V will paste text. This useful short cut will speed up your productivity, especially when cutting & pasting URLs in IBrowse.

· Using the PD program SysSpeed v2.6 can often help you identify where your system is slower. Get saved modules available on Aminet which contain info on other peoples' Amiga performance and use these as a benchmark to improve your own system. Sometimes you can identify jumper settings that need altering, sometimes you can update firmware or sometimes a software enhancement will make a difference.

[Hyperspeed]

Personally I wouldn't bother with all that crap.

Here's the 68040 library though: http://aminet.net/biz/p5/68060-V44_3.lha