Got the Port Power season tickets in the mail yesterday. There’s one for my sister as well. She’s going to work overseas at the end of the year, so I’m really looking forward to spending a little time with her before then. Going to be a good game this weekend against the Lions!
I fired up Task Manager on the Media Centre, and would you believe it … this 3Ghz HP-preloaded machine was booting up with 245Mb of used memory. 245Mb!! I’ve had XP SP2 systems booting up in less than 100Mb.
Where’s all this extra crap coming from? Well for example, XP SP2 (and XP Media Centre, obviously) automatically start the Wireless Zero Configuration service. Great, right… except for machines that don’t have or use a wireless card. So that’s a chunk of memory AND processor time permanently going to waste.
On top of that, HP installs a dazzling array of their own useless applications.
No wonder the system was staggering. A quick run through the registry and Services manager later and it was looking a lot leaner with a 165Mb bootup. 33% fat loss. That’s more than Ryan the Biggest Loser.
Now to really test this thing. I needed a DVD. One that would really push the system to the limit. Enter… The Matrix.
The shooting columns scene is a common DVD benchmark because it fills the entire screen with moving objects.
And the thing screams. It just goes to show… the first thing you should do with your brand new PC bundle is examine very closely every single thing that it’s loading into memory.
So on Friday we’re hastily trying to shut down Far Cry on the big screen when one of the executives grabs the Windows Media remote and pushes the Start button. This of course sends the PC into a swapping frenzy as it tries to simultaneously load and unload some seriously chunky programs. Finally (after we’re seriously considering lunging for the wall switch) Far Cry disappears and the Media Centre appears.
The executives have a little play with the system, and conclude that the demo video is a bit jerky. Having escaped the room by now I can only imagine what they might blame for this … 
We decided to stay back this afternoon and admire the new HP Media Centre & Pioneer plasma TV that recently appeared in the office. We put Far Cry into the drive, and quickly established that FPS gaming on this setup is not a good idea for several reasons :
1. The Media Centre’s video card is a bit underpowered
(it’s a PCI Express card but at the bottom end of the market)
2. The huge screen can actually cause motion sickness
3. The wireless keyboard/mouse are not responsive enough
4. And last but not least, two senior executives WILL choose to walk in at that exact moment!
Happy Birthday to me… 29 years today. Ugh.
Forgot the customary lollies for work, but fortunately someone else has the same birthday as me so there’s plenty going around. I’ll have to bring some in another day.