Mach3 and win XP setup and tweaks??

[Zero Cool]

I just re-purposed a nice 3ghz SFF PC for use with mach3, I have 2gb of ram, 40gig drive, and running winXP pro. I am keeping the machine stripped down and trying to keep it as clean as possible.

 I have Mach3 demo currently installed and running. I'm new to Mach3 so im learning but thus far i have watched the first video tutorials and have been able to get manual control of my motors. so far so good.

I am looking for tips and tweaks, do's and don't for setting up winXp for smooth running of my mill. are there any gotcha's? things to avoid etc?

 I will be adding a 2nd parallel port card to the machine at a later date for additional I/O

[Hood]

Most computers will be fine running XP the way it comes, so if its working fine just leave it.
All of the computers I use for Mach are standard installs but if you do have problems look at the Downloads page and you will see a text file that gives optimisation steps, doing these often solves problems.

Hood