HP Vectra XU 6/XXX User manual

HP Vectra XU
Guide to Optimizing
Performance

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Guide to Optimizing
Performance
A guide to the performance benefits of your HP Vectra XU PC.

iv English
The Performance Benefits of Your HP Vectra PC
Your Hewlett-Packard PC makes use of a number of new features to
provide you with the best performance currently available from a PC.
The configuration of your PC has been optimized by HP to make the
best use of these features for general applications.
The performance of your PC will depend on the applications you use.
For example, different software applications require different amounts
of memory and will produce files of different sizes. Best performance is
obtained by balancing your PC’s configuration with the requirements of
your software.
To provide versatility in your PC’s configuration, Hewlett-Packard
offers a number of performance-enhancing accessories. Some of these
are upgrades that allow you to increase the performance of your PC in
one particular area. Other accessories add to your PC’s existing
capabilities.
This guide describes the high-performance features of your PC and
how you can obtain maximum benefit from them. This will help you to
optimize the performance of your HP Vectra PC for your specific use.
This guide is presented in two chapters:
•Your PC’s performance features
Describes the new features used by your PC, with suggestions on
how to optimize their performance.
•Technical reference
Gives general technical reference information, with emphasis on the
new features used by the HP Vectra XU PC.
NOTE The advanced Pentium™Pro processor installed in your PC provides
the best performance when used with 32-bit operating systems and
applications.

Contents
English v
1 Your PC’s Performance Features
Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Your PC’s Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Performance Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Improving the Performance of Your PC’s Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Advantages of Dual Processor Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Matching Memory Capacity to Your Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Benefits of 32-bit Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Installing Fast Peripherals on the PCI Bus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Increasing the Speed Limit With Ultra SCSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Disk Striping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Making the Most of Your PC’s IDE Channels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
More Video Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Your PC’s Audio Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
HP PCI Integrated 10/100BT LAN Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
HP PCI Integrated 10/100VG LAN Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Performance Topic/Configuration Cross-Reference. . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

vi English
2 Technical Reference
Architectural Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
The Intel Pentium Pro Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Characteristics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Superpipeline Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Integrated Cache Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Higher Clock Speeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
The Pentium Pro Local Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Main Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Data Integrity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Memory Upgrade Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Technical Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

1
Your PC’s Performance Features
This chapter describes the new features of your HP Vectra XU PC and
how these features can bring optimized performance to your desktop
application.

1 Your PC’s Performance Features
Overview
2English
Overview
Your HP Vectra XU PC provides a number of new features that bring
unprecedented levels of performance to your desktop application.
Some of these features offer you their full performance benefits
immediately, without needing to be adjusted in any way. Other features
must be configured according to your use before their full benefit can
be realized.
This chapter explains these new features so that you can better
understand the performance benefits they offer. Where a feature is
configurable or can be upgraded, detailed descriptions are given to
help you understand the options available to you.
The following features of your PC are described in this chapter:
•Intel Pentium™Pro processor
•Dual processing capability
•Flexible memory configuration
•Advanced operating system support
•PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus
•Support for Ultra SCSI devices
•High performance IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) mass storage
•Advanced graphics capabilities
•High quality, stereo audio recording and playback
•Fast and adaptable networking.

English 3
1 Your PC’s Performance Features
Overview
Your PC’s Configuration
The configuration of your PC has been optimized by HP for general
use. However, the performance of your PC can be further improved by
changing this configuration to match the requirements of your
application.
You can change the configuration of your PC in three ways:
❒Adjust the parameters of the existing configuration through the PC’s
Setup program
❒Install accessories
❒Change the configuration parameters of your software to make the
best use of your PC’s features.
NOTE The advanced Pentium Pro processor installed in your PC provides the
best performance when used with 32-bit operating systems and
applications.
Performance Topics
The following topics are covered in this chapter:
❒Improving the performance of your PC’s processor
❒Advantages of dual processor configurations
❒Matching memory capacity to your requirements
❒Benefits of 32-bit applications
❒Installing fast peripherals on the PCI bus
❒Increasing the speed limit with Ultra SCSI
❒Making the most of your IDE channels
❒More video performance
❒Your PC’s audio resources
❒HP PCI integrated 10/100BT LAN interface
❒HP PCI integrated 10/100VG LAN interface.

1 Your PC’s Performance Features
Improving the Performance of Your PC’s Processor
4English
Improving the Performance of Your PC’s Processor
Your HP Vectra XU PC uses the most powerful processor currently
available in any HP Vectra PC: the Intel Pentium Pro. The advanced
capabilities of this processor are sufficient to handle any desktop
application you may use. However, it is also possible to further increase
the performance of your PC’s processor by replacing it with an upgrade
processor. This section explains how and why.
The Processor’s Clocks Everything your PC’s processor does is synchronized to a regular pulse
known as the processor clock. The speed of this clock defines the speed
at which your processor performs its work.
Your PC’s Pentium Pro processor uses a system board clock source of
either 60 or 66 MHz. All operations on the local bus (such as data
transfers with memory) are synchronized to this clock. Other devices
in the PC also use this clock to generate their own clock signals; for
example, the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus controller
divides this clock in half to produce the 30 or 33 MHz PCI clock.
For its own internal operation, the Pentium Pro processor multiplies
the clock source to obtain a faster, internal clock. It is the frequency of
this internal clock that defines your processor’s speed. For example,
the 150 MHz processor uses the 60 MHz clock source and multiplies
this by 5/2 to produce its own 150 MHz internal clock.
PCI bus - 30 MHz Processor’s local bus - 60 MHz
Pentium Pro processor - 150 MHz