Optimize Windows 7 for Mining on dedicated box?

[zombo]

So I am mining with Win 7 64bit, because I find it easy to set everything up with no problems. I don't really want to switch to linux unless I'll 100% gain at least 10m/hash or it's not worth it.

The question I have is what can I do to improove mining performance on Win 7? I turned Aero off but I can't think of anything else to adjust

[Auspician]

I'm also mining on Win 7 64.  What GFX card(s) are you using?  What software are you using to mine?  What flags are you currently using? 

Using myself as an example . . .

2x ATI non-reference 6950's running at 890mhz core clock/650mhz mem clock (configured using MSi Afterburner), one card currently running only at 70% capacity due to heat concerns.  The cards run in a non-Crossfire independent setup.
GuiMiner software, OpenCL miners, using a mixture of deepbit.org and btcguild.com as pools.
Using -s0.01 flag on the top (hot) GFX card to achieve 70% utilization, and -f128 on the bottom (cool) GFX card to allow gaming while the rig is running.  This is yet to be fully tested with my new configuration, however.

Hashing 570 Mhash/s

[neneko]

Why so opposed to switching to linux if it's on a dedicated box? You don't even need to format it, just add a partition and throw a linux distro on there.

[zombo]

I'm running 2x Sapphire Radeon 6870's at core 990mhz memory 1000mhz, fans at 50% temprature around 75-78celcius

Running phoneix miner under guiminer with -k phatk VECTORS BFI_INT AGGRESSION=12 worksize=128

Getting around 594m/hash

Any thoughts on making it even better?

[Auspician]

If its a dedicated box, I'd drop your Memory Clock down as low as MSi Afterburner will take it.  That'll give you a bit more headroom to increase your Core Clock, though you'll probably need to increase voltage to increase it further than you've already gone. 

Win 7 won't use 1% of your GFX capacity even with Aero on, though there is no reason to keep it on with a dedicated box.  Were I in your shoes, I'd focus my efforts on increasing my GFX performance directly as there is very little else you could turn 'off' that would net you even a single Mhash.

[zombo]

Sounds good, strange thing is with msi afterburner whenever I try lower the clock for memory lower than 1000 it just goes straight back to 1000 when i click apply. whys that?

Also the limit msi afterburner will take my clock to is 1000 can i unlock it somehow to go further?

And to answer the linux question, if it's not going to gain any M/hashes why bother? lol I'd rather have a nice gui to muck around with the settings to be able to point and click (remotley from my desktop) rather than bash commands that I don't know about into an SSH terminal and hope for the best ;p

[Auspician]

Make sure you 'save' both before and after you apply to get the underclock of the memory to stick.  And strangely, play with the size of the skin; I've been able to achieve lower memory clocks just by moving back and forth between the large and small skin. 

[zombo]

Tried that but no dice

[dmiii]

You may try disabling Aero, unused system services etc...

[willphase]

Also, use afterburner to boost your fan speed to 80% as long sad you don't mind the noise!

Will