Windows XP / Beginners

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How well does the Intel Application Accelerator work?

The Intel Application Accelerator works surprisingly well. A software program could improve the performance of a computer so much. According to Intel performance benchmarks, users of the Application Accelerator will significantly increase the speed of their computer. Intel tested the application accelerator by running the popular benchmark program Winbench99 on a machine with a 2.0 GHz P4 CPU. The score of the machine after installing the Intel Application Accelerator was 34 percent faster than when the Application Accelerator was not installed. Additionally, the boot time of the same computer was 58 percent faster after the program was installed.

The Application Accelerator program actually works as promised. Searching the Web, you will find hundreds of success stories for users that have installed the Application Accelerator with very good results. Users have reported their applications starting up twice as fast as before, and having many seconds shaved off of their boot time.

What are the system requirements?

Unfortunately, the Intel Application Accelerator will only run on certain systems, and your system must meet the strict requirements for it to run without causing problems. After all, the reason why it works so well is because it can optimize the storage driver to work at peak performance for a specific motherboard.

Basically, your PC must meet the following three different qualifications:

1. Your PC must be running an Intel CPU: the Pentium II, III, IIII, as well as the Celeronbased processors and Xeon series of processors. Sorry, AMD users.
2. You must have the Intel Chipset Installation Utility installed, if your chipset requires it. Visit www.intel.com/support/chipsets/inf/inf.htm to view a table of motherboard chipsets that need to be installed. It your motherboard requires it to be installed for the system to correctly identify your chipset, visit http://downloadcenter.intel.com/ to download a copy.
3. The last qualification to use the Intel Application Accelerator is that you must have a supported motherboard chipset. Refer to Table 11-2 to see what chipsets are supported.

Tip If you do not know what kind of chipset your motherboard has, Intel has a free utility that will detect your chipset and display the model number for you. Visit www.intel.com/support/chipsets/inf/chipsetid.htm to download a copy of this utility.

If your chipset is not listed, then check the Intel Application Accelerator Web site, which is located at www.intel.com/support/chipsets/IAA/.

Table: Intel Application Accelerator Compatibility

Chipset 	Support
440 		Not Supported
810 		Supported
810E 		Supported
810E2 		Supported
810L 		Supported
815 		Supported
815E 		Supported
815EM 		Not Supported
815EP 		Supported
815G 		Supported
815EG 		Supported
815P 		Supported
820 		Supported
820E 		Supported
840 		Supported
845 		Supported
845E 		Supported
845G 		Supported
845GE 		Supported
845GL 		Supported
845GV 		Supported
845PE 		Supported
848P 		Not Supported
850 		Supported
850E 		Supported
852GM 		Not Supported
852GME 		Not Supported
855GM 		Not Supported
855GME 		Not Supported
855MP 		Not Supported
860 		Supported
865G 		Not Supported
865P 		Not Supported
865PE 		Not Supported
875P 		Not Supported

Also, if your chipset is not currently supported, there is always the chance that someday Intel might add support.

Caution If your chipset is listed on Table above as not supported and is also listed on the Intel Web page as not supported, installing the Application Accelerator on your computer will result in big problems. Doing so will screw up your computer so much that it will not boot.

Additionally, Intel Application Accelerator has been confirmed by Intel to work with Windows XP SP1 Home/Pro.Windows XP SP2 Home/Pro has not yet been officially confirmed to work on supported Intel hardware but it is still worth giving it a try. Just make sure that you are using system restore to make backups so that you can easily revert to your previous settings.