The following article was written by Big Dog and I found it to be very infomative to those of us gamers who might be having problems. Thanks to Big Dog for submitting it!!

There is of course no “perfect” gaming connection for use on the internet.  But what I will show you is a very good way of coming close.  It will involve a minimal expense, but you will end up with a terrific connection.  Assuming you already have a system up and running any version of Windows, the first step is to prepare the hard drive for the conversion.  There are many ways to achieve the setup I am going to describe, but the way I am going to discuss is the easiest that I have found.  The first thing you want to do is to obtain a copy of Partition Magic 8 and install it.  Create “A” and “B” before your current install and “D” after.  Create a primary 500Mb FAT 32 partition on the outmost perimeter of the HD.  Follow this with a 10 or 15 gig NTSF partition, again primary.  HD access time is lower on the outside rim and increases as the head has to move inward, so we put the gaming partition as far out as we can.  If you have a second HD for data storage in your system, you need not bother with creating “D”.  If you do not have a second HD,  create a logical partition with 5 gig  after the partition containing your current install (if you plan on installing WIN98 or ME, make this partition FAT32).  When you are finished, your HD should look like this:
     A                 B                   C                  D         
500MB         15gig            ??gig             5gig---- IF you need it
primary         primary         primary        logical
FAT32          NTSF            NTSF           NTSF

     If you are performing a new install on a clean HD, Partition Magic 8 will run under dos and you can create the same partitions as above prior to installing an OS.  Now you can install Boot Magic (comes with PM8) to the A partition.  New installers must first install an OS to B or C, then install Boot Magic.  There are detailed instructions on installing multiple OS’s with PM8, so I am not going to cover that step here.  And for those of you wondering, yes you can create another partition and install LINUX if you want.  So you could end up with 2 installs of XP (or 1 XP and 1 98, or 1 WIN2000 and XP, etc) and an install of LINUX all on the same HD.  You are limited to three OS’s with PM8.
    The partition C will be the normal desktop where you will perform all your normal tasks, e-mail, web surfing, and etc.  Install any AV and anti-spyware programs you normally would use here.  This will be your normal every day desktop.  The partition B will be your gaming partition.  DO NOT install any AV software here or firewall.  I install some simple cleaners and a few utilities, but that is all.  You may also disable any service not needed for gaming.  Like the print spooler, Windows Update, Windows firewall, and several other services.  There are many websites devoted to the topic of disabling services, so I am not going into that here.  I think I am down to 14 services running in the background on my gaming partition.  I update the gaming partition with updates that will only improve gaming performance, for example DirectX 9.0c.  I do not install any security updates or updates that do not relate to gaming.  This keeps the OS slim and trim and it will surprise you how fast it will remain over the years.  Without the constant stream of updates and the bloating of the Windows registry from installing and un-installing programs over the years, and all those temp files from the net, and all the other BS associated with AV and spyware protection running in the background, this OS will remain fast and stable.  The D partition will be used as a data partition and can be used to move information or files from the C desktop to the B Gaming partition.  Both B and C will be able to “see” the data partition when they are in use.
     When you first boot your machine, you will be shown the Boot Magic screen and it will give you the choice of which partition you wish to boot to.  You can name them anything you want, I use Desktop and Gaming.  Make your selection and the computer will load that partition.

     On to the second step in achieving the best connection.  But wait you say, with no AV or firewall, I am going to get hammered.  Yes you will, except that now you are going to buy a router.  I strongly suggest a Linksys BSFR-41 or one of the new variants of the same router.  They can usually be found for $30 or $40 dollars, with a rebate.  I know what you are thinking, I have only one computer, why do I need a router.  The simple answer is that the router contains a NAT hardware firewall.  The Linksys has a great one, it is also the easiest router I have ever used to set up.  Put in the Wizard CD, follow instructions through the Wizard, bingo, you are done.  In simple terms, the NAT firewall will hide your computer from the internet and allow only data to reach your computer that your computer has sent a request for.  The Linksys will not throttle your through-put either, I get a full 4.5Mb down and 384kb up through the router.
     After all is setup and running, you can now begin “tuning” your connection.  A gaming configuration is not always best for a normal install and vice-versa.  Again, there are many sites devoted to this subject, so I will not go into it here.  
     I have used this exact setup on my computers for over 4 years now, 2 years on the current install.  I have had no attacks from the web and the gaming partition is as fast as it was on day one.  I rarely get dropped from a gaming server and warp is minimal.  I know there will be people that will have a different and better way to accomplish the same setup, they may be right.  As always, there are many different ways of achieving the same thing.  This is the simplest and easiest way I have found and it works great.

Big Dog61