Speed Up Your PC - Free (Outer Technologies Cacheman)

Member Name: JRW

Product:	Outer Technologies Cacheman
Date:	16/07/00 (270 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Freeware, small download, talks a good game

Disadvantages: Unjustified claims, does it actually make that much difference?

Cacheman, if you've not heard of it before, is a programme that balances your memory, cache and virtual memory. You know - all the boring stuff that you don't really want to know about. Well, if you actually want the best performance from your Windows 95/98 system then it apparently pays dividends to know what's happening underneath that PC of yours.

Cacheman replaces the traditional Windows system that manages memory and implements its own rules and regulations. Judging by the user comments in the help file (funnily enough I couldn't find any bad ones) the program can solve miracles. Though you may be forgiven for being sceptical at this stage, as was myself, you might as well try the program for yourself.

This memory manager won't take too long to download and also won't occupy too much of your precious hard drive space. So far, so good...

When you load Cacheman you are initially presented with about five bars showing your current settings. You can alter them yourself or change to various preset settings for Windows 95/98 depending on what sort of user you are. You can selected 3D Games, CD-Writer, Power User, Multimedia or Low Memory settings which, according to the help file, optimizes your Windows settings.

With programs such as these, it is often difficult to judge their effectiveness if you can't genuinely see an improvement. Does it really reduce buffer underruns and make Quake 3 quicker? Who knows. But with Cacheman being freeware, you have a perfect opportunity to judge it for yourself. In the meantime, remain sceptical to all claims of miraculous speed transformtions.

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