Looking at the web browsers you guys use to access the boards, I see quite a few of you are using Firefox, but I didn't see any except myself using an optimized build. So, I figured I'd make a post about it.

SSE/MMX extensions are features in the various processor generations, starting with the original Pentium and Athlon chips, that give hardware acceleration to some multimedia type functions. The standard build of Firefox doesn't take advantage of those features, to be as widely compatible as possible.

Various third parties download the Firefox source and recompile it with optimization for the SSE/MMX extensions, so it's faster in some aspects. The one I use is MOOX. The difference in rendering speed on graphically complex pages is noticeable. Definitely worth the upgrade, if you're comfortable messing with that kind of thing.

http://www.moox.ws/tech/mozilla/mdefs.htm

Thanks for the link, I use Firefox at work, Im thinking the IT guru here would have a cow if I made any changes to it. He is just like.

Have been meaning to use firefox at home, but I have just been know IM going to be reformating the pc I use for surfing soon and just keep putting it off for someday.

Just downloaded and installed the M2 build. I hope it helps with more than just the SSE codeset. I've been having some problems with the speed and memory consumption of Firefox for a couple months. Takes waaaaay to long to open and respond as it is.

I have actually resorted to using IE as of late :eek:

There are a few things you can do for the load speed.

First, the number of plugins and general size of your profile make a really large difference. Some plugins take a lot of resources and bulk up the profile that it has to load when opened.

One thing I read to do awhile back, which does seem to help, is add /Prefetch:1 at the end of the target command in the shortcut.

Another thing you can do is use the Firefox Preloader (which is basically how IE starts so fast.. it's starting up when you boot up the computer): https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=129464

That preloader is nice. Usually I'm a freak about running processes but in this case I don't mind a bit. I dumped my old profile too when I loaded MOOX.

Thanks!