How can I make my computer faster?

One thing we get asked here at Adtech computers is “How can I make my computer faster?” Well the good news is that there are many things that can be done to help improve the speed of that slowing machine. Things as simple as software tweaks for small gain to changing or adding hardware components for big gain. In this article I will cover a few of these options.

Software Cleanup  

 One of the biggest causes of computer slowdown is the computer being choked up with unnecessary applications that are running in the background. Some of these may include multiple variations of Internet security software, Performance gaining or “tweaking” software, malware & Spyware and peer to peer or torrent software. Sometimes just uninstalling these applications isn’t enough and a proper malware removal with registry clean is required after all unwanted applications have been safely removed through add/remove programs in the control panel. In some severe instances a full factory reset of your operating system is the best course of action. Remembering that a full backup of your personal data will be required before performing this.

Internet Security and how it can impact.

Choosing the best Internet security solutions can also play a huge factor to computer performance. In this writer’s opinion some of the bigger names such as Norton and McAfee can be the biggest culprits in causing computer slowdown and we advise against using them. Our Internet security of choice is Trend Micro, which we have been using for many years with great success. One point to remember when installing any Internet security software is to make sure that there isn’t already some other security software installed on your computer. Many new systems nowadays ship with some form of security preinstalled and you want to make sure this is removed before installing your software of choice.

There are also a few free options available when it comes to security with AVG being one that springs to mind. We often get asked if free security is suitable and the short answer here is yes, some security is better than none at all but there are a few things to consider when choosing this option. Free Internet security solutions quite often don’t update their virus definitions as frequent as paid versions so you can leave yourself venerable to attacks from the latest threats. Also free software tends to come bundled with promotional software or advertising which in itself is a form of malware.

Regardless of what your choice of security solution you must remember that security software is a preventative, not a a failsafe. If you insist on clicking on those popup boxes that appear when surfing the web that promise all sorts of wondrous things or maybe try to scare you into clicking on them by informing you of all the bad things going wrong with your computer then you will get caught with unwanted software.

Operating System Upgrades – More than just a new look

In the past people have been quick to believe all the bad press that each new operating system receives upon launch. Most of this negative hype is uncalled for and new operating systems can generally provide the user with new functions and features, one of which is performance increases. With windows and Apple both releasing new Operating systems over the coming months you can take advantage of the free upgrades being offered and give your computer a new lease on life.

RAM it home – The benefits of upgrading memory

We have all heard it before. “My computer is slow, I need to upgrade the ram!” but what does it actually mean and do we really need that ram upgrade.

The best way to think of ram is like a shopping trolley that stores information from the HDD and transports it to the processor for processing. The more ram you have, the bigger the trolley, the more data that can be processed. Bearing this in mind though that there is a limit as to how much ram you can install before the benefits become negligible. By today’s standards, 4GB ram is considered minimum, 8GB is sufficient and 16GB is more than enough. Things that can benefit from more ram are games, audio and video editing

My Hard Drive is Floppy!

The Hard Drive, or HDD, up until recently has remained fairly much unchanged over the last two decades as far as speed is concerned, with most changes coming in the form of capacity until now. This last two years has seen a big push towards solid-state drives or SSD and with this comes a huge speed increase. A SSD install can make an old slow computer feel like new again with lightening speed disk access. This one upgrade can make a whole lot of difference to a PC and although not the cheapest option, it definitely gives the most bang for your buck and is definitely the choice of upgrade for anyone serious about increasing the performance of that trusty PC. The only downside to the SSD is with capacity with average drive sizes being 128GB, 256GB or 512GB and at a rough price of $1 per Gig, can get a little pricey when looking at more storage.

So there you have it. Before you resign to disposing of that old trusty computer, come see our team at Adtech Computers and discuss some of our upgrade options. There is still life in the old girl yet