Sunday, November 18, 2007

Question of the Week - What can I do for my computer to make it faster?

We all seem to want things to go faster. From our automobiles , cell phones, toasters, microwaves to our computers. Here were dealing with computers of course. I see this question around the net often with varying answers. Many just answer either to buy more hardware or use different software. I think of it as a two part approach(hardware and software) and may depend on your budget and needs.

Hardware - This approach depends on your budget and needs. For hardware I'd recommend two things. More memory and and a larger graphics card. A good source I found was a crucial.com which has a memory configurator to take out the guess work of what particular memory your system needs. Go with as much as your budget allow. This will give you more bang for your buck than most anything else you can buy. Another thing would be to upgrade your graphics card. Some lesser things that may help would be to upgrade you processor and or hard drive. If your hard drive is near capacity it may slow down your system. A processor should probably be your last resort because it's typically the most expensive you'd likely see less bang for your dollar.

Software - My personal philosophy about my computers is I like to keep them lean and clean. Try and avoid all those cute add-on programs like calenders, screensavers, taskbars, etc. Many of them can come with spyware and addition items that can slowly eat up your system resources. I try to avoid them when possible. The other thing is to do regular maintenance like DiskCleanup and Defragmentation through built-in Windows programs. A third party software I recommend is CCleaner which will go a little deeper than windows and is fairly simple to use. I hope this helps you out. Thanks for coming by and hope you come back again soon!


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