Genearl advice to improve a computer -- any programs or drivers that you recommend? t

[bob1313134]

any advice out there? i'm an blank slate ready to learn your wisdom.

 

[ArisVer]

To get any answers you have to say what operating system you have and what your computer is (list the parts).
Is there anything wrong with your current setup?

 

[cabri]

Define you concept of "Improve".

Ease of Use, speed, reliability, etc

 

[Ketchup]

As was mentioned in your other thread, you want all the drivers for your motherboard:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2423028&highlight=

Pretty much any software that says it will make your computer faster should be ignored.

 

[Muse]

As was mentioned in your other thread, you want all the drivers for your motherboard:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2423028&highlight=

Pretty much any software that says it will make your computer faster should be ignored.

I've never seen that said before. I'm willing to believe it, though. I've bit a time or two but never wound up thinking it did a thing for me. They generally run and then say you have 250 things wrong with your computer and now you have to buy such and such to have those things fixed. I didn't bite on that. I do run malwarebytes and superantispyware, always the free versions. Also Microsoft Security Essentials (it too is free).

 

[Berryracer]

I've never seen that said before. I'm willing to believe it, though. I've bit a time or two but never wound up thinking it did a thing for me. They generally run and then say you have 250 things wrong with your computer and now you have to buy such and such to have those things fixed. I didn't bite on that. I do run malwarebytes and superantispyware, always the free versions. Also Microsoft Security Essentials (it too is free).

There is no magical software that will make your computer faster! All snake oil!

 

[jkauff]

There is no magical software that will make your computer faster! All snake oil!

There is software that can make your computer run smarter, though. My favorite is Process Lasso, which monitors the active processes running on your machine and adjusts their priority in an intelligent way.

For example, I use Handbrake for video encoding, and in the encoding process it uses 100% of every core/thread for as long as the encode takes--which is usually between 30-60 minutes. Process Lasso automatically restrains it so that it uses a bit less than 100%, allowing me to do other work, or even watch a movie. There's a free version, but the paid version is even more intelligent and it's inexpensive.

 

[Ketchup]

There is software that can make your computer run smarter, though. My favorite is Process Lasso, which monitors the active processes running on your machine and adjusts their priority in an intelligent way.

For example, I use Handbrake for video encoding, and in the encoding process it uses 100% of every core/thread for as long as the encode takes--which is usually between 30-60 minutes. Process Lasso automatically restrains it so that it uses a bit less than 100%, allowing me to do other work, or even watch a movie. There's a free version, but the paid version is even more intelligent and it's inexpensive.

Or, you could just righ-click the process in task manager and set the priority, which does the same thing, but doesn't rely on an additional app running in the background to accomplish the same thing.

 

[Berryracer]

Or, you could just righ-click the process in task manager and set the priority, which does the same thing, but doesn't rely on an additional app running in the background to accomplish the same thing.

my thoughts exactly. Never needed any additional software to control app priority

 

[tynopik]

there's software that makes you faster

so it really depends on what you use your computer for

 

[Ketchup]

there's software that makes you faster

so it really depends on what you use your computer for

The OP is looking to make his PC as fast as possible, so please provide some examples.

 

[Berryracer]

there's software that makes you faster

so it really depends on what you use your computer for

can you tell me which program will make my Alienware 18 faster? :whiste:

and if anyone is thinking about RAM Caching, that's not faster, it's a placebo effect where one would think that a copy operation finished but in reality, it only copied whatever to the RAM and still has to copy back from RAM to the HDD/SSD in the background so it didn't really finish any faster

 

[tynopik]

The OP is looking to make his PC as fast as possible, so please provide some examples.

you can't make the PC as a whole faster, you can only make certain tasks easier/faster, so again need more information on what exactly the OP is using the PC for

For instance, I search for files A TON, so Everything (instant file search) is absolutely essential.

But if you don't search for files, it does nothing for you.


the closest you can come to 'improving the speed' of a computer is doing a clean install of windows and then installing the bare minimum of programs you need and running without antivirus

 

[bonehead123]

Since the early days of Windows, I have tried 100's & 100's of the so-called cleaners/fixer-uppers/speed-me-up magic wand apps, all of which say the can do this that or the other for your computer.....

But I have found that simply turning off most if not all of the unnecessary background apps & processes that are on and/or installed by default will indeed make your system boot, run and feel faster by virtue of freeing up resources (like CPU cycles, RAM & I/O) for other things....as will regular maintenance and housekeeping if performed on a rotating schedule.

Of course the trick is know what to turn off and what not to......but that is largely dictated by your usage needs and has a learning curve for those not schooled in such things

IMHO, the tools needed to maintain your system are included with windows by default, some of which have already been mentioned, you just have to be willing to invest the time & effort to learn how to use them properly....

 

[Morbus]

For me, the best trick to make a computer faster is to REMOVE software, not to install.

General rule:
- disable EVERYTHING that's running at startup
- disable EVERY window service that you don't use
- get as light an antivirus as possible, or none at all if your computer isn't connected to the internet (be sure to scan unknown USB drives and DVDs in another computer with a nice antivirus)

After that, enable startup programs that you absolute want/need and get on with it. That's as fast as your computer is ever gonna get, unless you overclock it.

 

[jkauff]

Or, you could just righ-click the process in task manager and set the priority, which does the same thing, but doesn't rely on an additional app running in the background to accomplish the same thing.

That's what I used to do, but doing so doesn't adjust the priority of other processes. You could do all this manually, trial and error, but it would be a PITA. Process Lasso automatically manages all processes in the background. I find it very helpful, but not everyone needs what it does.

The OP was looking for suggestions, and "Nothing, it's all snake oil" didn't seem like a very helpful answer.

 

[tynopik]

The OP was looking for suggestions, and "Nothing, it's all snake oil" didn't seem like a very helpful answer.

If it stops him from installing one more piece of crapware, then it is the most helpful answer