Simple and cheap way to speed up your computer

[MatthewSB]

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Teach yourself to Overclock your computer {if your bios allows}

....that can be 30% or more increase in computer performance for absolutely free


^^

I agree 100%, but you are talking about people whose only option, other than a jump drive, is to pay a technician hundreds of dollars to install memory, something anyone should be able to figure out.

Seriously, memory is incredibly simple, even if a bit delicate, to install. There are tons of resources to learn how to do this yourself. There are people who learned to assemble a PC from a box of parts using youtube videos and such.

A lot of things look difficult, but once you work through it on your own you realize how simple it is.

 

[gadget_lover]

+

Teach yourself to Overclock your computer {if your bios allows}

....that can be 30% or more increase in computer performance for absolutely free


^^

My opinion, based on years of experience; Overclocking is free. Just change a few settings or jumper. Dealing with the side effects are time consuming and sometimes very expensive.

If you overclock incorrectly you can burn out your CPU. Even if you do it right, you might end up with a machine that works well, but craps out once every other day. That can mean data loss, crashed programs, etc. I've had several computers that were not 100% stable even at their rated clock speed, but ran for years (non-stop) without a single crash once the speed was dropped to 90% of the rated speed.

Just my experience. Yours will vary.

Dan

 

[Overclocker]

yep. overclock.

or if you have the right components you could even unlock certain AMD processors from dual-core to quad-core. or from quad to 6-core. and THEN overclock them after unlocking

but for most general users an SSD is the best upgrade you could ever make

 

[orbital]

My opinion, based on years of experience; Overclocking is free. Just change a few settings or jumper. Dealing with the side effects are time consuming and sometimes very expensive.

If you overclock incorrectly you can burn out your CPU. Even if you do it right, you might end up with a machine that works well, but craps out once every other day. That can mean data loss, crashed programs, etc. I've had several computers that were not 100% stable even at their rated clock speed, but ran for years (non-stop) without a single crash once the speed was dropped to 90% of the rated speed.

Just my experience. Yours will vary.

Dan

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The biggest mistake people do in overclocking is add waaaaaay too much voltage,
that alone is what can damage components, not clock speeds.

Knowing your components & doing a realistic clocks w/ them.
~ Only adding the slightest amount of voltage to keep your system happy,, and really getting speeds where your system should be in the first place.

Monitoring your temps and fan speeds is good practice

 

[Illum]

This works for me 50% of the time when repairing friends's PCs, starts with taking the computer outside, take off all the covers.

+Make sure the dehydrator is working properly, turn on the compressor along side it. Adjust your compressor's regulator to 80Psi, [so you don't "blowout" something] snake the nose into all the cavities and blow out all the dust thats accumulated.
+Unlatch the ram chips from their slots, blow clean, replace.
+Unlatch the video card, unplug the video card fan, blow air into the fan orifice till nothing comes out, plug the fan back in, plug the video card in.
+Unplug the hard drives, noting which SATA goes with which. Blow air into the hard drive cavities, reconnect hard drive, repeat for the other drives: this works for A:/ , B:/ , and D:/ also.
+Find a way to blow a stream of air behind the motherboard
+Detach the CPU heatsink, blow that out, reinstall
+Disconnect all case fans, clean off the blades, reconnect
+Blow all the dust out of the PSU, if you think you've got all of it try blowing in a different orifice.

As a precaution, keep the PC sitting on the driveway for a bit to eliminate any wayward condensate. A full clean-out like this takes me about 30 minutes if I have all the tools. I didn't even start on the software part yet. I'm more of a hardware guy, so even if I wasn't able to find anything software wrong with the PC, at minimum I get credit for the cleanup.

 

[orbital]

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Anyone interested in an SSD?
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** Important: The 840 Pro uses MLC NAND Flash :thumbsup:

Edit: coupon code now expired _