Cheap ways to speed up your Computer

Having built my own computers from scratch ranging from simple "bare-bones" boxes to extreme gaming rigs, my friends often come to me for advice on how to speed up their sluggish computers. There are several approaches to this ranging from very easy and completely free to a bit more elaborate and depending on your budget, will cost you some dough.

1. The quick and dirty (and free):
**Defragmet your hard drive on a regular basis! What's a regular basis? At least once a week. What the heck is defragmentation you ask? As your computer accesses data on your hard drive, the drive's information tends to "drift apart" (in simplistic terms) and this physical "distance" requires more and more time to access data as the information gets further and further from each other.

It's kind of like a race...it usually takes a runner more time to run a mile than 100 yards. The same goes for your data. If your data is spread all over the place, it takes longer and longer for your hard drive to retrieve it.

Defragmenting your hard drive puts all the pieces of data "closer" together and "shortens" the distance it has to travel to access the data.

"Ok, you've sold me on defragging my drive," you say. "Now how do I do it?" The free method for Windows XP users is easy. There's a simple solution to file fragmentation: use Windows Disk Defragmenter (Start –> Programs –> Accessories –> System Tools –> Disk Defragmenter).

TIP: Depending on how fragmented your hard drive is; how big your drive is, and the speed of your drive (rpm), generally the longer it takes to defrag. The process can take a few minutes to hours. DO NOT use your computer during defrag, especially while using the free Windows defragger because it sometimes causes the defrag process to restart (without telling you). Basically, hit defrag and walk away until it is completely done.

If you're willing to do defragmentation on a higher level then I highly recommend you use a third party defragmenter. I've tried them all and by far the most recommended is Executive Software's Diskeeper (with ONE "k").

What's the difference between the free version in Windows and the pay version? SPEED baby! Diskeeper is faster and gives much tighter defragmetation giving you ultimately a faster computer. You can also set Diskeeper to run in the background. You can get info on it at:
http://www.diskeeper.com

2. Add more RAM (computer memory, Cost=Typically $50-150):
The best speed performance increase by far is achieved by adding more memory. Unfortunately this is usually going to cost you some bucks. Fortunately RAM is relatively cheap and there are lots of places to get good, cheap, quality RAM.

How much RAM do I need? Well, Windows XP will run with 512MB but it runs much faster with 1GB or more. Note: 1 Gigabyte (GB) is roughly 1000 MegaBytes (MB). To determine how much RAM your system has is simple. Goto (Start –> Control Panel –> System) and it will tell you how much RAM you have. If you already have 512MB and you are on a budget, then buy another 512MB for a total of 1 Gigabyte (GB). If you have the money, then I wholly suggest that you go for the full 2GB that Windows XP supports. NOTE: Some places like Best Buy tell you that your computer is exandable to 4GB of RAM which is technically true if your motherboard can support four 1GB RAM chips but Windows XP has a limit of recognizing only 2GB. So NEVER buy more than 2GB of RAM for Windows XP. (The next version of Windows, called Vista, is supposed to support more than 2GB of RAM but for now 2GB is the limit).

Installing RAM is relatively easy but I suggest if you haven't done it before then pay a tech guy or Geek Squad guy to do it (better safe than sorry I say). Major RAM manufacturer's can look up what kind of RAM you will need by plugging in your computer's manufacturer and model number. Again, by going to (Start –> Control Panel –> System) it will tell you this information.

Which company should I buy from? The 3 companies I recommend are Corsair, Kingston, and Crucial. They have been around for a long time and their RAM is generally well regarded in the geek community, especially Corsair. If you are not doing serious gaming, then do NOT buy their "low latency" RAM (a geek term for fast RAM). Instead save your money and buy their "value" RAM. 9 times out of 10 the average user won't need or notice the improvements with "value" RAM vs "low latency" RAM from these manufacturers. The links are here:
http://www.corsair.com/
http://www.kingston.com/
http://www.crucial.com/

3. Tweak your start up programs (Cost...Free!):
Did you know that there are probably at least a couple of dozen programs running in the background right as you are reading this, eating up your precious memory! Well you can turn a lot of them off manually and free up those resources.

Look at the bottom right hand corner...see those little icons? Well each one is a program running in the background. If you "right click" on their icon individually, they usually give you the option of "exit" or turning off the program so that it is no longer running until next time you reboot or manually turn it back on from the start menu.

If you absolutely know that you don't need a certain program and don't want the hassle of turning it off manually every time your computer starts up, then you can goto (Start –> RUN, then type MSCONFIG) A box with a bunch of tabs opens up and you can select the STARTUP tab. Uncheck the name of the offending programs then click APPLY. The computer will ask if you would like to restart...I recommend that you do.

NOTE: If the name of the offending program is not obvioius or you are unsure...do NOT uncheck the box (again, better safe than sorry).

Well, there you go, 3 simple rules for going out with my....er, speeding up your computer. Happy Computing everyone!

Money's tight...save your dough...say Yes I Saved !!!