*OT* to anyone who knows about comps

[Mig]

hello, got a new pc about a week ago and i have just got broadband a couple of days ago.p4 3.2ghz 1024 sd ram, extremely powerful machine. got it made from a well known computer shop, basically because the last pc i bought was a package from pc world and it just had to much crap on.

what im wanting to know is how can i keep it running smooth? do i defragment it every month or what?
im in to my computers a lot but not to the point of bill gates lol so any advice id appreciate.

thank you

 

[Roberto]

Housekeeping is essential to keeping your PC running smooth, as is careful and sensible use.
Yes, Degragging regularly helps immensely. Once a month should be fine, and also after every time you install or delete a lot of stuff.

Use Windows Disk Clean Up tool too.

With DSL, you must make sure you have a good firewall and anti virus package and regularly use tools to clean up spyware and adware. Check the link at the top of the forum homepage for links to some excellent free pieces of security software.

Avoid installing software that you are not sure of the nature of or place of origin. Avoid installing cracked software as these can often contain nasty things. Check everything with your A/V software before running or opening.

It really is just common sense.

Also, try this bit of software out. It's called Spacemonger and it gives you a great little graphic layout of what is on your HD and how much space it occupies. It can help you identify large, uneccesary files.

Anything else, just ask

Rob

 

[Anonymous]

thanks a lot mate gonna try that link you put in after i write this,,, theres a security download from microsoft for xp users, do you think its any good? have a look at it if u dont mind,,, just the obvious www.microsoft.com i think its on the home page.

how often should i do the clean up tool and defragmenting as i use my pc every day mostly for net(but not much downloading just songs) and for uni use, research etc. a month ok then?

thank you mate

mig

 

[Roberto]

Yes, make sure you are as up to date as possible with Windows updates. Get SP2 installed and configure Windows to download and install updates regularly.

Always make sure you are as up to date as you can be with all your drivers and software updates as this is usually the most common cause of problems (that and user difficulty !! Nothing that a case of RTFM wouldn't solve !).

Quite simply, don't take any chances with your system security, It isn't worth the aggro

I'd do your Disk Clean Up & Defrag every couple of weeks or once a month. The more often you do it, the less time it takes and your hard drive will be better organised and faster. You can have the fastest processor or a huge memory capacity, but if your files are all over the shop on your HD, you won't see much benefit.

Rob

 

[Anonymous]

don't mean to be rude... but how do i configure windows so it regularly downloads? and when i do configure to download latest updates will it automatically download security settings etc?

one more thing, when defragmenting, is it best just to leave it while it does it? how long does it take, i remember doing it a few times with my old computer and it took overnight, and if the mouse moved it would restart?

i'm used to windows 2000 thank you again mate

mig

 

[Anonymous]

ok mate, realised how to configure windows... just wondering about defragmenting? can i automatically set a reminder for me to do it?

thank you

mig

 

[Roberto]

Don't worry, you're not being rude

When you install SP2 (assuming it isn't already on) the first page you get on boot up is the page that allows you to schedule your Automatic Updates. If your PC already has SP2 installed, there will be an option in the Control Panel called Security Centre, and you can set it all up in there.

Degrag isn't the dog it used to be Of course, it is always best to leave the computer doing nothing else as defrag is performing disk operations and getting the computer to do things whilst it's doing this will hinder it, but with a system of the spec you describe, you should have no problems.

Put it this way, I just updated my system to an Athlon 64 3000+ with 1GB of RAM. I installed my two HD's (160GB (Storage) & 120GB (system) ) and defragged them. The 120GB took about 20 minutes and I was surfing in the background, the 160GB was about the same, but being the non system disk it was doing nothing else.

Rob

 

[Roberto]

You can set Defrag (and any other program for that matter) to run automatically by using the Task Scheduler. Click Start> All Programs> Accessories> System Tools> Scheduled Tasks.

Select the program you want to run and follow the instructions to set dates and times.

Rob

 

[Neil]

Hi
For what it's worth,
don't place too much emphasis on defragging your hard drive.
Modern fast computers with fast hard drives of
7200+ simply don't need defragging every month.
By all means, analyse your drives in the defrag program and monitor the total overall fragmentation, but don't become paranoid.
With average use, an average hard drive will have a servicable life of about 2-3 years.
All defragging will do on a regular basis is help to shorten this life span, as the data is moved and re-written over the discs.
Even showing 50% fragmentation, you probably wouldn't notice the difference.

Neil

 

[Anonymous]

thanks mate, i have already got sp2. i understand everything abou the security settings you have cleared everything up for me thanks very much mate i owe you one.

i have set a reminder for me for disk clean up and disk defragmenter for every two weeks... if i am not on the comp then, will it do the next time i switch it on?

thank you mate once again

mig

 

[Roberto]

Quote: "Will it do it the next time I switch it on ?"

Yes.

No probs

Rob

 

[Anonymous]

may i ask also while we're on this subject... what is the exact purpose of ram? i opted for 1024 ram simply because it is gonna last for more years than a smaller size even though i may not need it for what i use my computer for...

thanx again, mig

 

[Neil]

Windows XP needs an absolute minimum of 256 meg of ram to function correctly.
When you launch a program, it will load into ram, thereby speeding up its functionality.
Accessing data from ram is far faster than a program retrieving it from a hard drive.

Todays modern games are very system intensive and needs lots of ram to play at their best.
HL2 for example uses about 0.5 gig of ram at max settings.
In general, you shouldn,t need any more than 1 gig of ram, but for a system of your spec, it should at least be DDR ram.

Neil

 

[Roberto]

RAM, or Random Access Memory is needed to run your software. Programs are loaded up in to it from your HD. The more you have, the quicker things run because the computer uses it to store information and it means it can keep things there should you need to go back to them, therefore reducing the time needed to get things off the HD again.

That's a very simplistic description, but the more you have and the faster it is, the better your system will run, especially if you are using software that is processor intensive such as Imaging or Audio processing.

I run software like Steinberg Nuendo (Digital Audio Workstation) and Cubase SX along with Reason and Ableton and these suck up resources like there's no tomorrow, but with 1GB of RAM (and a fast processor) these fly by nicely

Rob

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks to both of you for your explanations very informative, and i am thanking you because i actually understood what you have told me. ha.

@neil... sorry about in my question where it read sd ram... i am not sure what it is, i just said sd ram cos i thought thats what its called.

how do i find out what it is? curious now haha. on the spec sheet says 1024/800 then some other numbers but cant make out any letters...

ok mate

thanks again.

 

[Anonymous]

oh now i see, its two x 512 DDR RAM matching DDR400

mig

 

[Roberto]

Most likely to be DDR RAM. Probably PC2700 or higher. There are a few types about. Depends on the MOBO and what the manufacturer put in. Most decent MOBO's support PC1600 (DDR200), PC 2100 (DDR266), PC 2700 (DDR333), PC 3200 (DDR 400) or PC 4000 (DDR500), the higher the number the faster it is (The DDR number is the MHz speed).

The of course you have PC2 Memory, available in PC2-3200 (DDR400), PC2-4200 (DDR533) & PC2-5300 (DDR667) which is faster still.

Where will it ever end ?!?!

Rob

 

[LightWarrior]

go to www.download.com and get _ad-aware_ , and also Spybot search and destroy > They'll hel;p you keep unwanted crap of your pc, so you'll get less pop-ups, less spam email, and most importantly, your pc and broadband wont be slowed down by hidden programs that are downloading even more crap onto your system that you dont want.

If you can get a copy of Executive Software DiskKeeper Pro then do so. its a far better defragger than the standard windows one.

 

[Roberto]

Even better if you click the link at the top of the forum homepage called Spyware, Adware & Pop Up Solutions and you'll find direct links to Spybot, Ad-Aware and many more

Rob

 

[Anonymous]

hello, just read message from light warrior... ive downloaded spybot, does it do everything itself? what do i have to do after i have installed it?

@rob... thanks mate, when i mentioned lastnight it had loads of numbers on my spec sheet one of them was ddr400 3200 so im guessing its the 3200 one yeah? ha. thanks mate

mig