How can I make my computer run better?

[PhYmon]

Hey guys help me out with this one I have a pentium 4 1.3ghz with 384 rdram and running windows xp sp2 (I know its a crap of computer but this is the one that I have :( ) on it someone can tell me please which antivirus is the best on the market and also that dont use that much resorces of the system cuz I have norton antivirus 2004 Pro and it requires alot of my memory so does windows and which resources can I eliminated from windows I mean the ones that it doesnt need! thanks for ur help.

[n1n9tean]

Best antivirus that uses the least resources is NOD32.....Best antivirus overall and doesn't use many resources (except when scanning) is AVG.

[Viper]

Avast ranks up just as good.


A RAM upgrade would be the cheapest and most effective performance gain you can get and adding it yourself is simple.

[PhYmon]

Ok so which of those u suggest me the most.. I think the AVG but u tell me! I also want to have a good antivirus.

[Ethan]

Ram Good!

AVG Good!

[n1n9tean]

Avast ranks up just as good.


A RAM upgrade would be the cheapest and most effective performance gain you can get and adding it yourself is simple.

I'm not a very big fan of Avast. I tried to be. I just don't like it's media player-like interface and I think I had some issues with a lack of options of some sort. Don't remember what exactly but maybe you're not allowed to just clean a file or maybe the scan just wasn't as thorough as AVG. I've used so many different programs I can't recall precisely.

phymon, if you're serious about keeping your system clean of viruses, get AVG. If you want an adequate antivirus that will allow your system to run as if you have no antivirus installed, get NOD32.

[PhYmon]

So u n1 go for the AVG!? well thanks all of u, and what about the resources of windows!? what can I do?!

[Eidorian]

Get more RAM. Do you know what your maximum limit is? If you bought this machine do you have a model number? Norton is a bad idea for antivirus since it uses a lot of system resources.

[n1n9tean]

I edited my previous post^

AVG>> best protection
NOD32>> best performance

I use AVG myself.

[PhYmon]

Eidorian I can put up to 4 GBs of rdram

n1 I would like to have both hehe.. I would like to feel like there is no antivirus running on my computer and also clean the viruses as well but u can never have what u want in this life.. :( but if u tell me that AVG is going to be the best choice and is not going to consume my system as norton do, I will go definatly for it (AVG)

[Dralor]

well ya can get better for $120 not including shiping if ya can build it yourself. really nice cheap barebone kits.

well I take that back ya'd probably still need a cheap viddy card. as the rest ya can canabilize

[n1n9tean]

AVG takes up about 8 pr 9 MB total as a running process and if I recall correctly (haven't used it in awhile) NOD32 takes up 2 or 3 MB.

[PhYmon]

well ya can get better for $120 not including shiping if ya can build it yourself. really nice cheap barebone kits.

well I take that back ya'd probably still need a cheap viddy card. as the rest ya can canabilize
I have already a lets say a nice card is a radeon 9600 xt, heheh and n1 I already downloaded thanks man! u as the other guys were pretty helpful! and sorry if I kind of annoying can someone tell me which resources doesnt need windows in order to get more of my memory back..

[Eidorian]

You can get x8 AGP barebones for dirt cheap.

[Dralor]

yeah 99 bucks for a cheapone and $20 dollars for 512MB of PC3200 DDR RAM.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/email/wem1080.asp?CMP=ILC-FPM02

[PhYmon]

but the thing is that my mobo doesnt support DDR

[Dralor]

that is why ya get the 100 buck barebone 150 bucks gets ya a much better com with a gig of ram before shipping.

[HereticPB]

Windows 98 SE - LOL

No serious Win98 kicks so much ass with the higher speed processors and a gig of ram. Too bad nothing runs on 98 SE anymore. Best Windows Product out of MS I think.

[WolfmanNCSU]

RAM will really help that machine bro. Also, cheap barebones rock. Its what I replaced my old server with.

As far as anti virus goes, I am a fan of AVG. Simple, good, low resources. I also like Avast as well. I have it running on one of my other machines, and its just as good as a job.

[NoZ]

Download some windows tweaking programs. Ill hook you up with a few in the mornin' cause I gotta sleep pretty soon.

[PhYmon]

But dont they use the memory that I want to recover?! I know some but I want to know if there is others

[MrX]

Ok there is just one little thing that we seem to be forgetting! Rdram canot be found anymore and from what i have seen it costs $110 per 128Mb if you do find it so a ram upgrade cannot be done very cheeply your best bet would be to get a cheep bare bone socket A or 754 rig sorry man but your computer is just to old to do much with and Rdram just plain sucks.