Just built pc how can i maintain it

frankie_od

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Nov 20, 2010
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hi just built new pc and i was wondering how i can maintain and stop it from slowing down and just keeping it at its great performance. are there any tips of tricks or software. i keep an eye on the processes and stop unwanted background and startup software. is there anything else like cleaning the pc. install alot of games and that so i was wondering if they leave stuff behind after unistall. so please could someone just tell me how i should look after my pc. thanks by the way what about defraging my hard drives, is it safe.
 
G

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Usually, software is not needed. Most of the time the "speed up your pc" programs are all bogus. I maintain performance by scheduling defragmentation(daily), virus scanning(weekly), disk cleanup(weekly), and disk check(monthly). You don't have to worry about stuff left behind programs. They are nil. People who are ocd about keeping everything pristine, like me, find this disturbing but it doesn't matter.
For defragging, use the default windows program. Its totally safe.
 

a4mula

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Feb 3, 2009
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As long as it's a HDD and not a SSD defrag is not only fine, but part of maintenance.

Best advice? Use Chrome. The single fastest way to slow your rig down is to pick up 6 bazillion viruses, adware, spyware and/or trojans because you were too lazy to download a browser other than IE. Make sure you're using anti-virus and a firewall. When you update your drivers make sure you scrub the old ones. Try not to install crap on your machine, and never agree to install something that you're unsure of. Stay away from torrents unless you are 100% they're from a legitimate source.

Crack your machine open every few months and hit it with compressed air. Dust can and will build up even if you're using filters and that dust will cause heat, heat causes stress and can have a very real effect of throttling your cpu if you're reaching tdp limits.

Backup... Backup... BACKUP. Seriously. Stuff happens, if you honestly think that your data is safe or that your rig is immune to some really nasty viruses that require a full wipe, then you're kidding yourself. Speaking of wipes. About once a year it's nice to do a full format. You'd be amazed at how much a format will restore a rig to like new status. Backup. Really.
 

cybneo

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Sep 7, 2011
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When uninstalling any game/program it will leave entries in your registry. over time it will build up. There's a bunch of Registry cleaners, see below.... I think win 7 already has a job that defrags weekly.

I usually run these if i notice issues:

Ad-Ware: www.lavasoft.com
malware bytes: www.malwarebytes.org
Win Cleaner: www.wincleaner.com or www.piriform.com/ccleaner