Pics of first build!!

[halutzparilla]

okie first off:

you cant go wrong with AVG FREE AV and ADWARE Plus,

second take time and do some cable management, re-route those cable that is obstructing
airflow...

third Kent10: i've been using ccleaner since my first build and i tell you this, its safe and effective, load-time of browsers speeds up and programs runs faster by seconds to minutes....

and what about my good old slowpoke Windows Defrag, it works fine with me...

[wtcnbrwndo4u]

I'm using Avast Pro. :)

Windows Firewall and Defender cover the firewall and spyware needs.

[Tyreal]

Originally Posted by Kent10

Tyreal:

I just had a look at Diskeeper. Do you notice a difference in speed even on a fast system such as yours. How about the boot time. Some say it cut their boot time in half but I wonder what kind of system they have. I have a Q6600 running at 3.3Ghz. I was looking at the ProPremier version because it does up to 2TB and has the I-Fast.

You also mentioned CCleaner to clean the registry. It has been a while since I have used a registry cleaner because I know many believe it could be dangerous and it doesn't speed up anything anyway. What is your opinion on that? I have downloaded it but need to look at it more when I have time. I know you can back up any changes but am wondering if it is worth the trouble and worry.

Thanks, Kent

Hey Kent. Basically what halutz said is all true. Diskeeper... I can't say there was a noticeable difference (didn't measure or try to gauge performance in anyway). I mainly use it because it can defrag multiple drives at once and do it quickly as well.

[Kent10]

Thanks for the information guys. I see Diskeeper 2008 just came out today. I may give it and Perfectdisk a try when I have some more time. I have read some comparisons of the 2 and I can't decide between the 2 just from all the reading. I will have to try them for myself.

[Stormcrow]

I use Avast! with it's always on-access scanner. It does a good job of stopping the usual suspects of viruses and sneaky trojans. I've also set up Spybot's Teatimer program, which blocks changes to the registry unless you allow them. This keeps programs you don't trust and malware from altering your system and being a nuisance.
Once a week I run Ad-Aware and Spybot just to be sure, and then load up HijackThis and look at the results at hijackthis.de to see if anything has come in under the radar in drivers (like Logitech which is specially bad at bundling adware). The rest is just Windows Defender and Firewall, Vista automatically defrags the system every week so I never notice it. I've used this set up for two years running, on XP and Vista, and can say I've been virus-malware free for that entire time.

For the PC itself, every month I disassemble it and wash the fans and front grill panels to get rid of dust. Then I hose her out with some canned air, saving some for the keyboard. Afterwards I put it all back together and it's all set for another month. This keeps down on the dust which insulates heat and clogs your fans making them less efficient coolers. I reset the thermal goop every 3 months or so and get a fresh burn-in.