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Rambling about computers :)

December 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

My new computer has been running so smooth and awesome, I love it.  CyberPower makes REALLY AWESOME gaming computers if you’re ever thinking about getting one.  Just to let you know.

A lot of people think that whenever your computer slows down you have to get a new one LOLS!!  All you need to do is do basic maintenance on your computer and it will run for a long time, if it’s a good brand of course.

My last one was an Emachine…..and they don’t have the best reputation.  I’m not sure why, because mine ran for 5 or 6 years, and it still runs!  I just needed a new one, because the old one was slowing down a lot.

All you need to do is keep the inside dusted out, and never let the parts get damaged.  And also you need to do OS maintenance of course!  I’m hoping this new one I got lasts as long, and longer than my Emachine :)  Knock on wood.

It’s funny when you realized you’re actually OBSESSED with computers, and like you don’t know exactly how to fix that lol.   But you know you are hahah.  I don’t really think it’s a bad thing necessarily, as long as you don’t let it control your life!

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Messing with my Computer

November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The other day, I did something that most people would probably consider crazy.  I DECREASED the memory in my computer.  WHY???  Well, when I bought the computer, it came with 4gb of Ram…and I also order an extra 4 gb so I could max it out at 8gb.

The computer was super fast when I got it, with only the 4gb in there.  (DDR 3).  Then I decided to add in the extra 4gb…and BAM…it was of course, much faster!

After a few days, I decided, maybe I should go back down to the 4gb for the time being.  Why?  Because as we all know, computers tend to get slower with age.  And if I max out the Ram NOW, then when the computer slows down I won’t be able to upgrade unless it’s the Hard Drive, Processor, or Graphics card.

So I figure, why not leave a little room for memory expansion, that way when it starts to slow down, or I start running more intense programs or games, THEN I can max it out up to 8GB to make it faster.

My girlfriend helped me come to that conclusion, so thank you Jenna :)  I must say it’s a really good idea!

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Computer speed general tips

November 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I used to try to figure out a lot of computer speed up tips back when I had a slow computer..and I just wanted to share some of the stuff that helped me.

Computer speed is a combination of many different factors, and there are many things you can do to maximize it.   For example, one of the things I did on my old computer was to add a new graphics card.

It was a pretty nice Nvidia card, which greatly helped the speed of my system.  Graphics cards add memory which greatly helps the speed of your computer and make it a lot more responsive.

What I do for computer speed

A general rule I like to go by is, if you’ve already maxed out the amount of RAM in your computer, and it still isn’t fast enough for you, just add a better graphics card with a good amount of memory.  That will really help your computer speed.

Another thing to do is keep the inside of your case dusted out regularly to keep the air flowing and keep all your components working properly.

I always keep my computer running, because turning it off and on alot shortens the lifespan.  I set all my graphics card and visual effects options to the highest performance so squeeze as much speed as I can out of my computer.

Also, defragment your drive often.  Clean out your junk files, and use CCleaner to clean your registry out safely, especially if you often install and uninstall lots of programs.

You can also disable error reporting and search indexing which will give you a little performance boost.  And disabling services that you don’t use always helps.

computer speed

Windows 7 computer speed tips

If you’re using Windows 7, disable the sidebar and Aero functionality.  And  you can turn off the screensaver and set your power options to high performance, but beware it uses more energy.

You can try all of these things out and you will greatly increase your computer speed, it’s guaranteed – I hope this helps!

 

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I got my new gaming computer!!

October 20, 2011 By 2 Comments

I finally got my new gaming computer in the mail today (ups).  It’s made by Cyberpower.  Let me just say, this thing is frickin awesome!!

I don’t have ANY complaints about it!  It’s super quiet, runs like a dream, SUPER FAST, and just all around awesome!  The graphics are really intense too,  It’s an AMD Radeon HD 6670 – with 3d capabilities.

This part I can’t believe!!  I can play 3d games?? Well, I’m pretty sure I have to have a 3d monitor for that, but maybe I can get one of those in the near future.

That would be so intense.  Cyberpower makes a really fine computer, let me tell ya.  I’m sure I won’t have any problems with this one.  I will post a video of it very soon for you to see.

 

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5 ways to make your computer faster

October 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Here are 5 ways to make your computer faster …I’ll get right to the tips, cuz I know that’s what you want!

1.  Clean up junk files – Windows has a built in tool that will do this.

2.  Defragment your hard drive – again Windows has a tool for this.

3.  Clean out the Registry – the entries there accumulate over time and slow down your computer.

4.  Find the factory drivers and update them -  This one can be a little tricky.  I’ve found the factory drivers always make your computer the fastest..like when you first got it.  SOMETIMES the updated versions of factory drivers are even better than the originals, but sometimes they are worse.  Be careful.  Also, factory drivers are made specifically for YOUR computer, so they’re way better than the ones on the Windows website, performance wise.

5.  Buy more memory.

Implement these tips and you will have a noticeably faster computer.  I hope this helps!

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Another awesome virtual memory tip!

October 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I say awesome just because I can lol.  It sounds cool!  Plus, awesome is just my favorite word period.  So here goes, another virtual memory tip that you can put into effect right away and see a faster computer.

I’ve talked many times about virtual memory on my blog.  I’ve done tons of experimenting to find the actual sweet spot for virtual memory.

Some people argue that you just leave the virtual memory settings at “system managed” and let Windows take care of it.  The problem with doing that is, the page file will constantly grow and shrink and you will essentially have a slower computer.

Typically when you install Windows, the virtual memory is set like so.  The min. size is 1.5x the amount of Ram you have installed.  The max. size is 3 times the amount of Ram you have installed.

This setting is better than system managed, because the page file doesn’t grow and shrink quite as much.  But it still does grow and shrink.  We can do better.

So many people, including myself, argue that the min. and max. size should be the same, to avoid fragmentation (growing and shrinking) of the page file.  This way, your computer is a lot faster and more responsive.

The real question is not should I make the min. and max. the same, but what size should the page file be?  Well, today I was messing around more with the virtual memory, like I often do, and I tried something.

I made the min. and max. size BOTH 3 times the amount of RAM.  And whaddya know?  It helped a TON.  My computer is no longer doing the occasional slowness, it now runs at a nice fast speed.

Go ahead and try this with your own computer, you will notice a huge difference in speed.  Enjoy :)

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Computer tip: Windows update freezes

July 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Here’s a tip – for all of you who use Windows (most people do), you may have Windows updates turned on, and you may notice that when you’re installing a Windows update, the computer freezes up (saying something like installing 2 out of 3)…there is a simple fix to this.

Simply restart your computer (even though it says not to) and the update should pick up where it left off and finish.  If that doesn’t work, then simply restart your computer and keep pressing F8 until you get to the advanced boot options screen.  Then choose “Safe Mode”.

There you can boot into safe mode and The update should have finished.  Then, you can reboot into normal mode and all should be fixed.  I hope this tip helps you guys, please share it if you found it helpful!

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More graphics card overclocking for the win!!

June 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
So last night, I decided to be brave and overclock my graphics card some more.  You might be wondering why I insist on doing that, as it is pretty risky.  However, I am doing the correct way.  
My temperature is still very low, only up a degree or two from factory settings.  The way you’re supposed to do it is, adjust your clock speeds very slowly, and then either play the most intense game you can find, or use a benchmarking program to stress the card.  
Then, if both your temperature is still not too high, and you can’t find any artifacts, then you should be good to go.  Just keep in mind that overclocking CAN shorten the life of your graphics card, if you’re not careful that is!  
At any rate, my computer is now faster, which is the goal I was trying to reach, so I’ll count that as an EPIC WIN. 
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Some more Nvidia settings for you to play around with

June 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Here’s another way to get more performance out of your Nvidia graphics card.

Simply go to Nvidia Control Panel.  The two things you’ll be playing around with are “Adjust video color settings” and “adjust video image settings”.


Simply go into these two sections of the control panel, and make move all the options to “Use the Nvidia setting”.  I just leave mine at the default Nvidia settings.

When you use the Nvidia settings rather than the player settings, the card has to do less work trying to find the right settings for each player, thus, you will have greater performance.

I actually tested this out myself today, and I noticed a huge performance increase.  Videos appear to have a higher framerate, and my computer responds quicker.  It’s amazing how some little tweaks to your graphics card can improve it’s performance.  

I hope this tip helps you get more performance out of your Nvidia card.  By the way, this type of logic applies to computers in general, if you tell the computer what to do instead of making it decide, you generally get better performance.

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PWNING NOOBS O/C STYLE!!

June 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Ok, not tryin to brag or anything…in fact, I’m still somewhat of a noob at overclocking…the title of the post is just for laughs…it’s just that I found out I can overclock my graphics card quite a lot.  I forget what the GPU core bus setting was at originally (factory style), but now I have it turned up to 390Mhz.  The memory clock is up to 410Mhz from I think 333Mhz!!  
Pure Pwnage!!  Which basically means that now my graphics card pwns and I can probably play some wicked intense games on my computer.  Well, at least they would be wicked intense considering I know I couldn’t run certain games with my graphics card at factory settings (well, I could run them but not at very high FPS.)  I can’t wait to try out some first person shooters on here now, like maybe FEAR or DOOM 3, or something really fun.
Even still, at factory it’s better than the onboard graphics (ATI Radeon) that came in the computer.  Now my stuff is wayyy faster though, not bad for an Emachines, and for a Geforce 7300GT!  Once again, I’m not bragging, I’m just so friggin STOKED that I have a much faster computer now!!  I already did a post a couple weeks ago about how to optimize your Nvidia card for best performance.  
I didn’t get fully into it, however, if you go check that post out you will be able to speed up your card quite a bit.  If you REALLY want to squeeze power and performance out of your card, then I recommend going to the Nvidia website and downloading NVTweak.  Then, from the Nvidia Control Panel you can change the clock frequencies of your card under “Adjust GPU Settings”.  
You have to be extremely careful with overclocking though, because if you do it wrong you can ruin your card and even your motherboard.  Try to raise your core and memory clocks just 5 or so Mhz at a time, and be sure to click on “Test” each time you raise it.  If it passes the clock test, then you are good to go.  ALSO, you need to check NVMonitor, which installs with NVTweak.  
Look at your temperature at factory speed and then look at it once you overclock and make sure it hasn’t raised too much.  Mine is at 42 degrees celsius (after oc), if that gives you any kind of measuring guide, however each card’s temperature will vary based on the specs and the cooling it has on it.  
If you have an older card with only a heatsink and not a cooling fan, then I wouldn’t recommend overclocking your card much, because it will get too hot if you oc it too much.  Good luck with your overclocking…and just so you’re wondering I’m no expert at overclocking just yet…one of my best friends actually helped me do it the first time, so if you’re too unsure of yourself then maybe it’s best you find someone who can help you.  
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