PC Maintenance/Rant

[DMZs]

Well I have been reading some forums lately that say pc gaming sucks, beacouse it slows down your PC and that Devs lose alought of money on it becouse of Torrent sites. Thats not all based on hard facts and I have read some about the stuff.

First off if you want a pc that runs smooth you have to give it maintenance like you do your car or truck. Some people ask WHY pc when I can spend 299$ and get a console and not have to worrey about that small inconvenience.Well why buy a console there hard wair sucks, there graphics look 9 years old compared to my 700$ desktop I made. And I will say this one time if you buy a pc from a store its massivly overpriced then what you could build in your bedroom. Im 19 made my pc when I was 17. Its not hard to make your own pc its a MYTH if you pased the 9th grade you can make a desktop. Im not smart and I know im not and if I could make one you can to.

Well here is a fuw programs that will make it easy and some are free to keep your pc runing in top shape. And all of them can be attomatic.

*System Restore (make * you always atleast have one)

*Advanced SystemCare 4-It cleans your registry to improve pc proformince, has Shortcut Fix, System Optimization, Privacy Sweep, Junk Files Cleaner, Passive Defense, Disk Scan and a good Disk Defragmenter and a rescue center to roll back any changes on your pc. It has a fuw options to make your pc run in top shape easy. You can set a daily time that it does its optimzations, privacy erase etc.. And there are 2 main options that keep you in control, you can do a Quick Care witch last like 4 minutes and that does 12 repairs or a Deep care that is indepth and really helps your pc. It also has a Turbo Boost and a Toolbox. http://download.cnet.com/Advanced-Syste ... 07614.html

*Smart Defrag 2-With this utility you can quickly analyze your hard drive to check the level of defragmentation before committing to a scan. The interface shows you different colored blocks representing fragmented files, frequently used files, and more, with a helpful key to show what each colored block represents.
When you're ready to pull the trigger, you can choose from a straight defragmentation (fastest), or have Smart Defrag perform either a fast or "deep" optimization after defragmentation. Our test machine has a rather full hard drive, so even using the fast optimization took close to 40 minutes. Depending on your hard drive and level of defragmentation, your mileage may vary. In addition to the solid defragmentation tools, you can have Smart Defrag automatically defrag the files you use the most without significantly slowing down your system. Even while performing a full defragmention and optimization run, the program barely uses as much as 25MB of RAM, and with just the auto-defrag running continually, it uses about half that amount.
Smart Defrag offers a few extras, including a scheduler so you can set it up to only defrag during downtime on your computer. You can set it to run scans on bootup or even have the app shut down your computer when it's done defragging selected hard drives or partitions.
It's important to note that Smart Defrag is not as essential for those running Windows 7 because the OS defrags continually on it's own. But if you run external drives connected to a Windows 7 computer, this utility will still come in handy for keeping them running smoothly.
Overall, if you want a quick and solid defrag utility to make your computer run more smoothly, with added options for scheduling and other extras, you should definitely download this program. Both beginner and advanced users will have no trouble operating this solid utility.
http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html

*Virus Scaner-Having a reliable virus scanner on your computer is a necessity if you use the internet at all. There are so many viruses and forms of spyware out there that it can be difficult to keep up with them. Having anti virus software on your computer and updating every single day is the best way to protect your computer and the information it holds.
There are many websites out there where you can find a virus scanner but it is imperative that you only download programs from extremely reliable sites. Many forms of spyware and viruses disguise themselves as harmless so that they can infiltrate your computer. I have seen viruses that attempt to enter your computer by popping up as an ad telling you that your computer is infected.
There are popups that will claim that they can scan your computer for viruses and even destroy any that they may find. You must be careful not to ever click on one of these popups. Once you click on the window, you have opened your computer to a virus and possibly spyware. The best advice possible is to never click on a popup ad. There is just no way of knowing for sure what you may be getting yourself and your computer into.
If you want to get a virus scanner for your computer, you should go to a respected website. Be wary of any software that you have never heard of. It is always a good idea to go with who and what you know and if you don't know anything about a particular website or its downloads, avoid them at all costs.
Remember that although it is important to have a working and updated virus scanner watching over your computer at all times, where you get the virus scanner is equally if not more important. Be very skeptical of everything on the internet. There is so much junk out there and an endless supply of hackers, virus makers, and garden variety * that you must be vigilant when it comes to keeping your computer out of harm's way.
Norton or AVG are you best betts it one thang you probley should not skip on if you have a laptop. Norton has some good features for wifi witch come in handy if you take your pc places.

Norton- http://antivirus.norton.com/norton/ps/3 ... 7778499076

AVG- http://www.avg.com/us-en/buyav-ppc_1?ct ... VG&wm_sd=1

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Ok I like talking to people about this topic. In most ways Game Stop is Worse than all the PC pireters combined. A game comes out for 50$ then the next day they guy sell it back to game stop gets discount then game stop goes and sells the same game for 50$ and in some cases more then what it costs new. So they make 120% profit and the develpers get 0$. And you know your going to buy a copey of a high priced game used, and with used games the developers get 0 profit. Im not going to be a hypocrit and lie and say I dont piret a fuw games here and there. But all my games I buy digitally and im not going to pay for a game that 50$ in store and online when 13% shiping/packaging and like another 5% or 10% is the stores take its cheating the consumer big time. And there has not been a game yet that I have pireted that I have not payed for like a week latter, so I could be part of the community and get patches and the likes.

Lionhead: Pre-owned worse than PC piracy [Eurogamer]

With experience on both the PC and Xbox 360, Fable studio Lionhead is well aware of the pitfalls of both platforms. And feels one pitfall is deeper than the other.

"Piracy these days on PC is probably less problematic than second-hand sales on the Xbox," Lionhead's Mike West told Eurogamer. "I've been working on PC games for many years and piracy is always a problem. There are a lot of honest people out there as well, and if they like your game they'll buy it."

Saying that any sales Lionhead makes on the PC version of the 2010 role-playing game are a "bonus", West adds "For us it's probably a no-lose even with piracy as it is. But, as I say, second-hand sales cost us more in the long-run than piracy these days."

That's an easy one to calculate. A game pirated does not automatically equate to a game stolen, because there's no guarantee the culprit would ever have bought it in the first place. But a pre-owned sale? That's a definite purchase, where money changed hands and a physical copy of a game went home with somebody. And not a cent of that makes its way back to a developer or publisher.

[Bobkyou]

Just to post a little real life experience, back in the day I used to suggest to all my friends that they assemble their own computer. I'd help them out making sure they bought the pieces that were the best price for the money, that they didn't have any glaring bottlenecks, and that the computer would be upgradeable without having to replace the motherboard. I'd then find myself stuck supporting the computer for the next 3 or 4 years.

The problem is, a person who isn't tech savvy is not prepared to support a computer by themselves. If something breaks, trying to get help to diagnose it on forums or some remote site is a lot of effort, and a lot of the answers posted are the blind leading the blind, which can end up making the problem worse. Putting together your own system can save a lot of money and get you the system with the perfect specs for your needs, and its a great learning experience to become better at computers. It can also be an endless money pit and a source of years of frustration if you aren't prepared for it. You have to ask yourself if you are prepared to learn and to potentially spend a lot of hours and a lot of frustration diagnosing problems, or if you have a tech savvy friend nearby who will be willing to put up with you. Nowadays I always suggest to my computer illiterate friends that they buy a Dell with the 4 year support/warranty plan just so I don't end up having to support their computer every other week


For those looking to get into it, newegg.com is generally the best site to buy computer parts from. They have good prices, fast shipping, and they take returns without a lot of hassal (getting parts that are dead upon arrival is a very common problem when buying online, and a website with a good return policy is a must). I'd suggest you get a tech savvy friend to look over the pieces you are buying before you make your purchase, as chances are you have made a mistake or two that can end up costing you several hundred dollars.

For the antivirus, I recommend Avast in addition to your regular software. Avast is free and offers a boot time scan, which is rare for the free scanners. A boot time scan is a fantastic tool for getting rid of evasive viruses. I don't recommend avast as your primary anti virus though, as it does have a few more false positives than other anti virus programs. I just disable the avast resident shield so it doesn't conflict with whatever other anti virus software I'm running.

Keep in mind that anti virus software is not foolproof, its not the be all end all of computer security. If your AV software encounters a new virus or a rare virus, there's a chance the AV software will miss it. I use a site that scans a file with 40+ different anti virus programs, and the average capture rate for non main stream viruses I see is ~16/40, less than 50%. And its not 'this AV software always catches the virus while this one doesn't.' It's a complete roll of the dice. However you shouldn't run multiple resident shields at the same time (the part of AV software that scans every file your computer accesses) as many of them don't work well with each other and it can greatly hurt the performance of your computer. Making sure your Windows, web browser, and other software is all up to date can do a lot to improve your security, as can avoiding questionable websites and disabling java scripts.

[DMZs]

That is a pretty good Site.