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Do you own a PC? Maybe it’s not as fast or as new as you would like it to be. Did you know that there are several tweaks and upgrades that you can do yourself, at home, to make your PC better? No need to take it to the repair shop or call in an expert— these tricks are totally DIY.
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Clean It Up
We’re not talking about cleaning up viruses and malware, although you need to do that, too. Instead, we’re talking about giving your PC a physical cleaning. No soap and water, of course— that could fry your machine. Instead, buy a few cans of compressed air. Take the side panel or back panel off your PC and use the compressed air to blow out all the dust, dirt, and debris that has collected inside over time. This can get a little messy, so you may want to do it in a garage or in an outdoor space. Once you clean those fans and hardware components, your machine may run cooler and more quietly than before.
Also ensure that you have a good quality virus scanner to clear out any unwanted junk. Having a virus without realising can make you feel as though your computer is very sluggish, when in fact, it’s actually malware running silently in the background. Clear out any virus, malware and Trojans to re-capture your computer’s original speed. We highly recommend Kaspersky 2016 Edition, it’s one of the best you can possibly get.
Clean the keyboard with compressed air as well, and finish off with a bit of rubbing alcohol to take the grime off your mouse and your keyboard buttons. If you were suffering from sticky keys or a sluggish mouse, this may fix the problem.
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Adjust the Sound
Take a look at your current setup. If you’re just using the speakers that are built into your monitor, find a set of external speakers to beef up sound quality. If you already have external speakers, you can make them sound better by raising them up to ear level. Maybe you can’t get them up that high, but if you can angle them up towards you, you should notice an improvement in sound clarity and volume. Balance your speakers correct with your subwoofer so that your sound is crisp and clear yet rich with bass.
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Go Wired
Are your wireless devices failing to respond quickly and accurately? Switch them out for a high-quality wired keyboard and mouse. Drop the wireless network and use ethernet cables instead. Chances are, you’ll get faster data transfer speeds via the wired connection.
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Over-Clock It
Feeling bold? Try overclocking your PC’s processor and graphics card. Keep in mind that overclocking can actually hurt your machine if you do it wrong, so make sure to read up on it first. You may even want to pull in a tech-savvy friend to help if this is your first time with over-clocking. When you over-clocking these elements correctly, you can get more speed and processing power without having to spend a dime on upgrading your PC.
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Clear the Clutter
Is your desktop cluttered with random files and folders? Do you have duplicates of photos and documents stored in different places on your PC? Are there old programs that you never use cluttering up your hard drive? Set aside an hour or two each day for a week to work on cleaning up your machine’s files and folders. Hook up an external hard drive and make backup copies of anything that is important to you. Delete anything that you don’t need or want anymore. You’ll free up space, and you may notice an improvement in your PC’s performance.