Enhance Performace of a Windows 8.1 based PC.

[Rangan Das]

My system configuration is as follows:

• 
  MB: Gigabyte 970A-DS3
  CPU: AMD FX-8320 with stock cooler
  GPU: AMD Radeon HD7850 2GB DDR5
  RAM: 8GB DDR3
  HDD1: Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200RPM (single partition with Windows 8 installed)
  HDD2: WD Green 2TB

I need my PC for heavy designing using Adobe Illustrator CC. I also need to work a lot with photos and so I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 and occasionally Adobe Photoshop CC too. I always use the x64 versions of the softwares. Also, there is a lot of documents that I have to work with regularly. I use Office 2013 that I bought with Windows on a regular basis and occasionally, I use Adobe InDesign CC too.

Also, I play games occasionally. Mostly, the latest titles like BF4 and NFS Rivals, but that too only during the weekends. Along with that, I use Visual Studio 2013 at times too.

Now, my PC is a bit slower that what it was right after the build. I use TuneUp Utilities 2014, but I don't mess much with it; I leave it to auto and let it do it's work. All my Adobe and Office programs are installed in my system partition (250GB HDD) and also, I keep RAW and JPEG photos, along with the illustrator files and the office documents in My Docs and My Pictures. I think I need a good defrag program, or anything else that would speed up my PC. I tried Diskeeper for three weeks, but my PC froze and crashed four to five times in a week.

So, after assessing what my situation is and all the programs that I have on my hard drive, what should be a good PC maintenance program/schedule? And what defrag program should I use, given that I am looking forward a longer HDD lifespan.

P.S. Can't afford a SSD right now.

 

[Dave8671]

Lets test your memory first. Go to control panel and click on administrative Tools than windows memory diagnostic. this has two options restart and test or test after next restart. lets see if anything is wrong.

If the result is normal than you may have software running in the background that will slow down the system. that is where Glary utilities comes in to play. Read about it on the link I have provided. Do you have a virus or malware protection? I use AVG virus free and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free. Malware can slow down the system as will perform all the maintenance software first than smart defrag 2 last.

I use these programs one is smart defrag2 and I use Glary utilities for other maintenance for years now.

http/www.glarysoft.com/glary-utilities/

http/www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html

http/www.malwarebytes.org/free/

 

[Rangan Das]

Lets test your memory first. Go to control panel and click on administrative Tools than windows memory diagnostic. this has two options restart and test or test after next restart. lets see if anything is wrong.

If the result is normal than you may have software running in the background that will slow down the system. that is where Glary utilities comes in to play. Read about it on the link I have provided. Do you have a virus or malware protection? I use AVG virus free and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free. Malware can slow down the system as will perform all the maintenance software first than smart defrag 2 last.

I use these programs one is smart defrag2 and I use Glary utilities for other maintenance for years now.

http/www.glarysoft.com/glary-utilities/

http/www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html

http/www.malwarebytes.org/free/

I did that once using Memtest x86. I ran the standard test with 2 passes. Ran fine. Extended test stuck at 21%.
I have Windows Defender only and I keep it updated.

BTW, which do you think is better TuneUp or Glary? And I think SmartDefrag is not that effective, is it?

 

[Dave8671]

I have use the Glary utilities free and I think it does the job. Tuneup 14 has from what I read only 15 day trial. As for Smart defrag2. I had setup windows defrag program to run once a month last year. Today I scanned the C: drive and it was fragmented even though windows said it was fine. I ran smart defrag 2 after I scanned the drive again with smart and it was no fragmentation needed. Though my drive needs replaced now my system is 4 years old.

Back in 2012 I had a Trogan Horse that would not let windows defender load I had to reinstall windows 7 to fix it, that is why I changed to AVG. Windows defender does not detect malware either btw. AVG will not find malware so I use Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. both of these programs have a paid version I never needed them so far.