Computer technology, no matter how modern it may be, sooner or later becomes morally obsolete, but worse if it is physically obsolete, if it ceases to meet certain performance requirements.
The solution to this problem has been known for a long time - it is necessary to carry out modernization, in other words, to improve the computer settings. How to improve a computer?
Ways to upgrade your computer
There are two ways to do this:
Their fundamental difference is what area of the computer changes to improve the parameters: either its technical equipment when using the hardware method, or software when using, respectively, the software method for improving the characteristics.
Each method has both advantages and disadvantages, but before you deal with them, it is worth finding out in which cases a computer upgrade is necessary.
Next, the answer will be given to the question: "How to improve a computer with Windows 7?" A step-by-step instruction on improving the characteristics of the equipment will be given. The article explains how to improve the sound in the headphones on the computer.
When is a computer upgrade needed?
Sometimes people start to improve their computers because they have the opportunity to do so. There is an opportunity, but no need.
If the user has the necessary skills for this or even a specialized education, then there are no problems with such an upgrade, but if the person had never before been involved in improving the parameters of the computer and suddenly decided (without special need) to increase the performance of the device in any of two ways, then this is fraught the emergence of serious problems.
A personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC) is a complex electronic-software system. If you work with its equipment inattentively, there is nothing to do, there is a great risk of incorrectly connecting contacts or changing some of the important system settings, which will lead to computer breakdown.
In which case is it really worth improving the performance of a computer? The answer is simple: when the available device performance is not enough. Why is it missing - for the normal operation of programs, games, mining or modeling - the issue is secondary.
Next, it is worth considering in detail the hardware and software methods in order to understand how to improve the computer with their help.
It is worth noting immediately that the maximum result in increasing computer performance can be achieved by combining both methods. If there is an opportunity for this, it is imperative to implement it.
Hardware method
How to improve a computer using this method? Its essence is to replace obsolete components with new ones - modern and productive.
From the above it follows that to apply this method of increasing productivity, one needs to at least have a good understanding of the technique and be able to install it. But its use is likely to provide a significant increase in productivity.
True, there are two aspects that cannot be ignored:
- The hardware method is appropriate when replacing a large number of computer components. You should not expect that performance will increase many times from the addition of one mainboard.
- Good components are expensive.
From this we can conclude that the hardware method, although effective, is quite expensive. Especially when you consider that the software way to increase productivity is completely free.
Hardware Application Examples
As an example of the application of the hardware method, the following components can be replaced:
- CPU. This is the most obvious way to improve performance that everyone is hearing. Although it is this part of the technical equipment of the computer that is, if not the most, then one of the most expensive.
- RAM (hereinafter referred to as OP). It is a set of many boards of a certain volume. They differ not only in the size of the drives, but also in their types, which affect the performance. The trend is this: the newer the type of OP board, the faster and, alas, more expensive. But the increase in the amount of operational space guarantees a significant increase in computer performance.
- Video card How to improve the quality of the computer? This can be achieved using a video card. The speed of processing graphic data depends on the power of this device. Therefore, it is worth changing the graphics card to a more powerful one if you need comfortable work with graphics in various editors or games.
How to improve the computer hardware if the user can not independently install and configure components? If possible, it’s better for him not to learn from video on the Internet and then do everything himself, but to turn to specialists so that the latter do all the work quickly and efficiently.
Although no one forbade learning from experience. For many, improving the parameters of a computer using a hardware method is just a means to learn how to work with hardware.
Software method
To improve computer performance programmatically, you do not need to take a screwdriver and open the cover of the system unit. It is enough to turn on the PC and begin to deal with its settings.
This requires certain knowledge: it is not difficult to figure out how to install a board with an OP in a slot, and intuitively determine which background processes can be turned off and which ones are best left untouched - it is difficult.
Using the software method is more difficult, but, as mentioned above, it does not require any material investments. This is its main advantage.
If you have the necessary knowledge and experience with software, using this method you can achieve the same high results in increasing productivity as hardware.
Application examples
Examples of the use of this method of increasing productivity include:
- The choice of operating system (hereinafter OS). There is a stereotype: the most resource-intensive and undemanding operating systems - Windows XP and Linux distributions. It is not true. The most well-optimized is Windows 7. Windows XP has not received updates for a long time and is far from ideally optimized, and some Linux distributions consume a large amount of PC resources for normal operation. Therefore, the initial version of Windows 7 will be an excellent choice for those who want to improve PC performance. Sometimes, the most effective method of software upgrading a computer is reinstalling the OS.
- Optimization of programs. It is no secret that each program takes up not only free disk space, but also part of the RAM at work, which significantly reduces the speed of the computer. In this regard, you need to remove all unused programs. At the same time, space is freed up on the system disk, which, without going into technical details, the OS uses to improve performance. On a system drive, it is always better to have at least 15 GB of free space.
- Turn off the automatic launch of applications. Many programs run and work in the background. This reduces computer performance. This is especially noticeable when turned on. When the OS is rearranged again and does not yet contain a large number of programs, it comes into operation very quickly, with time everything changes. This is due to the fact that programs running in the background start independently when the OS is turned on at the same time. The system spends a large amount of free resources on them, reducing performance. To fix this problem, in most programs, such as browsers, instant messengers and gaming platforms, in the settings, disable the option "Run when you turn on the computer."
- Disable visual effects. All visual effects that are in the OS (on windows, on icons, on shortcuts, etc.) consume computer power. In particular, video cards. To eliminate the effect of visual effects on PC performance, you need to turn them off. To do this, you can choose the standard "gray" Windows theme, which was present in the first versions of the system. You can do this in the personalization settings.
- Using analogues of programs. All programs have analogues that are less demanding in terms of performance, which are often limited by the availability of functions. They should just be used to increase productivity. For example, to minimize image editing, you can use not “heavy” Photoshop, but “light” standard Paint or Paint.net.
- Using special software. There is a list of programs that clean the computer from unnecessary files that accumulate in the system and degrade performance. These include CCleaner: a program that removes a temporary useless cache and fixes registry errors. Such programs take up little disk space and are undemanding in terms of resource consumption.
It is worthwhile to touch on the topic of optimizing other versions of Windows. Many, for example, are interested in how to improve the performance of a computer on Windows 10. In fact, there are no differences from what is written above. All tips are relevant for all modern versions of Windows, starting with XP. How to improve computer performance on Windows 7? As described above.
It should be noted that this method of increasing productivity is more correctly called not modernization or improvement, but optimization.
Separate method
You should also tidy up the system unit. In the process of using a computer, dust gets into the system unit, which, without going into technical details, slows down the system. To avoid this, you need to regularly clean components from dust. This method of increasing productivity cannot be attributed to either software or hardware, and it does not have significant efficiency (unless, of course, the unit is cleaned more often than once every 10-15 years).
Sound enhancement
Many users are interested in how it is possible to improve not only the PC performance parameters, but also how to improve the sound on the computer. This can also be done in two ways: hardware and software.
How to improve the microphone on a computer in hardware? To improve the sound reproduced through the microphone in hardware, you must install a high-quality sound card and purchase the appropriate microphone. Much depends on the settings of these devices. So the hardware method is partially mixed with the software one. Moreover, it is the most effective.
How to improve the sound on a computer through a microphone programmatically? You can change the system settings of this device by setting the volume and sensitivity of the microphone to the desired level. It is worth noting right away that this method is less effective than hardware-software, because with all the desire it is impossible to make a professional sound recording device from the microphone in the headphones for objective reasons.
How to improve the sound of headphones on a computer? With sound through the headphones a similar situation. It can be configured using system applications and programs from driver developers, to make frequency adjustments, but at the same time, the sound quality in headphones for a conditional 5000 rubles can not be compared with the sound quality in a device for 500 rubles.
What are the results of software and hardware upgrades?
After upgrading as recommended in this article, you can achieve significant success in improving productivity. Both hardware and software methods give impressive results. Hardware upgrades do boost computer performance at times.
It will be possible to achieve even more significant successes in increasing the system performance if both methods are combined: they do not have any negative effect on each other; on the contrary, complement one another.
To implement this idea, not only serious financial, but also time and mental expenses will be needed. If it is not possible to buy a new modern PC, this will be the best option for improving productivity. If there is such an opportunity, but there is no desire to spend time setting up hardware and programs, the right way is to buy a new modern PC by investing more money in it.
How to improve a computer for games? Exactly as described above.
Output
The methods of PC modernization described in the article allow you to install the necessary software and comfortably play demanding games, work with resource-intensive software. The latter is especially true for students of technical specialties who work on laptops with "heavy" programs, for example, designed to simulate physical phenomena or objects. It is known that most laptops do not differ in high performance, so their software optimization can greatly improve technical data without additional material investment.
The main thing is to follow those tips on improving computer performance, which are given in this article. Then productivity will increase.