After forking over your hard-earned cash on a new gaming PC, you want
to make sure it stays in ship-shape. In this article I look at some
good practices for minimizing damage and unnecessary wear on your PC.
1. Good PC ventilation
First, keep it properly ventilated. This cannot be overemphasized, an
adequately ventilated PC case is a must if you want optimal performance
from your components. The faster our new hardware becomes the more heat
it generates. Some of this is dealt with well with heat-sinks and
fan-air – this is the case with your central processor and graphics
processing unit.
But despite the revolutionary designs of these heat-sinks and fans,
heat still will reside inside the case and cause the core temperature to
heat up. The hotter the inside of your case is, the hotter the
components inside will be.
Ideally what you want is 4 case fans:
- 1 at the front that sucks cold air in and spreads it over the components
- 1 side-case fan that pulls air in and blows it on the graphics card, processor and ram
- 1 fan at the rear of the case that pulls the hot air out the back
- 1 fan at the top of your case that also sucks hot air out the top.
Your case too should be well designed to maximize heat dissipation.
This will effectively help your fans reach their full potential in
getting out the unwanted heat from your case. Example is
Cooler Master High Air Flow (HAF) 932 Full-Tower PC case. It has all the
important fans mentioned above and has ample space to host any and all
hardware peripherals, with lots of room and cut-outs for good
cable-management.
2. Prevent the buildup of dust in the keyboard and casing with compressed air
Here is another potential heat issue. Most modern PC cases come with
dust-filters, but even with these on your case dust can easily get
inside and wreak havoc on the hardware. Over time dust build-up can get
in the way of fan circulation and serve to block vents from releasing
hot air.
To unsure a dust-free case, or at least as dust-free as possible, it is recommended that open your case up about 3-4 times in the year to
make sure that dust build-up is to a minimum.
All you will need is:
- 1 canister of compressed air
- 1 dust mask
- Some cleaning fluid
- A well ventilated room
- 1 full canister of elbow-grease (available in most people if you look hard enough)
Make sure when you’re cleaning it out, to first ensure the computer
is powered down, and that you don’t apply too much pressure to any one
of the components. All you want to do is make sure you remove any
residual dust and be sure all areas of ventilation are free from
dust-buildup.
3. Keep a decent amount of free space on the hard drive
You may notice that after you install Windows on your hard drive for
the first time, everything seems to run well. Programs open with
lightening-like reflexes and there’s generally a much more responsive
feel to the PC. But over time, with an increased number of applications
installed and an over-abundance of digital photography, music and office
documents strewn about the sectors on the drive, it soon starts to lose
that pep and begin to operate more like an arthritic limb.
One of the reasons for this is hard drive fragmentation. What this
basically means is over time your hard drive will shuffle pieces of data
around to different sectors in order to accommodate incoming
information. Your hard drive then has a
harder time finding
this information as it needs to read from different locations and
generally takes longer to get the stuff you’re looking for. This is
happening when:
- You open up your browser and you’re starting to get angry at the PC as it’s making you wait an inhumane amount of time.
- You launched a game .exe seven hundred years ago and the little clock-timer is still ticking.
- Your PC is taking increasing longer to boot up.
And so on so forth, you could fill in the blanks yourself. A few easy
maintenance practices can ensure that you minimize the chance of this
sort of sluggishness from your rig.
- Keep some free space on your hard drive at all times. About 15% is a good figure to aim for.
- Run Windows Disk Defragmenter regularly. I would say once every 6-8
weeks is sufficient. This ensures the files on your disk are
consolidated and it is easier therefore for your hard drive to find what
it is looking for and thus, what you’re looking for.
In windows 7 simply open up My Computer from the start menu, find the
drive your operating system is on (usually C:), right click the drive
and select properties. You then need to find the tools tab and from
there click on defragment now.
Defragmenting a hard drive can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 5
hours. Be sure to do this when you don’t plan on using the computer for a
little while. Defragmentation of a hard drive is very taxing on any
system and it is advisable to give your processor all the power it can
have. So leave it going and get a bite to eat or go for a walk and when
you come back and it should be done.
4. Even gamers are vulnerable to viruses, shape up or break down
The internet has changed so much over the past 10 years. These days
threats from phishing scams, and virus attacks are common-place and the
unfortunate reality for anyone connected to the world wide web is that
they have to take responsibility for their computers safety.
Viruses are so insidious these days they can cause you more than a few headaches. Most modern viruses can:
- Steal your credit-card information
- Steal passwords from your web browser
- Hijack your start-up page
- Send a version of itself to all your friends via your contacts list
- Cause detrimental instability and poor performance to your computer
The list goes on and on. You get the picture. The internet is a great
place for communication, information and leisure but you must ensure
your PC is adequately prepared for the net’s ugly side.
First if all you should have at a minimum:
A FirewallWindows 7/Vista and XP Service Pack 2 all come with a firewall built
in. A firewall simply monitors communication made from your PC (via any
programs installed) to other PCs on the internet and vice versa. A
firewall can detect any unauthorized activity on your PC and potentially
prevent a harmful virus from doing more damage. They can also prevent
port-sniffers from even seeing your PC World Wide Web by hiding (or
stealthing) your computer’s service ports.
Antivirus SoftwareThe history of antivirus software on PCs is a sordid affair of
sluggish performance and regret. Some antivirus suites (I’m looking at
you Symantec) can really bog your PC down with bloated and often
unnecessary services. This can be a real issue for anyone who uses their
PC for gaming.
Fortunately though, in recent years Microsoft has gotten off its
gluteus and taken security much more seriously, thanks in part to people
like Steve Gibson and a host of others. Redmond now offers its own brand of antivirus software called
Microsoft Security Essentials.
Frankly the name doesn’t roll off your tongue but don’t be put off by
the overabundance of syllables. This is an extremely good-performing AV
program that doesn’t hit PC performance. It’s very light with a minimal
install and a minimalist approach to user interface and configuration.
Microsoft Security Essentials is an absolute must-have for any Windows user. Best of all it’s
free to download from Microsoft’s website. No more paying subscriptions to unscrupulous
corporations that prey on Windows insecurity like a pack of starving
Hyenas.
5. Good Internet Practices
Even with an up-to-date PC with all the latest patches and decent AV
software, your best line of defense is prevention. The key to not
getting your PC infected with a nasty virus or internet worm is good
internet common-sense. Your AV should be your last line of defense.
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The game has been such a hit, in fact, that some people feel it's having a negative impact on the PC game industry as a whole. Their reasoning is that, instead of purchasing several games a year like they used to, many gamers are now too wrapped up in WoW to relinquish time and money to other titles, single-player or otherwise. It goes without saying that a successful product will always hurt its competitors, but could it be that WoW's popularity will result in lower PC game sales overall?
