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There are only a few tried-and-true ways to make your computer faster: more memory, faster disks, and fewer background processes. You can, of course, but a newer computer with a faster processor, but let's assume you want to keep your current computer.

Let's discuss them each one at a time:

More Memory:

First, let's disambiguate a computer's memory and hard disk drive. Memory is known as "short-term" storage for a computer: It's fast to access (microseconds), but if you turn off the power, you lose everything in the memory. Memory is usually measured in megabytes (1048576 = 1024 x 1024 bytes) or gigabytes (1073741824 = 1024 x 1024 x 1024 bytes). Most new computers in 2009 come with 2 gigabytes (2GB) of memory standard, but you can add more for additional cost.

Your disk (or hard drive) is "long-term" storage for a computer. Access is "slower" (milliseconds), but when you turn off the power, everything remains intact. Hard drives are measured in gigabytes, and the typical new computer these days comes with at least a 320 GB hard disk drive.

Most operating systems (Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows Vista, for example) support a means by which you can run a lot of programs simultaneously without having enough memory to hold them all at the same time. They use something called virtual memory, which takes the programs you are not using and puts them temporarily onto the disk (called swap space) and only hold the programs you are using in memory.

Now, remember, disk is slow (relatively) - memory is fast. If you have 2GB of memory, and you run programs which exceed that 2GB (which most people do), then your computer is taking time to write the "unused" memory to and from disk.

Increasing your memory will therefore speed your computer up if you do a lot of things at once which require a lot of memory. Web browsing, these days, takes up more and more memory with video and other media streaming...

Faster disk:

Now, as I mentioned, disk accesses are "slow" (again, relative to other speeds in computer) - and most disk drives have a metric associated with them called "access time." This is the amount of time after a request to read a file that the hard disk drive is ready to read the request.

The second metric associated with a disk drive is the "throughput." This is how fast the drive can read data into memory from the disk. Throughput times are measured in gigabytes per second.

You can increase your throughput easily by running a disk defragmentation tool on your hard drive regularly. A disk defragmenter takes big files and places them next to each other on the disk, eliminating the "access time" for the whole file.

Windows XP or later has a disk defragmenter of these built into the operating system. You can right-click on "Local Disk (C:)", choose the "Tools" tab, and click "Defragment now ..." Doing this regularly can speed up your computer because files are placed contiguously on the disk (eliminating multiple access times to read a single file...)

Adding a drive with faster access time and throughput time will also make your computer much faster. This is somewhat more complex, and should probably be done by a rent-a-geek or other computer consultant.

Finally, fewer background processes:

People install software on their computer all of the time. What few people do know is that a lot of installed software runs background processes - little programs that run all the time in the background (you can't see them) to do various and sundry tasks. Even Microsoft Word has a background program that ... makes Microsoft Word launch faster. (I am not kidding...) Sometimes these background processes are important, but most of the time they are not.

Many companies make a good business selling "Computer optimizing" software which "tune your registry." Since most people don't even know what a registry is, and these companies play on fear and ignorance, many people buy the kits.

You can do the equivalent of these "kits" by removing most background processes using a free tool called Startup Control Panel which lets you turn off many of these background processes. Using this will save memory, and it will likely make your computer start up faster. The hard part is choosing which ones to turn off, but an internet search on the file names you see in here will likely give you your answer.

Finally, I recommend anyone using a PC with Windows to use Spybot Search and Destroy, a free program which cleans up any spyware (similar to the paid registry cleaners) and useless background processes on your system.

All in all, though, it's best to budget the purchase of a new computer every 3 years. At today's prices ($350 for a low-end desktop model), this works out to around $10 per month, and it's well worth the investment.

Be sure to donate your old computer to your local school or charity.

Learn more about this author, Kent Davidson.
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