In our previous part, we had offered some simple tips on how to improve the PC performance. And those tips related to the software side of things – clean up, defragment, get rid of malware etc. However, there are times when the hardware needs a bit of a look as well.

Here are some guides on how to load the PC with the necessary hardware, to make the desired performance improvements.

The more RAM the better. Or is it?
This is a big question that people ask when they are buying a laptop. And they continue to ask this later if they have purchased a notebook with the incorrect amount of RAM. Essentially, if your system has a 64-bit OS, you should install 4GB of RAM. Not only does this OS fully utilize the RAM, but also helps improve performance of the applications because of the additional RAM available. However, the point is, how much more RAM do you need? 6GB? 8GB? 12GB? Not likely. For normal home usage, 4GB is more than enough. For a bit of gaming, 6GB will do. Any more than that would really be an overkill. After all, most apps can’t utilize so much RAM anyway.

SSD: Take the next step
This one is the real performance booster. An SSD will improve the performance of the notebook quite considerably. Windows boot up time will come down to some seconds, instead of minutes as we see with a conventional HDD. Furthermore, SSD’s don’t suffer from defragmentation as much as HDDs do.  Agreed, SSDs are still quite costly, when you look at the price per GB figures, but for the performance enthusiast, it will be money well spent, you can also try using two drives side by side, with the OS on the SSD for enhanced performance, and the older HDD for data storage.

Windows Updates for better performance
Not only will the updates contain security patches, the performance patches do tend to improve performance of the OS. Also, additional devices are made compatible with the OS over time by these updates. Two pronged benefit of improving performance then! Microsoft usually pushes out updates once a month – also known as Patch Tuesday. We advice you to keep a look out for that, and download the updates as and when available.

Download the latest drivers
All hardware components installed in the laptop communicate with the operating system via a software code, simply known as drivers. These drivers dictate the performance, features and how the hardware device communicates with the OS. Hardware manufacturers regularly push out driver updates for the hardware, which include performance, reliability and feature updates. Updating these drivers regularly improve performance quite a bit. The most vivid case in point is the graphics drivers. We suggest you head to the laptop manufacturer’s website once a month and check for any updated drivers.