If you want all the details, and I mean all the details, get a copy of the best-selling book Upgrading and Repairing PCs, by Scott Mueller, published by Que. This chapter just scratches the surface of the ins and outs of hardware installation and updates. If you're anywhere between these two extremes, however, you may want to look at the tune-ups and hardware upgrades we'll discuss in this chapter. Your system is probably running just fine, and the time you'd spend trying to fine-tune it might be better spent doing whatever it is you use your computer for (like earning a living).
#CHANGE MOTHERBOARD VISTA WINDOWS#
Some of the settings you can make are discussed in Chapter 22, "Windows Management and Maintenance " Chapter 23, "Tweaking and Customizing Windows " and Chapter 24, "Managing Hard Disks."īy the same token, if you're doing common, everyday tasks such as word processing, and you're already satisfied with the performance of your computer as a whole, you probably don't need to worry about performance boosters. You might just adjust the page file sizes and certainly convert all your partitions to NTFS (which tip is a requirement for Windows 7), or you might add a ReadyBoost device (more on this later in this chapter).
#CHANGE MOTHERBOARD VISTA WINDOWS 7#
Now, if you're already running Windows 7 on a full-bore, state-of-the-art system, and your computer has a fast video accelerator, a couple of gigs of fast memory, and fast SATA disks, there isn't much more you can do to optimize its hardware. I discuss adding RAM and upgrading CPUs later in this chapter. Memory is inexpensive these days, and boosting your RAM to at least 1GB will make a huge difference. As discussed in the early chapters of this book, Windows 7 can run with as little as 512MB of RAM and an 800MHz CPU, but it will run a bit slowly, and you'll find the experience somewhat unpleasant. RAM holds Windows and the programs you're actually using, and Windows 7 wants more RAM than Windows XP, but is happy with what works for Vista (if not even slightly less).
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Just as a reminder, your computer uses two types of memory: hard disk space and RAM. The single most helpful thing you can do to make your Windows 7 computer run at peak speed is to give it enough system memory (or RAM, short for random access memory).
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The book has information on various Windows 7 topics, including installing and upgrading Windows 7, multimedia and imaging, networking, maintenance and security. This chapter excerpt on Installing and Replacing Hardware (download PDF) is taken from the book Microsoft Windows 7 In Depth.