PC Tech Talk

[uuntiltheendd]

I've noticed lots of people having problems and questions on pc stuff lately and it might be a good idea to have one thread devoted to computer problems, builds, and new tech stuff that's coming out instead of someone making a new thread when someone has something they want to share.

i would like to know if there is a good free anti virus out there that i do not have to keep renewing/reinstalling. i have avast now but the free trial ran out and i guess i have to reistall it.. anybodys help would be awesome.

[acolyte_to_jippity]

www.free-av.com


that's one of the best out there. maximum PC liked it far far better than avast. it almost outperformed most of the really expensive antivirus suites. in fact, kasperski and symantec super full were the only two paid ones that beat it as far as detection rate.

very small footprint on your system's resources, background's very nice.

simple user interface...but it works.

[mag36]

i would like to know if there is a good free anti virus out there that i do not have to keep renewing/reinstalling. i have avast now but the free trial ran out and i guess i have to reistall it.. anybodys help would be awesome.

I use AVG and really like that as anti virus. You do have to switch to newer versions about once a year but hey its free

http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

[ZERO]

Maximum pc gave AVG good marks a few years ago but in recent shootouts it has been downgraded mainly for being annoying.

The first thing I think of when I hear avast is "avast another false positive off port!"

[ZERO]

So today I got the M11x in and it has been great so far! It is smaller than a broken sony vio from a few years ago that I took out of spare part storage to reference and weighs a lot less. I got the silver and love the color as it is even better than the silver in the old Alienware Area-51m, the laptop it is replacing. All the fancy features Alienware has today were not invented when I got mine so seeing the cool lighting effects and setting them up was a lot of fun. I hope that some plugins come out that will allow me to do more cool things with the effects in the future. The facial recognition also was not hard to set up and works well. I have seen this on my sisters computer too and it is not fooled by any tricks. I love the fell of the mouse and the computer as a whole has a great solid feel to it that echos its quality build. Switching between the gpus works well and you can OC the cpu though the bios from factory and without losing the warranty assuming you use their OC.

Attached is the windows experience test thing taken at stock with integrated, stock with nvidia, overclocked cpu with intigrated and oced cpu with the Nvidia chip. You will notice that the memory also improves with the oc becuase of the higher speed as they are able to run at their "normal" speed of 1066 instead of 800.

[ZERO]

For gaming I was able to run the CS:S benchmark at >100fps with the default video settings which were all turned up from what I saw.
I was able to run SC2 beta at 30fps which is all I get on this computer too for what ever reason. This was on max settings and I can say that this computer WILL run SC2 at max settings when it comes out based of what I have seen here.

Now my big mission is to find a dam bag for this thing. I want something small that isolates the computer and protects it but also has storage space for other assories like my imod and amplifier and headphones and the power bricks for those and the wall splitters and cat5 cables and usb cables and an external cd drive and space for an external HDD in the future. I am willing to use a 15" bag to do this but I can not find any that are right...

Also the metal that the case is made out of behind the LCD reflect electromagnetic waves. As a result you can not allow it to get within 2" of a crt based monitor or it can cause damage to the crt as the electromagnetic interference messes with the field produced by the crt.

[acolyte_to_jippity]

ummm, about the bag. i use a targus grove bag, sling style. i can hold plenty of books as well as my laptop, and mouse.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-446-_-Product

[alex_mamaroneck]

@ uuntiltheendd

I strongly recommend you keep everything legit. If you don't, it will backfire. Trust me. I've done computer repairs for 3 years and the major problem for customers is always their free anti-virus.
I've seen customers having 5 ANTI-VIRUS WORKING AT THE SAME TIME. All were trial version. I've had customers who came up to me saying that their new AV is better than what i recommended, but their AV turns out to be a Trojan Virus in disguise (stupid cheap assholes lol). Most customers who don't take my advice, go somewhere cheaper, or who do it themselves end up paying even more in repairs. some ended up buying another computer and the whole cycle repeats itself.

My repair process takes one whole day but its well worth the wait and money. the gauruntees all depend on the customer because its up the them to maintain a good condition to the PC.

Reinstallation is always recommended because you may have some Anti-virus that are not properly removed. also your registry will be clean and would be alot easier to install your new anti-virus. Its also best to reinstall incase your computer is highly infested with viruses.

I came across all top anti-virus such as Bit-defender, Nod32, Norton, Mcaffe, Panda, CA and Webroot. Some were complex and others had more that one program running at the same time slowing your PC performance. i've had cases where CA and Pand anti-virus were hacked and controlled. Kaspersky was the last AV i researched (regrettably). Luckily bought 5 Kaspersky Internet Securities for $20 each at Costco (it was on sale). 5 for 15 of my PCs. After reinstalling all my computers and installing Kaspersky i had not a single problems what so ever. Its very easy to use and runs on one program, real time. It will not slow down your computer like other cheap AVs. Best thing of all it works by itself it almost as if you don't have an anti-virus. its Downside is the Full Virus Scan. when you scan it... it works like a Horse taking up your speed as it works overload. good thing is that it finishes faster that other tops AVs.

To get Kaspersky Internet Security, you can buy it in Best Buy or Staples. they usually cost $80 for 3 pcs. I would go to a good website that sells for a good price. Since its not on sale in Costco anymore, i bought more on Amazon.com for $35....

Please take my advice and not go through what my customers did...

[StarsMine]

Comcast gives you free AV, it used to be Mcaffie but now its Norton.

I used to use Norton my whole computer life untill Comcast started this, and I must say back then Norton sucked (resorse hog that didint catch everything :/) but the most recent version is amazing, it will never slow down your computer while you are using it. It waits till you just idle your PC to do any updates/scans and puts them on hold if you get on.

[ZERO]

I would not trust anyone who only has 1 entry in the VB100. What is Norton afraid of, people realizing it does not work...