Building the Ultimate Gaming System VI

5. Clean the inside of your PC

Go ye out and buy ye a can of Compressed air. Take your PC into a room without carpet, open up the case, being careful of static electricity, and blow the dust out of the mofo like it was Christmas in October. Believe it or not, a lot of computer crashes can be attributed to dust in the PC, which is a good reason to not only blow to dust out of your PC periodically, but to stop generating dust in your damned room.

Some tips-
- Always keep the PC off at all times. It's good practice to let it "cool off" before you blow it off.
- Watch out for static electricity, this is your #1 danger.
- Use real compressed air, NEVER any cleaners or the like. Blowing isn't good practice, either. Compressed air can be found in electronics stores like Radioshack, or more hardcore technology stores.
- Don't use a vaccum or the like on your PC, it's not kosher.
- After your PC is clean, don't overdo it. The more you tamper, the more likely you are to do damage to your PC.

6. Buy accessories for your PC

If you have some expendable cash, you might want to buy some accessories for your PC. While they're few and far between, things such as laptop coolers or extra fans may help out your PC, just a little bit. However, this may be considered the least efficient of all my tips, because cooling your PC doesn't necessarily mean better power, it just means it won't catch on fire. However, it's definately something to look into.



So, I've gone over about everything I can think of in the realm of cheap speed-ups. I purposely didn't cover the most obvious answer, "GET A NEW PC", because... well, duh. In any case, all of these I've tested and work (For me), but keep in mind, not all of them will work for you. I reccomend starting off slow with simple fixes before you go blowing the dust out of your case. In any case, hope this helps.

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