Buying a prebuilt computer can be a great idea, especially in the current markets plagued with supply shortages that have sent the prices of computer components to all-time highs. So let’s go over the first 5 things to do after buying a prebuilt computer!
Restart the computer and enter the UEFI/BIOS on the computer. Look for a setting that says XMP and toggle it on. Surprisingly many OEMs do not enable this setting by default, but you can expect a nice performance boost by doing so!
Performing regular driver updates can make performance smoother, add additional functionality, and patch security flaws. Commonly, the graphics card is the component that will have updated the most often.
You can find updates on the manufacturer’s website corresponding to the component you are trying to update.
A big issue with buying a prebuilt computer is that many manufacturers will include proprietary software, which in the long run can end up slowing down your machine if there is too much of it.
Uninstalling these programs will free up space on your disk and keep background tasks minimum.
To see what programs are actively running on your PC, open Task Manager and view the “Processes” tab. Then, you can click on the column names “CPU” and “Memory” to have the task manager automatically sort through what is using the most system resources.
Open the Windows task manager and navigate to the “Performance” tab. On this view, click on Memory. Take note of the “Slots used: x out of x” values.
If the first number here is 1, then a lot of performance is left on the table for not much cost. If your motherboard supports more, you can purchase additional RAM (search online by the part number printed on the label). You could also opt for a faster kit while ensuring the amount of Memory meets your needs and runs in dual-channel mode. With two or four of the same sticks, the machine will run in dual-channel mode, increasing the bandwidth of the memory channels available to the CPU at once. 16GB is suitable for most people, but a 32GB kit will ensure you never run out of Memory.
Many OEMs will only fill a single slot of RAM on the boards to save on costs and leave ~3-10% of performance on the table.
Run “Defragment and Optimize Drives” and configure your computer to regularly optimize and defrag your drive. Solid-State Drives (SSDs), as opposed to Hard Disk Drives (HDDs), are maintained by “trimming” instead of “defragmenting” or “defragging.” Setting up this maintenance task will ensure that the drive remains as fast and healthy as possible. After setting up the disk optimization frequency, the best part is that you don’t have to tell it to optimize again manually.
Perform “Disk Cleanup” this will ensure that there are no temporary/residual files left over and keep as much space clear on the drive as possible
Continue installing driver updates regularly, as mentioned in practice number 2. Updating drivers is essential to patch known security vulnerabilities and, in many cases, increases performance.
