The central processing unit (CPU) is at the heart of your computer and what makes your PC tick. It is also the most important part when it comes to performance as the processor controls everything the computer does and it pays to reduce the demands on your CPU wherever you can without compromising the task you may wish to perform.

There are a number of limits as to what can be achieved in this way but it can make a real difference if done well.

The other way of increasing performance is via the simple technique of overclocking.

However, there are a host of other ways to increase the performance of your PC whether it is old or new.

In the following series of articles I’ll demonstrate and discuss a number of them.