Antiviral Software - Recommendations ?

[akseli]

Hello, right now I am running Norton Antivirus 2004 Professional and Sygate Personal Firwall Pro on my system besides my NAT configuration. (Yes, i'm a security freak, but it pays off, not one infection since 1999)

Anyway, I'm getting tired of having to disable Norton Autoprotect every time I want to do anything resource hungry on my computer, for example, playing America's Army. So, I'm in search for a better antivirus.

Better =


- Uses less system resources
- Detects viruses atleast as well as my current software+
- Short start-up times

The software can be as complex as you want, no need for ease of use --

Sys specs:

AMD Athlon XP 2400+
GA-7VT600
512MB PC-333 Corsair
80 GB 7200 RPM Seagate (ATA 100, 2mb Buffer)
Windows XP Professional

and all the rest (see RIG for more info)

 

[TheWart]

check out the informative discussion here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=33&threadid=1248485

i know i learned a lot about my antivirus programs and am now using Panda.

 

[Drakkon]

I use AVG from grisoft...its free and they seem to keep it pretty well updated as well as using fairly small ammount of resources.

 

[sd]

you could get more RAM.

 

[Toothpick]

Hello, right now I am running Norton Antivirus 2004 Professional and Sygate Personal Firwall Pro on my system besides my NAT configuration. (Yes, i'm a security freak, but it pays off, not one infection since 1999)

Hi akseli
Until just last week I was also a Norton Antivirus dude as I had Norton Internet Securities-2003 which has in it a Antivirus and firewall programs, which I always
kept updated.

Infact I was running Norton Internet Securities-2003 (AV with firewall) along with Websweeper and I ended up with a slew of virsues and worms so I ended up trashing Nortons and now I am running PC-Cillin 2003 (firewall and antivirus) and also Bitdefender. Bitdefender is just a antivirus program and to me its the best one out there.

One more thing that I would lke to comment on and that would be as I am running PC-Cillin 2003 (firewall and antivirus) with Bitdefender I don't notice any programs running slow at all and I am a gamer so running thse both does not yake a hit o my systems performance whatsoever

Good luck...the truth is out there!

 

[akseli]

I might, but at a later date. Right now i'm just looking for a cheap solution to my slowdowns. I'd have to buy another stick (512, 256 is just not worth it) of PC2700 Crutial Ram and over here in Spain it's not exactly cheap. But i'm keeping this point in mind and might, as I said before, add some ram later.

 

[akseli]

How heavy is panda on system resources ? I have a free 1 year trial of panda titanium 7 if I want it (updates included)

 

[Mem]

I would recommend Bitdefender Pro 7,here ,has daily updates and built-in firewall.