All hardware specs being equal, laptops often end up being more expensive than desktops. Apparently, a very high premium is placed on gadget portability. Laptops’ portable design, however, carries a very major downside: The design has to be very streamlined and economical so as to allow lighter weights and compact convenience, but this severely limits laptop design as the laptop parts have to be constructed in very specific dimensions. This forces consumers to go to the manufacturers and the manufacturers alone when in need of laptop spare parts. Unless a gadget user is well off enough to replace his laptop every year, he will just have to contend with a quickly-aging machine.

With the right know-how, though, you can increase the usability of your laptop without having to resort to laptop replacement parts. You won’t even have to spend a single cent. Just follow the tips below to make the most of your laptop now. It’s also worth noting that while the tips below will work just as well on desktops, the very nature of laptops make these imperative for them.

Update Your GPU’s Drivers

Most laptop GPUs (graphics processing units) are built into the laptop’s motherboard; and even those that aren’t are still difficult to replace. Nevertheless, GPU manufacturers do provide constant driver updates to their existing products, increasing GPU performance by as much as 20% from its original driver configuration. While there will come a time when updating drivers for your GPU just won’t cut it anymore, these updates are nonetheless effective holdovers until you really need to make a new computer purchase.

Overclock Your System Settings

Overclocking isn’t all that foreign to desktop users, given the robust nature of their computers. However, there are a select few laptop CPUs (central processing units) that allow for such manipulations; and a few more GPUs offering the same.

With GPU overclocking, there are two settings to take note of: The core clock and the memory clock. The core clock measures the speed of the GPU’s core processor, while the memory clock measures that of its memory buffer. Deft adjustment of these two settings is required to strike a perfect balance between optimized performance and maintained stability.

It should be remembered that adjustments should be made in very small increments so as to avoid unwanted laptop part breakdowns. 5% gradual increases is a good number to use.

Make Use of Adjustable Power Settings

Most new laptops have a feature called “switchable graphics” which allocates maximum power to laptop parts only when certain programs are run (video games, mostly), and goes to energy conservation mode when lower-priority programs are used.

Shut Down Unnecessary Programs

Lastly, many programs continue to run even after they have been turned off from their respective interfaces. These programs can be determined by the appearance of their icons on the notification tray. These programs still consume system resources; and while each consumes just an infinitesimal amount, adding all those programs up could make a dent in your resources. Turn them off instead from the notification tray to maximize on power allocation.