- Jan 1, 2014
- 13
I have valid license codes for Bitdefender Total Security 2014 (giveaway), Kaspersky Internet Security 2014 (bank freebie) and F-Secure Internet Security 2014 (ISP freebie). Since my main machines are *nix and OS X I only have one Windows PC which is middle to low end (E5200, 2GB RAM, onboard gfx) but it's running Windows 8.1 x64 quite nicely since I added an SSD to spruce up the 'feel' of the OS.
Out of the three choices, which would you pick for all round protection while not being too heavy? Bear in mind some security suites can (and have) slowed this machine before now.
I've done a lot of reading this week and my old favourite pick Kaspersky seems to have lightened up and uses less resources than it used to. I did install a trial and it ran so-so on this machine. Windows, browsers etc seemed OK but KIS itself was slow to load at times so I'm wondering if Bitdefender Total Security would be lighter and still give decent protection?
I did try the F-Secure but they just don't offer enough control and features for my liking. Their firewall is practically non-existent and relies mostly on Windows' firewall from what I can see. That would be fine on a Vista/7/8 box but they don't even let you tweak the settings, it's just on or off.
So all things considered, which would you recommend? I'm thinking Bitdefender but I did like KIS when I tried it. Opinions welcome to sway me either way.
I'm not a n00b and the machine has clean backup images and any files are backed up to FTP overnight, so it's not a mission critical machine or anything. It's mostly used for browsing and torrenting before pushing files to the network and FTP, so having multiple layers of security outside of a security suite and browser with sandboxing (Chromium) is OTT. I don't need four products, just to know which of the three choices you'd pick and why. Thanks.
Out of the three choices, which would you pick for all round protection while not being too heavy? Bear in mind some security suites can (and have) slowed this machine before now.
I've done a lot of reading this week and my old favourite pick Kaspersky seems to have lightened up and uses less resources than it used to. I did install a trial and it ran so-so on this machine. Windows, browsers etc seemed OK but KIS itself was slow to load at times so I'm wondering if Bitdefender Total Security would be lighter and still give decent protection?
I did try the F-Secure but they just don't offer enough control and features for my liking. Their firewall is practically non-existent and relies mostly on Windows' firewall from what I can see. That would be fine on a Vista/7/8 box but they don't even let you tweak the settings, it's just on or off.
So all things considered, which would you recommend? I'm thinking Bitdefender but I did like KIS when I tried it. Opinions welcome to sway me either way.
I'm not a n00b and the machine has clean backup images and any files are backed up to FTP overnight, so it's not a mission critical machine or anything. It's mostly used for browsing and torrenting before pushing files to the network and FTP, so having multiple layers of security outside of a security suite and browser with sandboxing (Chromium) is OTT. I don't need four products, just to know which of the three choices you'd pick and why. Thanks.
