Product Profile: Iobit Advanced System Care

Computers, over time, get slower; this is a fact. Your computer will never run as fast as the first day you turned it on. Why? Because shortly thereafter you load it with security patches, upgraded programs, download and install the productivity or entertainment software you need. The operating systems themselves do an incomplete job of cleaning up after themselves, posting diagnostic data in logs, keeping track of every website you’ve ever seen, running programs to see if other programs need attention.

And to meet that need for speed, there are lots of companies and software out there to ‘get your speed back’. Some claim 200% faster! (oh those people in the commmercial look so happy, it must be true.) You can choose free software, but you are only trading one frustration for another as the ‘trial version’ starts flashing ‘buy me now’ ads. You could also purchase software, but will it really work and is it worth the value?

It is no mystery to many of our customers that we have recommended and promoted one of these system optimization programs – Iobit’s Advanced System Care – for several years. Rarely will a computer leave the shop without having had this program at least run once. It is free; a paid version is about $13 more. I think that this is the best all-in-one optimization program out there (81,909,463 folks who have downloaded it, so we all can’t be wrong). So we like it. Link to download is here.

But is it worth it to buy the paid version of ASC? I set out to confirm Iobit’s claims that there were ‘more problems to fix with the PRO Edition and they guarantee a significant improvement in 30 days or your money back’.

Let’s put on our investigative yet fashionably trendy sunglasses, make a one-liner,  and find out. <cue CSI Miami’s theme Baba O’Riley>

• I tested version 5.3.0.246 which (as of 6/25/2012) is the current release of the program.
• In order to quantify and measure ‘significant improvement’ rather than use perception, I chose to use Passmark Software’s PerformanceTest as my benchmark.
• So that our results can be seen in a variety of computing environments, I ran tests on my daily work computer, my gaming computer, and my wife Lisa’s laptop (used mostly to watch internet video and surf social media).   All of these systems are about 1 year old.
• I ran the benchmark before upgrading to the paid version… but AFTER having already run the free version
• I ran the “before” test twice and the “after” test twice – both pairs of numbers matched, so I was fairly certain that the test results would be accurate

Let’s see some before and afters (click on the Before or After title to see the screenshot for that test):

ASUS Laptop

 ASUS Desktop

Toshiba Laptop

So, a change? Yes.  In some cases, it helped… and oddly in some cases it hurt.  Was the change as significant as the guarentee stated? Not in my opinion.  Was it worth the cost? I say no. My advice is to use the free version, endure the ads and save your money.