So I'll list a few small tips that anyone will be able to pull off so that they can get some smoother framerates. It's meant for people who are newer or aren't as ech savvy.

1. When you first boot up your computer or just plain reinstall, immidiately make a new account named Gaming or something of the sort. Only use this for games and never install anything in there besides games. When an application asks you to be installed on all users just say no. The less things you've installed the lower the chance any of them randomly start taking up cpu and ram mid-game.

2. Your firewall can cause some weird problems. I have the ESET firewall and it causes some of the weirdest problems when it comes to gaming or IMing. Turning it off may enable you to host/join games if you've had problems with that, or it may just plainly better your connectino to the host. It really depends on the anti-virus and the firewall.

All the other knowledgable members feel free to add more. I'll add more as I remember them, if I do.

I don't create a second account, though that would help I'm sure.

I just make sure I don't have any processes on I don't need.

If you're comfortable with it, type msconfig in the Run bar on your Start Menu, and go to the Startup tab. There's a bunch of programs that you probably don't need running all the time, and you can deselect them so that they don't start when you restart your PC. This makes things a bit quicker. You just might need to look up the names of the processes to make sure you can disable them safely.

When I play games I also turn off my antivirus, since it can slow things down a little.

I don't use a second account for gaming because I just use msconfig to disable any startup programs that I don't need.

edit: d'oh, BenKenobi beat me to it

You can actually do that with services if for some reason you see some you don't need. Just be careful. Some turn off things that are important.

the best way is to buy a separate network card so that all network processes get processed and skips the CPU thanks to the NPU (network processing unit).

Disable any hardware your not using in BIOS and system settings. Make sure and manually set your swap file and be sure that it is not fragmented, put it on a drive by itself if possible.

1. Install Windows
2. Install firewall, antivirus, and all stuff that you only need for gaming
3. Make iso-file out of it.
4. Install Linux
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- Use linux for anything else but gaming. (This way your windows won't get bloated.)
- When playing games, shutdown your antivirus program (You don't need it while playing.)
- When playing games, shutdown explorer. (Yes, you can do it. Use taskmanager to run games.)
- When playing single player games, cut off your network connection and shutdown your firewall. (No connection = no need for firewall.)
- Just flush out your windows every now and use iso-file to restore it to the point when it was freshly installed. (Depends how much you use your windows. Maybe every second month, maybe two times in year. This also provides nice protection against virus and again no bloat.)