Anti-virus.. Which one to get?

I feel a bit ashamed of asking this, as I know my ins-and-outs about PCs, specially hardware/software matters and security. This time, though, I feel a bit doubtful as to which AV I should get.

I have been an ESET user for a long time, specifically ESS4 . And now that version 5 came out, I want to take the opportunity to get the best-of-the-best AV.

Another reason why I am asking this, and why I feel like leaving ESET and using something else, is because ESS has been killing my CPU lately. I have no idea how or why, but its core process (ekrn.exe) is just hogging my machine (which is quite good: core i7, 4gb ram ddr3 1333mhz, windows 7 64bit, etc.).

So I trust your opinions and suggestions. I am leaning towards Kaspersky, but am not sure how well it does performance-wise.

Thanks!

I’ve used AVG for a few years now and couldn’t be happier. And the best part is it’s free! I’m not sure how it is performance wise since I don’t ever monitor my CPU usage but I have a nearly identical setup as you and don’t notice anything unusual with it.

Avg also

JamiGibbs said
I’ve used AVG for a few years now and couldn’t be happier. And the best part is it’s free! I’m not sure how it is performance wise since I don’t ever monitor my CPU usage but I have a nearly identical setup as you and don’t notice anything unusual with it.

Hey Jami, thanks a bunch. Would you mind opening your task manager (if you’re running Windows, right-click your taskbar click the “Start Task Manager” option) and under the Processes tab, seeing how much memory AVG is using?

I would really appreciate that!

crozer said

JamiGibbs said
I’ve used AVG for a few years now and couldn’t be happier. And the best part is it’s free! I’m not sure how it is performance wise since I don’t ever monitor my CPU usage but I have a nearly identical setup as you and don’t notice anything unusual with it.

Hey Jami, thanks a bunch. Would you mind opening your task manager (if you’re running Windows, right-click your taskbar click the “Start Task Manager” option) and under the Processes tab, seeing how much memory AVG is using?

I would really appreciate that!

No problem. It’s sitting at 1,668k right now.

I’m using Kaspersky for over three years and happy with it. Not free (20,- €/year) but really worth the price

If I check the the task manager it’s most time at ‘00’ and jumps up to ‘01’ or ‘02’ every 15 seconds. It uses less then 3MB of RAM

I use the free version of Avast and I’m really happy with it. I never had any viruses and the CPU usage is very low, even on my ancient AMD Sempron 3000+ @ 1.80 GHz.

Non, just CCleaner and careful browsing. I’m sitting at two-years with AV and no problems.

I am using Norton Internet Security and i can say that my pc is going very well. Newest NIS 2012 is superfast. Never had problems with trojans , viruses etc…

JamiGibbs said
No problem. It’s sitting at 1,668k right now.

Okay that’s great, ESS is at 90,440k as we speak.

revaxarts said
If I check the the task manager it’s most time at ‘00’ and jumps up to ‘01’ or ‘02’ every 15 seconds. It uses less then 3MB of RAM

So Kaspersky is always lying around 3,000K or so, or is this something rare?

Non, just CCleaner and careful browsing. I’m sitting at two-years with AV and no problems.

I know what you’re saying, but sometimes I need an extra hand of security, specially when I need to download all sorts of resources.