ESET NOD32: A Light Weight, Effective Anti-Virus

Joey Banks -

If you are running Windows, then it’s crucial that you use some type of anti-virus for security. Yes, even for those of you out there that claim you’re careful about what sites you’re on. You should still have some sort of security software installed just in case.

I used to be the guy with Symantec’s Norton antivirus. Not a great choice. First of all, it’s a memory hog, it’s slow to start up, and has a lower threat detection rate. It’s obviously not the best choice for an antivirus program. About a year ago, I made the great and wise switch from Norton 360 to ESET NOD32. What an amazing switch it was, for a number of reasons. If you have ever used Norton you will know what I mean when I say it’s bloated. It simply uses far to much ram and other resources when, well basically running in the background. I was using it on Windows XP, with fairly decent specs and when Norton would be completing it’s timed scans, you practically couldn’t do anything with out freezing your system. Not good.

Just take a look at the system requirements for each product, they speak for themselves.

Norton AntiVirus 2010 System Requirements:

Minimum Hardware Requirements
CPU: 300 MHz or faster processor
RAM: 256 MB (512 MB required for Recovery Tool)
Disk Space: 200 MB of available hard disk space

ESET’s NOD32 4 System Requirements:

Minimum Hardware Requirements
CPU: Intel or AMD x86-x64 (no clock speed provided)
RAM: 44 MB
Disk Space (download): 28 MB
Disk Space (installation): 35 MB

NOD32 requires less than half of the resources Norton requires.

After uninstalling Norton 360 using the removal tool that you need to download, and then immediately installing NOD32, I did a full system scan. This is where I was wowed. The resources that it was using while doing a full system scan were practically unnoticeable. Another thing I noticed is that NOD32 updates its database almost constantly. Which means you’re almost always up-to-date with detecting the latest threats! Detection rates are almost double those of Norton!  In fact, according to the latest AV Comparative proactive report NOD32 scored a 60% in their proactive detection of new malware test while Symantec scored a 36%.

Although, it’s not free though. A one year copy will cost you around $39.99, and $71.99 for the three-users pack. Not bad for what you’re getting. If you’re looking for a new antivirus I would absolutely recommend ESET’s NOD32.

Looking for more security information?  Check out our additional security tips and anti-virus recommendations.