Being a techie - I've built a lot of machines.  Seen the best, serviced the worst. There are always a few things i do to make things feel faster.  

1) Turn off most visual effects that most people won't realize they are gone.  It makes navigation snappier. Here's the how-to:

-Click the Start Button and then right-click on My Computer and select properties.
-Click on the Advanced tab
-Click on Settings under Performance
-Select the third option: Adjust for best performance (it will deselect all items)
-Scroll down and check the last 3 boxes, click Apply and then OK-Exit all windows

This will make navigation through different windows and the Start menu feel more responsive.




2) Turn off indexing on your primary hard drive, usually your C: Here's the how to:

-Double-click My Computer
-Right-click the C: and select properties
-Deslect the two boxes on the bottom (Compress drive to disk space & Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching)
-Click OK (you will get an system warning, don't be worried, just click Ignore All, and then it will continue.

This will make your hard drive read a little faster.