NOD32 AntiVirus 3.0
$39.99
ESET LLC
www.eset.com
CPUs: 4

Though big companies like Symantec and McAfee get all the anti-virus media love, there are plenty of products from (relatively) smaller companies that are at least just as good, and by some measurements, even better. NOD32 has developed a reputation among hardcore techies to provide excellent protection yet provide fast performance, and we agree wholeheartedly. If you’ve been looking for antivirus protection for your gaming rig or a slower machine, NOD32 should be your top choice.

What strikes us first with NOD32 is its sheer speed. On our standard AV test machine, NOD32 increased its boot time from 29 seconds to just 31 seconds, beating AVG Free (44 seconds), Kaspersky AV 2007 (40 seconds), and Norton AV2008 (49 seconds) quite handily. The time needed to complete our drive benchmark increased just 14%, beating all comers (which ranged from AVG’s 16% increase to Kaspersky’s 49%). Foreground scans are significantly faster than all comers as well, and it handles spyware and rootkits too. RAM consumption, however, is high, averaging at around 28MB.

NOD32’s interface is a model of simplicity by default, but enabling Advanced Mode provides access to all the advanced goodies a techie would want. Basic Mode provides access to manual virus definition updates (though it automatically checks for them hourly), initiating a manual scan, and temporarily disabling protection. Advanced Mode opens up pull down menus and more options, such as enabling or disabling email and/or Web protection, setting up scheduled activities, or viewing the quarantined files and checking the activity logs. A super-detailed advanced configuration tree lets you exclude certain folders or file types, change the Microsoft Outlook integration options, or even password protect NOD32’s configuration.

As with Kaspersky and NAV, NOD32 scored a perfect 100% on our (admittedly limited) virus zoo, and independent testing shows it to consistently score in the top as well. We experienced no false-positives either.

The “value equation” is tough to judge. NOD32, by design, isn’t as feature-filled as NAV, for example, and costs the same initially ($39.99) and more annually ($27.99). However, if you put a premium on high speed and high detection rates, NOD32 is well worth the price.

by Warren Ernst