I switched over from Avast! just today for this and noticed that my computer is not hanging as much as it did with Avast!

the best is yourself© i haven't run a scanner in 2 years and have yet to run into trouble, keep your firewall up, use gmail and dont brows around stupid place's, if you are going to "download" something public make sure to read all the comments listed by it to see if its safe. Your best scanner is yourself, its next to impossible for a virus or what ever to get on your computer unless you open a door for it and when you keep your eye trained those doors get VERY obvious. you save some time, money, and most of the time a good chunk of speed.

I will randomly do a free Trend Micro web based house-call scan once every few months, its not the best, but stupid active scanners eat up too much power for my tastes.

I'm using AVG Internet Security and NOD32. Never had any problems with it .

The only problem with that strategy is, unless you have 100% control over your computer, it's not going to work out well. For example, if you have kids, wife/GF, friends, etc. that occasionally use your computer, odds are you're going to get infected if you don't have active protection.

I do, however, agree that good usage habits are your #1 defense against malware, even ahead of good virus protection. Even the best anti-virus isn't going to catch 100% of the malware that is out there.