I got mine way back, just after the V1 first came out, and while I never had any serious problems with it, I did perform a few upgrades that greatly increased the reliability and accuracy of the machine:
First, get some way to drive it over USB - Octoprint is an amazing choice if you want this to be headless, but if not, then suggestion #2 -
Simplify3D. It’s still the superior slicer, IMO, and includes a lot of features and keeps you from beating yourself up wondering what the printer is doing. You can at least trust that your slicer isn’t screwing you over with this one.
As for physical mods - everyone is right about a glass bed. Get a sheet of silicone thermal pad (cheap on ebay), just a couple mil thick. cut it into 1"/2.5mm squares and use them as the substrate for your glass.
Move the endstop up to the second set of holes if you have them, or print a riser before you install the glass (cleaned masking tape and PLA is a pretty fool-proof combo on the bare build plate).
Level it with the wingnuts, then print adjusters an install those along with the extra nuts and washers - this greatly improves the stability of your leveling adjustment.
Check all the drive gears and make sure the setscrews are appropriately tight. A good bite is all that is necessary, so don’t overdo it. A dab of blue loctite doesn’t hurt here.
Finally, make sure you are leveling the Z axis on a regular basis - it should be checked every time you level the bed, which for me is after every 8-10 hours of use, give or take.
That alone should get you cranking out very acceptable prints at a decent speed. If you want to go faster, that’s also possible. You should do the first two things here anyway, as they will improve your print quality, but become essential once you push the printer faster.
First, use this guide to adjust your jerk and acceleration settings:
Also, install the upgraded extruder gear if you don’t have that already (later ones came with this I think):
Next, you can install the Z-braces from Thingiverse - these massively increase rigidity.
You will want those braces to handle the speed you’ll get after installing this, the all-metal hotend from MicroSwiss:
http://www.micro-swiss.com/product-page/29551477-6081-c30f-04fe-cece31e3ba6f 2
This enables easily printing at 7200mm/min or more with good quality filament and the rigidity mods described.
You probably also want to swap your X-axis bearing blocks with a block carrying a LM8LUU like this:
The last thing that will take you to the next level is a PEI sheet for your bed - I adhered mine to the glass with two-sided 3M thermal tape, and I print everything on this bed - ABS, PLA, PETG, all stick perfectly to it and remove with a reasonable amount of force, no sprays, tape, slurry, or glue necessary. I like it because all I have to do is wipe it clean with alcohol or acetone, and I get perfectly glass-smooth-bottom prints every time. You can actually get it in a kit now, which is convenient:
Unless you have a slicing problem or actual broken hardware, which is rare, these mods should get you printing fast with any standard material. All together it’s a list of upgrades that will run you nearly the cost of the printer itself, but it easily makes it competitive with much more expensive machines. The key is calibration, calibration, calibration. If you’re not checking and setting everything up correctly, you will never get good prints out of anything, whether $200 or $2000. Once you get everything dialed in level and square, it only requires occasional minor adjustment and lubrication.