Upgrades: To Buy, Or Not To Buy

Weigh out the Pro's and Con's

The first step to take when thinking about a new computer-related purchase is to do a full evaluation of your current system. Ask yourself the following questions, do a little computer equipment soul-searching, and take down your notes! (This makes it easier to help make a decision once you're done brainstorming).

Am I okay with my PC's performance?

Your computer may "look old", but that doesn't mean you have to go out and buy a shiny new system. Do a good objective overview of what you like and don't like about your current computer's performance. Some good questions to ask are:

• Is the speed of my computer affecting its usability?
  Our fast-paced lives these days bring about new feelings of impatience when sitting in front of the computer. If we have to wait too long for something, we may not want to wait anymore and we move on to something else. If you find yourself using your computer less because "things take too long", it's time to think about an upgrade.
• Are there things I haven't tried that may help my PC's performance?
  Last week we talked about ways to improve your computer's performance. Have you tried any of these methods? Did they help? There are times when your computer's degraded performance is solely software or virus-related—try these easy steps and see if they help; or perform a virus scan to see if there are virus-related issues.

Easy System Tune-Ups

Along with our Spring Cleanup recommendations, here's some other software tasks you should try.

• Wipe & Reinstall
  Wiping your entire system clean and reinstalling the operating system helps—a LOT! You'll get rid of things you don't use anymore, clean up any artifacts from uninstalled programs and fix any problems with corrupt files in the operating system.
• Defrag
  When you do a lot of creation, deletion and moving of files, your hard drive can become very segmented over time. Running the Disk Defragmenter will help reduce the segmentation and speed up your hard drive's search time when opening & saving files.
• Disk Cleanup Utility
  Last week we talked in detail on how to use the disk cleanup utility–running this utility is a great way to make sure your hard drive is cleaned up of files you don't need, giving you much more room for the files you do need.

Hardware Upgrades vs. a New Computer

Yes, those new computers look sleek and sexy (yes, a computer can be "sexy"). But if cost is a concern, as it should be, upgrading the hardware components in your computer can drastically extend the life of your current system. There are of course, no guarantees on the life of your computer. You could upgrade parts in your computer, only to have the entire system die weeks later (that'd be the worst case scenario). So be careful when weighing out the costs and the risks involved with an upgrade to an existing system.

Remember, you can always bring in your computer to us at IDEaS; we'll do a full-system assessment and give you our recommendations!

Easy Hardware Upgrades

These easy upgrades are affordable, and can drastically improve the life of your system.

• Upgrade your RAM
  RAM is cheap! In many scenarios you can upgrade your RAM to your system's full capacity for less than $100. Your system will benefit by being able to run more applications and services simultaneously, with less of a hit on performance.
• Upgrade your Video Card
  Your video card powers everything you see on your screen—so bumping that up to a current available card is going to drive your system's graphics much more efficiently. We recommend at least a 128MB video card, which can be purchased for as little as $40.
• Upgrade your Hard Drive, or add another hard drive
  Having a hard drive reach its capacity definitely puts a draw on your system's performance. We recommend having at least 20% of your hard drive free at all times. So if you're running out of space, try purchasing a new hard drive with much more capacity—or simply add another hard drive to your system to store all your data on. Most hard drives these days can hold at least 250GB of data, and are priced under $100.