When deciding whether to upgrade or buy a new computer, consider factors such as speed, memory, ports, and processing power. Maintenance can help with slow performance, while lack of hard drive space or low RAM can be solved with upgrades. Graphics cards and CPUs may also need upgrading, but check motherboard compatibility first. If your computer lacks standard features, it’s time for a new one.
With technology constantly changing, it’s easy to fall behind by holding on to that old desktop or laptop for too long. Many people aren’t sure when it’s time to buy a new computer and when they can get away with upgrading their old one. While many factors can influence your decision, you’ll want to consider how fast your computer is and if it’s running slow, how much memory you have and whether you have room to increase it, whether or not it has the correct ports for the external devices you want to use, and whether has the necessary processing power.
If your computer has slowed down over time, it may simply need some maintenance. Hard drive defragmentation combines files in one location on the drive to optimize recovery time. Using a registry cleaner can speed up booting into the desktop and speed up program access by removing orphaned entries that point to missing resources, files and folders. You can also use a startup manager to identify and disable extraneous programs and processes that run unnecessarily in the background.
A computer may also slow down over time due to lack of hard drive space. When a disk (or disk array) reaches its capacity, the system has to work harder to shuffle the data, creating a bottleneck. Adding an extra disk can solve this problem and extend the life of the system. Hard drives are usually good investments, as they can usually be used in future systems, even externally.
A factor that is somehow related to slowing down your computer could be low Random Access Memory (RAM). Even within the simplest systems, there are several programs that typically run in the background to protect your computer, such as an antivirus program, firewall, and anti-spyware or anti-adware programs. The desktop, the wallpaper, all open programs and necessary system processes also use RAM. To top it off, games, video editing, and other multimedia software require significantly more memory than word processing or spreadsheet programs. You may think it’s time to get a new computer when all you need is more RAM.
Unfortunately, motherboards don’t support unlimited amounts of RAM. Once you’ve determined that your memory is really low, you’ll need to consult your motherboard manual to see how much RAM your system supports. If you’ve hit a memory limit, you’ll need a new computer or motherboard if you want more.
Another inconvenience that can make someone wonder if it’s time for a new computer is seeing pixels or dropped frames when playing streaming media. Online video requires fast graphics cards that can process massive amounts of data quickly. Quality graphics cards have their own built-in RAM and a graphics processing unit (GPU) to avoid taking up system RAM and processing resources. In general, the more RAM a video card has, the easier life will be on the rest of the system. If your computer works fine for everything except streaming media, you may just need a graphics card upgrade.
The port on the motherboard that supports the graphics card or cards can be of several types. The AGP type has given way to the new PCIe slot, but within each of these categories there are various versions and flavors. Before checking out the hottest graphics cards, look at the port on the motherboard to determine which type of card your system supports. If the spec only supports legacy cards, you won’t be able to upgrade your system to the newer ones.
If your computer lacks what has long since become standard, such as USB ports, AGP or PCIe graphics ports, Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive support, or the ability to support at least 2 gigabytes of RAM, it’s time to buy a new computer. In this way, you can improve the future proof of your purchase by choosing a system that will support at least double the RAM currently required, as well as offer the latest standards for all major components.
That said, if the only feature missing is Firewire support, consider purchasing an internal Firewire card, assuming your motherboard has an available IDE slot. Laptops can support Firewire using the external PC Card slot. An alternative is to get a USB to Firewire adapter.
If your computer has plenty of hard drive space and RAM, if it has the best graphics card it will support, gets defragmented and maintained, but just doesn’t cut the mustard in overall performance, the central processing unit (CPU) is probably older and too slow for your needs. However, it may not be necessary to buy a new computer. Check your motherboard manual to see if you can upgrade the CPU. If not, the good news is that there are many great new systems to choose from at reasonable prices.
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