Today, Upgrading Should Be Your 1st Choice
If you ask most people who own computers to swap out their memory or add a hard drive or even replace their power supply, you can literally watch their eyes glaze over and the blood drain from their faces. I think, about that time, they would rather go to the dentist or get audited by the IRS. Believe it or not, doing any of these tasks is in no way as hard as most people believe. In fact when I show people how I do any these upgrades or replacements while they watch, you see this look of amazement at how easy it really is.
It used to be that just running out and buying a new computer was the 1st and only choice to the majority of people, but in today's economic and ecological climate, that is quickly falling to a back burner status. Now, most people will just hang on their systems and wait until they actually stop working before they do anything about it.
But, today you can push at least a year or two out of your existing computer with a minimal monetary layout. There are several options that will either keep your system running or beef it up to do more than you originally could with it.
As an example, I upgraded my son's computer to a top of the line gaming system for less than $1,600. Some people may say that's a lot of money, but a new gaming system that rivals what I built for him would cost over $5,000. He was amazed that with a little planning, searching, and timing, you could save quite a bit of money and still keep ahead of the technology curve. I've been building computers since the early 80's, and spent a lot of time watching , learning, and teaching people little tricks on how to get the most out of their computer dollars. Today in this economy, it is even more critical to keep your computer going, not only because it so intertwined with our culture, but also with employment and business.
Over the next few months, I'm going to lay out some upgrade options that will, for all intentions, be like having bought a new computer at the fraction of the cost.
There are six main areas on your computer that everyone can upgrade. The reason I say this is that on most big name computer systems like Dell, HP, IBM, or the like, you do have more limited upgrading options because of the propietary nature of their equipment. They have gotten much better over the years, but it is still not as open as buying from smaller vendors who use more generic and open hardware. The five areas are:
These six main areas we can work with without too many propietary restrictions.
PC Memory Upgrades There are several types of PC memory depending on what year your motherboard was made. The types that are still possible used: | |
| SDRAM Memory - Also recognized as PC66, PC100, and PC133 memory. This memory is the hardest to find new, but with a bit of luck and searching, still possible. Motherboards that used these memory modules were mainly maximized at one or two gigabytes. The largest single module memory size was 1GB, but there were few made because DDR meory was already previlant by that time and manufacturers shifted their production to the new demand. |  |
| DDR Memory - Also recognized as DDR-200(PC1600), DDR-266(PC2100), DDR-333(PC2700), and DDR-400(PC3200) memory. |  |
| DDR2 Memory - Also recognized as DDR2-400(PC2-3200), DDR2-533(PC2-4300 or PC2-4200), DDR2-667(PC2-5400 or PC2-5300), DDR2-800(PC2-6400), and DDR2-1066(PC2-8500 or PC2-8600). |  |
| DDR3 Memory - Also recognized as DDR3-800(PC3-6400), DDR3-1066(PC3-8500), DDR3-1333(PC3-10600), and DDR3-1600(PC3-12800). |  |