How to Upgrade a PC

Is a PC Upgrade is Cost Effective

Before you spend a single dollar, pound, mark or yen on new hardware for your old PC, take a few minutes to determine if the outcome is worth it. Many casual PC users are shocked to find that the only computer component that holds its value over time is the software! A computer isn't an automobile (no matter how much you paid for it) and it will very rarely make sense to invest over a hundred dollars in upgrading a PC that's over a year or two old. The primary exception is if you are a business user, such that transferring the all of your programs to the new PC would take more time than it's worth. That said, there are dozens of sensible upgrades you can make for under $100, provided that you aren't paying somebody else for their labor.

We'll look at each PC component individually to discuss the pros and cons of an upgrade, but the first step should always be looking at new PC pricing. If you can buy a brand-new PC, with the latest motherboard and memory technology, a good mid-range CPU and a reasonable set of drives for less than $300 (and you usually can), it should make you think twice about dumping half as much into an old clunker just to extend the pain.

The greatest risk in attempting to upgrade your PC is that you can break something. I've built and repaired thousands of PCs and to the best of my knowledge, I only damaged one, by blowing up the hard drive circuitry with static electricity. In other words, PCs are actually pretty tough little machines as ling as you don't abuse them.

Far more likely than damaging the computer is the risk that the upgrade won't work, and you'll be out some money and time. You may be unable to install any more memory on your particular motherboard, a new adapter could be incompatible, or you could run into a BIOS or operating system limit that requires obscure software patching to overcome. I'm generally against flashing the BIOS of a working system simply to make an upgrade work - the downside of a failed BIOS flash is a worthless motherboard. Operating system patches are tedious to locate and install, and may fail to achieve the desired result for your particular configuration.

Also, brand-name and small footprint PCs may be lacking the physical infrastructure to accept an upgrade, either no available motherboard bus slots or no mounting location for new drives. I've frequently performed upgrades that required "downgrading" the existing setup, such as dispensing with a ZIP drive to free up an IDE cable for a DVD recorder or a second hard drive.

The upside to upgrading your PC is if you are happy with it but for one problem, i.e, lack of hard drive space, a slow modem, the need for a network adapter or a CD recorder, you might get away with a $10 upgrade (I've bought network cards for as little as $4) and end up happy for years to come. As long as you go into the process with your eyes open, you won't end up surprised, even if you end up disappointed.

I'm working on an illustrated guide for replacing PC parts, so if you decide to go the upgrade route.