One of the frequent questions I get is whether to upgrade a PC or buy a new one. With new PCs in the $400 range and cheap laptops under $600, it gets tougher to answer this question.
First lets get the Nick rant out of the way - unless it came with your PC NEVER upgrade to Windows Vista. Your PC is probably not ready for Vista - it requires a high power PC with lots of memory (>2GB).
Next memory is always a good and generally inexpensive upgrade. Windows XP has a maximum recognition of 3GB. I haven't seen much benefit of more then 2GB when using XP. Now Vista is a different story. It supposedly can handle 4GB maximum. I've never seen it actually recognize more then 3.5GB. Many PCs only have 2 memory slots so if you are maxed out you need to remove a memory chip to put a new one in.
Hard Drives are a double whammy to upgrade. The drive itself is not very expensive. The time to load Windows and all your programs and files is more expensive. Minimum cost to upgrade is $175. Now a faster hard drive is nice, don't get me wrong. Its just a bit expensive compared to cost of a new PC.
Graphics cards are mainly added for home use (read that kids want to play games). Since PCSS doesn't do much in that area we'll let it alone.
Adding a DVD burner if you don't have one costs less then $50 and is a good upgrade.
The only way we know to upgrade your monitor is to get a new one. Ditto on printers. Did we mention that printer prices are so low that getting a new one is almost always a great idea (HP Color LaserJet for less then $250.00!!!)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment