I recently worked for a lady who was so frustrated with her computer’s performance that she was ready to throw it away and buy something new. I looked at her, looked at her computer and replied, “Will you tell me which dumpster you’re going to use, so I can dive in there and take it home?” Her computer was barely a year old, had a nice, fast processor, loads of RAM (random access memory), a huge hard drive, all of the whistles and bells, and probably cost well over $1,000 when it was new. Yet, because it was so loaded up with viruses, spyware/adware, and had never been updated or maintained, it was nothing more than a worthless hunk of junk that would barely even turn on.
However, without changing her computer and Internet habits, her “new” machine would have quickly ended up in the same shape as the one she was replacing.
There are a number of things to consider when deciding whether to upgrade, repair or replace your computer. The main question to answer is, “What do you do with your computer?” If you use it mostly to write letters, do email, play Solitaire and sometimes surf the Web, then that old workhorse you’ve been using for the past five years may still serve you well. If it runs anything older than the Windows 2000 operating system, that should change; Windows 98 simply will not carry you much farther. However, given a “clean” machine (i.e., no viruses, spyware, solid operating system, defragmented hard drive, etc.), and a fast Internet connection, many people are surprised at how peppy “Old Faithful” can be.
If your computer is clean and maintained, yet strains to perform modern tasks, adding some additional RAM can usually perk things up. Some systems will allow upgrading the CPU (central processing unit), which can also help. A new, more powerful graphics card (which controls what is displayed on your monitor) can help with the performance of games and other graphics/video intensive activities. Lack of hard drive space can also slow things down, or maybe you simply need more space for file storage. Adding another hard drive is fairly straightforward, and, these days, big hard drives are cheap.
On the other hand, maybe you do need a new computer. If you spend a lot of time manipulating large files such as audio, video or graphics, if you are a hard core “gamer,” or if you need to run serious scientific or mathematical applications, then you want the fastest and most powerful number-crunching machine that you can afford. If that’s the case, consider building a custom computer. I’ve built a number of customized systems for various clients, and, for those who need the biggest and fastest, you can often get more bang for the buck by building it yourself.
Generally speaking, though, most people don’t need a racecar just to get to the grocery store!