Should you upgrade your PC?

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What are you Trying to Achieve by Upgrading?

Common reasons to upgrade include, increasing the speed, making it compatible for some new software or adding new features. Things are changing so quickly in PC related technology, that most things become obsolete fairly quickly. Adding a new technology to your old PC may not yield the results you hoped for.

Adding memory to a PC is the single most beneficial thing you can do to improve its operation, up to a point. Memory helps speed operations but at some point, more doesn't help. It doesn't hurt, but it just doesn't help.

Upgrading your CPU may seem like a good idea, but if the new CPU is significantly faster than the one it is replacing, then you have to consider replacing the motherboard too. If you do that, you might need a new power supply. The cost of all three might still make this a worthwhile upgrade, but you should weigh it against the cost of a new PC. Remember, you just need the PC, not a new monitor, printer or anything else.

Upgrading hard disk storage is usually an easy, straight forward upgrade. That is, if you are adding a second hard drive. If you plan to replace the hard drive, then remember that you will have to reinstall the operating system, all of your software and all of your personal files and settings. There are utilities to help make a copy from the old drive to the new one, but be sure to factor in that cost,

Upgrading the video card to work with the latest computer games may be desirable, but your CPU, motherboard and memory may still drag down its performance. The latest flashy video cards usually only work their best in newer PCs.

Upgrading the Operating System (OS) to gain performance, features or compatibility with other hardware and software may be a good choice. However, newer OS's require more from the system they run on. More memory, more storage and faster CPUs. So be sure that your system is up to the challenge on running the latest OS.

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