Easy Computer Upgrades for Any User

There are many things a person can easily do for an upgrade with little or no research at all. First lets cover a few aspects of what you may use your computer for, and how we can cheaply tune it up.

I will start with the motherboard or sometimes called the main board. This is where everything connects to. The "guts" of our system. When building or upgrading an old system this must be taken in for consideration. Ofcourse many techs will tell you other things like (video card, audio card ect.) Although this is not untrue, listen to this.

The "brain" of the system - the CPU - processess data from memory. This data is sent down the board, known as the bus. This bus operates at a certain frequency. Data travels down the bus from multiple places, each one pausing to wait for access. Now all this happens very fast, the point here being this, if your board is older, or the computer you are purchasing is of a slower bus speed the Cpu and other components may create a bottleneck in the system. This causes slow performance, and sometimes crashes.

One of the most important upgrades you can make for your computer are the following three Items.

1. Video Card - Even if your not using your PC to play games, video is still an issue. Your video card shares your computers memory,
If your PC's video card is not quite what it should be, it means your CPU is working a little harder than what it should.
(Usually I tell people to examine what the recomendations are for applications or hardware and double the amount)

2. Memory - Memory. More is better right? Yes. Usually more is better. Just make note to yourself that not all memory is created equal.
All memory has different access speeds. Usually this is where i will spend the few extra dollars. Just make sure you get the
right memory for your board. This would be the MHz the board operates on.

3 Sound Card - This usually comes into play where digital surround is necessary. If your card is that old, that certain applications/ programs are
having trouble running to the beat of just one drum, its time to upgrade. Newer cards are hardware accelerated 24bit.

Having issues with drivers old or new? Try driverguide. Been my personal fav for years. Link below.
www.driverguide.com

If you are troubleshooting why your system is slow. Start by examining the specs on the previously mentioned upgrades. Your Harddrive may also be the culprit. Check your HD or the manufacture to see what speed it runs at. ( example 5400 or 7200 ) The faster your HD the more data the CPU can process and send down the bus.

Other tips might include watching how many programs you have running. You may not see the running programs either. Some programs are stuck into startup folders and the registry. Some operating systems run more and more services requiring more processing power and memory. One main example would be trying to watch video with good quality and sound while surfing 10 pages of the net and maintaining all sorts of driver and system updates.

Some users need to be educated to be matched properly with their "box". (cpu) As per their own expectations, limitations and end result uses.

If you are looking to buy a PC I recommend you look into bare-bones systems. Get to know your technician if your not the one building the "box. A bare-bones system usually has very few components, which lets "you" be in charge of what type of quality components your looking for.

One major concern to some geeks is the same as the automotive industry. It is the design and engineering of the case, components, cooling fans, cooling kits and heat sinks. The faster and harder your cpu runs, you are more prone to system crashes and the failure of parts. Often big name companies make great systems, but as competative as everything is cheaper is not better. Heck if I wanted to build a box for $400 bux I could. I would also like to build one for about $5000. Oh well. Lets keep those cpu's a running!