Upgrading the Performance of Your Computer

Okay, so your computer may be a little old. And perhaps you can't really afford to lay out the money for a new box. But that certainly doesn't mean that as a user you must wallow in the obsolescence of a slow computer. There are ways to increase the performance of your computer.

ADDING MORE MEMORY …

Memory is dirt cheap right now, so there is no excuse for not getting as much memory as you can fit into your computer in order to speed up it's performance. A computer's performance can be increased by as much as 15% or more simply by doubling it's RAM. CRUCIAL TECHNOLOGY's website (http://www.crucial.com) has a "memory selector," which allows surfers to chose their computer manufacturer and find the proper memory configuration. And their prices are VERY competitive.

UPGRADE TO A BETTER GRAPHICS CARD

If you are wanting to play the latest computer games that have hit the market, upgrading your video graphics card can also improve performance of your computer. Nvidia's GeForce 4 and ATI's Radeon 9700 Pro are taylor made for heavy graphics work of games and can come with up to 128 MB of on-board memory to process the realistic imagery these games provide. HOWEVER, you must be certain your system can handle the power of these new cards. Even though there are the state of the art and do what they do well, placing one of these cards into an underpowered system really won't allow the cards or the computers to perform at it's greatest potential. IN fact, some cards won't work in older computers at all, so check the boxes for minimum and recommended requirements.

UPGRADE YOUR HARD DRIVE

Older systems may not have enough room to use the latest software because, let's face it, most new software use TONS of hard drive space. And the more your hard drive is filled up, the slower it can run. Newer hard drives, are now coming in the 300+ GB size and can run as fast as 7200 rpms. These are ideal for increased performance and will give you all the space you need to run complex operating systems like Windows XP and games. SEAGATEs Barracuda line of hard drives offer the the largest-capacity as well as the fastest disc drives in the world. It touts that it provides users with the lowest cost-per-gigabyte enterprise drive in today's market. The Barracuda is perfect for all bulk storage and audio/visual applications. IBM has merged with Hitachi to produce the Deskstar line of High speed (7200 rpm) large capacity hard drives which uses "pixie dust" technology to crash the storage barrier of high capacity. This coating is expected to quadruple the capacity of hard drive as it matures.

These few simple steps can improve the performance of your older computer and extend it's usable life until the prices for the latest Pentium 4s come down.