Upgrade roadmap

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Here we have provided individual upgrade road maps for both desktops and laptops. They start with the most simple and cost effective step.

LAPTOPS

For laptops there are really not many possible upgrade steps for you to take. The processor and graphics chip are integrated onto the motherboard which itself cannot be easily upgraded, consequently there are two possible upgrade steps. They should be followed in this order.

1. Add more RAM

RAM is the working space into which your programs go when you run them. It holds both the programs and associated data. If it is too small then some of the programs and/or data will need to be swapped out of RAM and temporarily stored on hard disk. This considerably slows the PC down. Access to the hard disk is many times slower than access to RAM. Simply speaking the more RAM you have the better. If you are running a 32 bit operating system ( and if you are looking to upgrade your laptop then it is almost certain you will be as only recent machines run a 64 bit OS ), then the maximum RAM you can have is 3Gb.

This is really really a worthwhile upgrade. Boot times can drop from 5 minutes to less than a minute and performance when multiple windows are open is much improved. It does not matter how fast your PC is, if you don't have enough RAM then it will run like a lame dog!

Adding more RAM is easy. You just have to know two things. What sort of RAM do you need and second what is the maximum your laptop motherboard can support. We can help you with both of these issues if you don't know the answers.

Finally the good news about RAM is that it is cheap. usually adding even the maximum your machine can support is only around $100.

2. Increase the capacity and performance of your Hard drive.

The hard drive holds all your data and programs. Its performance is an integral part of your laptop's overall performance. The hard disk has four characteristics of importance.

A: Interface type

B: Capacity

C: Solid Stae or Rotating Hard drive

D: Rotational Rate

Interface Type: There are two possible interface types. The older is called IDE and being older is the slower of the two. Also the range of disk drives available with this interface is limited. The second interface type is SATA. If your machine is less than 4 years old it is likely to have a SATA interface.

Capacity: IDE drives are readily available in capacities up to 160Gb. If you have a drive with 40,60 or 80Gb upgrade to 160Gb. SATA drives have capacities up to 1Tb with the optimum price point currently being 500Gb. If you have a SATA interface then increasing the capacity does not only mean increasing the space available, it also means faster transfer of data as the data density of the drive is significantly higher on a 80Gb drive versus a 500Gb drive. We recommend a 500Gb drive which is currently around $100.

Solid State or Rotating Hard Drive: Traditionally all laptops used a rotating hard drive. These are relatively inexpensive, come in multiple capaciities but they do have issues assoicated with them, as they fill up they become defragmented which slows them down and ultimately they can fail. A recent survey of hard drive reliability suggests a 2% per year failure rate. New on the block is the solid state drive. These are silent, use less power ( hence longer battery life ), are at least 10 times faster in terms of seek time, and about 2-3 times faster in terms of data rate. However they are expensive, 120Gb will set you back around $250, and $500Gb. But once you have tried a PC or Mac with a SSD you will never want a hard drive again. Boot times can be 15 to 20 seconds and applications just open instantly. For best performance on a PC you need Windows 7, on a Mac OS X 10.6.7. Not all SSDs are equal. This is a rapidly developing technology. Currently the best use a Sandforce controller.

Rotational Speed: There are three speeds commonly in use: 4200 rpm ; hardly seen any more these drives are very slow, upgrading even to a 5400 rpm drive will significantly increase performance. 5400 rpm drives are the most commonly fitted to laptops. 7200 rpm drives are up to twice as fast as 5400rpm drives and modern ones use hardly any more power ( which was originally one reason why they were not fitted as default ). They tend to be about $20-$30 more than a 5400 rpm drive but the extra cost is worth it.

Finally to add a new drive your old data must be "cloned" to the new drive. This is a simple, albeit time consuming, process that we will do for you for $100.

3 Is my Laptop worth upgrading ?

We are often asked this. The simple answer is almost certainly yes it is. Unless you have already got the maximum RAM or a 500Gb drive, then following either of the above steps will significantly add performance to your old machine at a much cheaper price than buying a new machine.

DESKTOPS

For desktops there are more possibilities in regards upgrade paths. However the first two relate to the same two components as for laptops. The RAM and Hard drive.

1. Add more RAM

See above in the laptop section as the situation and approach is identical.

2. Upgrade the Hard Drive

With a desktop you can have hard disks with up to 2Tb capacity For SATA interfaces. IDE capacities are much more limited. The optimum price point is currently 1Tb with 1.5Tb not far behind. As a guide the approximate prices for a new disk are as follows:

500Gb: $60

1Tb: $100

1.5Tb: $140

2.0Tb: $180

In most cases you can just add a second drive to your machine without going to the trouble of cloning your current drive. However we do not recommend this if you have a low capacity as your C drive. This is because increasing the capacity from 80Gb to say 500Gb will significantly increase the performance due to higher data density.

Again cloning your old drive to the new one will be around $100.

Another point to consider both for laptops and desktops is that hard drives do not live forever. Generally the manufacturers supply new drives with a three year warranty. The system drive does work very hard and it can fail in which case you can lose all your data. We strongly recommend you back up your data regularly. We also recommend replacing the hard disk after three years simply to increase the machine's lifetime and to reduce the possibility of a hard drive failure.

3. Add a Graphics Card

If your machine is reasonably old it may have a separate graphics card already. Alternatively there may be a graphics chip on the mother board. A new graphics card will have significantly more performance if you do significant video processing. It may also free up main memory as a new card will have dedicated memory.

4. Upgrade the Optical Drive

If you have a CD writer only, or a DVD reader but no writer then it is extremely cost effective to upgrade to a new optical drive. A new and fast optical writer is less than $100 including installation.

You can even add a Blu Ray reader or writer, but this will depend on the performance of your machine overall.