Upgrading Your Computer Components

Editor's note:

This article was originally published in March 19, 2003, was was updated by Kevin Lo, a technology analyst at TechSoup.

It is commonly assumed by many struggling to keep up with technology that a computer has reached obsolescence the day it is purchased. However, while year-old or even five-year-old computers may not be able to run the latest feature-ridden applications, they can be perfectly adequate for working on a network, browsing the Internet, producing documents, and doing other nonprofit work. Sometimes, those older computers can perform even better with the right adjustments.

Upgrading your computer's RAM, hard drive, network card, or other hardware can be a cost-effective way to improve the technology available to your organization and increase productivity when your budget is tight. While it is always nicer to be able to purchase the fastest computers on the market, sometimes it may not be necessary. Here are some guidelines for deciding when to upgrade.

Choosing the Right Upgrade

Many times, organizations choose to upgrade computers for the wrong reasons. You can't turn a slow computer into a fast one simply by increasing the size of a hard drive. Likewise, changing the computer's processor may not make a crashing computer more reliable. However, upgrading your processor will significantly improve your computing experience. Knowing which upgrade is the most important and cost-effective is the first step.

Technical Expertise

Upgrading a computer's RAM, hard drive, or processor almost always involves getting under the hood of a computer. This means that you need to know something about what you are doing to avoid causing damage. While replacing a graphics card, on the other hand, is not rocket science, it can still be a daunting (but rewarding) experience for the novice user. It's important to carefully decide whether or not an upgrade should be made by staff. Outsourcing upgrades to a technician is another option, but that cost additional time and money.

 

Type of Upgrade	Guidelines	Difficulty
RAM	A RAM upgrade can be a quick and easy way to speed up your computer. This is the best route to making any computer faster because more RAM means less time that your computer must pause to access the hard drive. One way to tell if you need more RAM is the extent to which your computer slows down when using and opening files from multiple programs.	Moderate
Network Card	If you are using a modem, or a 10Mbps network card, upgrading to a 100Mbps or a wireless card will vastly increase the speed you can share documents in the office, or using the Internet. You will also have to make sure that your networking infrastructure can support the faster speeds..	Moderate
Graphics card	Upgrading your graphics card can bring major improvements to your system. If you have "on-board" graphics, a discrete graphics card will free some memory from your system. If you are upgrading an existing card, be sure that your motherboard can support the new card you are installing.	Moderate
Hard drive	Replacing a hard drive can be a momentous task because of the need to transfer files from the old drive to the new. You would also need to reinstall the operating system and all the software. It may be best to consider adding an additional drive instead of entirely removing the older one. Most motherboards can handle up to four hard drives.	Advanced
CD/DVD drive	Upgrading a CD-ROM drive to a DVD-ROM drive, or a CD-RW to a DVD writer drive, can be an important upgrade. The increased capacity of DVDs vs. CDs can make copying files or backing up a lot easier and less time-consuming. It is similar to replacing a hard drive but without the data concerns.	Moderate
Processor	This is not an easy upgrade, and should be approached with caution. A faster chip will help make the computer process applications faster, but the additional speed may be negligible without sufficient RAM. The difficult part about installing a new processor is finding one that will work with your motherboard.	Advanced

In conclusion, the easiest way to speed up an older computer (aside from checking your system for spyware or unnecessary files) is to add more RAM. If your computers seem kind of sluggish and the programs your running seem to take up a lot of memory, RAM will make your computer perform a lot faster. If your computer is low on storage, it can also be quite easy to add an additional hard drive.

Ask yourself whether a component upgrade is worth it before embarking on that course of action. Many times it may be better to make do with the equipment available until it is time to make another planned computer purchase. Upgrading computer components can help in certain situations when you know what you are doing, but it is important to balance the time and cost of making the upgrade versus the time and productivity you may be losing from not making it.

The best advice we can give is to not run off and upgrade your computers unless you really need to. Most office work can be done quite effectively without a high performance machine, but your shouldn't force your staff to work on machines that constantly crash or slow down when running your basic productivity software.