The Ultimate Guide to Upgrading Your Computer

Have you ever thought of upgrading your computer? You want to upgrade but not sure you know where to start? In this guide I will show you how to upgrade your computer. I will show you step by step what it takes to upgrade each part.

To determine exactly what you need to upgrade your computer you have to determine your needs. What are you using your computer for? What do you want to be able to do with it? How old is your computer? How big is your budget? How much do you have to spend?

1. How old is your computer? If its more than 3 years old you may want to consider a rebuilding it. What that means is buying a bare-bones computer. A bare-bones is a case, motherboard, and power supply. You use your hard drive, CD-ROM, etc to add to the bare-bones unit. This is not always feasible if you need more hard drive space or the new motherboard needs upgraded memory and video card. However it is an option if your computer is too old and you need to upgrade it.

2. What you want your computer to be able to do that it cannot do now. If your motherboard support more RAM and you have just 256 MB or 512 MB and you want to add more than that would be a good option. Ram does not make your computer faster but allows it to use more resources.

3. How much space do you have and how much do you need? Lets say you have an 80 GB hard drive. You could easily double it or even go to 300 GB. Most older motherboards of 3 years old will support 200 GB or maybe even more. Just depends on your motherboards specifications. Sometimes a bios upgrade will allow your motherboard to handle more. Be sure to check with your computer manufacturer on exactly what your board can handle.

4. If you play games you might consider a video card upgrade. Keep in mind older motherboards can take 8x cards but will not give you a real big boost if it only handles 4x. Besides some cards take a larger power supply wattage to handle the increased requirements the card demands.

5. Older computers the best upgrades you can do without changing the motherboard, power supply, and video card is Ram and hard drive. So keep this in mind when you plan on upgrading.