The ten commandments of upgrading

The ten commandments of upgrading


1. Don't upgade unnecssary stuff. Upgrade only what yourealy need. when goning in for an upgrade, there is always the temptation factor involved-'if I'm going to upgrade this, how about getting a new hard disk as well? that will make my computer spanking new..." Avoid the temptation.

2. Do look at market price forcasts. you'll often see that somthing is expected to come down, in terms of price within a few months. wait you can save a lot of money this way. looking to buy a DVD-writer? Check the current price and also check how and whether prices will dip in.

3. Do remember what kind of software you'll be running while doing the hardware upgrade. will the RAM be sufficient? Will the pricessor be fast enough ? It may seem as though we're contradicting what wesaid above, about avoiding the temptation to upgrade more than necessery. But what we're saying here is , don't follow the herd when you're on upgrade path. look at your requirement form the software point of view as well . if everyone is upgrading to SATA hard drivres, for example, don't do it unless you really need one,. one the other hand, if you do a lot of pricessor-intentive work, go for a really fast processor.

4. Do remmeber your hardware limitation while doing a software upgrade. if you're thinking a upgrading to XP and you don't hacve enough RAM- and can't afford it right now - don't do upgrade. tf you're upgrading to photoshop CS, chaeck the processor and RAM requirement before you do.

5. Do remember cooling requirement and power requirement when upgrading. these are things you may not have factored in if you're upgrading to much faster processor, for example, your current cabinetand cooling system may have to overhauled as well.

6. Don't rack hard drives on top of each other, cramp up the space with wires etc. buy a bigger cabinet if need be.

7. Don't do mismatch upgrade-for example, too much RAM for a relativelyslow proccer, etc you'll need some reseach to come up with a balanced system configuration.

8. Do keep ergonomics in minds when upgrading keybores, mice and any other input devices. this is very important. it also depends on how often you use your computer. and it also depends on what kind of chair and table or desk you'll be using. if need be, simulate you seating arrangement when you're puchasing, say a new keybored , to see if you're comfortable. also , consider somthing like the natural keybored form Micorsoft.

9. Don't rush in somthing that strikes your fancy. for eample, ZIP drives in their heyday attractive, but they soon fizzled outbeacuse CD- Writer were just round the corner. those who didn't consisder all their option were left with poky 100MB drives, while those who did were up-to-date - with 650 MB media drives.

10. Do balance your budget. do you need more RAM, or larger mnitor? do you need a larger hard disk , or a better cabinet and power supply? it may seem odd to compare such diverse components, but unless money is concern, you'll need to look hard and see what exactly you want to upgade, anfd what you can so within you budget.