Computer Upgrades

Caution

Before you start work inside your computer, eliminate the hazards.

  1. Disconnect the power cord from the wall source or back of your computer before you open it. While there may not be much chance of electrical shock, the extensive bare metal can make it lethal. If you ignore this and get killed don't sue me.
  2. Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) is the main hazard to your computer when it's open. The electrical energy you can pick up just moving around on a carpet can be enough to blow out any electronic parts you even brush against inside your computer.

    Full protection from ESD requires extensive precautions I've had good luck using simpler measures. At the very least, get yourself a wrist strap. Working on a wood table that is not in a carpeted room is the next level of precaution. If you can't do that, you could go barefoot. :-)

    The cheap way to prevent ESD is to always touch the bare metal on your computer's frame before you put your hand or any tool anywhere close to inside it. Then keep one hand or your bare arm touching the frame, while you work inside your computer.

Memory

The first performance upgrade you should consider is more memory. It can double or triple the speed of bargain computers that only have 512 MB of memory. You should have at least 1024 MB for Windows XP, and 2048 MB for Vista or Windows 7. Read more about selecting and buying memory at the "Memory" page.

Processors (CPUs)

Upgrading your CPU is more ambitious than it used to be. It was easy to upgrade the CPU in computers built in the last century, but not the ones sold today. A worthwhile upgrade today would be expensive and difficult to do. It's usually better and cheaper to buy a new computer than to go down the CPU upgrade route.

Hard drives

A bigger hard drive (disk) won't make your computer run perceptively faster. That's just an urban myth. If you simply need more room, consider adding a second hard drive.

Adding a second hard drive is often easier than installing a bigger primary drive. It adds wonderful flexibility, adds capacity and redundancy for backups, and can even speed up your computer. You'd have to transfer Windows and all your files if you just get a bigger primary drive, and that's not a simple task.

You might consider an external (USB) hard drive as an alternative -- particularly if you have a newer computer that has USB-2, Firewire or ESATA ports. USB-1 might make it too slow for your purposes. If you have more than one computer, an external drive is a big advantage. You only need one. You can then use it to shuttle all your files between computers, say from your Happy Trails computer to your home computer and back.

More on hard drives.

DVD

Add a DVD burner: They're great for backups -- DVDs are on of the most durable mediums you can get. Use your burner to make DVDs (or CDs) with music, slide shows, etc. too.