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Arman Danesh

If the ads in the computer magazines are to be believed, owning your computer for more than six months means it is time for an upgrade.

 Of course, this is an unreasonable assumption for most computer owners. Even a life-span of two to three years is too short, given the cost of purchasing a computer.

 With some wise planning and maintenance it is possible to extend the life of a good PC for many years while still being able to run much of the latest software.

 There are several different ways to upgrade your PC. It is possible to upgrade your processor, add memory or expand your disk storage.

 New cache memory can increase the speed of your computer and a new video card can make those graphics-intensive games fly. So, just what should you do?  Consider a few examples:  1. You have a 486-100 MHz computer with 8 Mb Ram and have been running Windows 3.1 in a stoic effort to avoid buying a new PC to run Windows 95.

 In this situation, a 486-100 can be a perfectly decent machine to run Windows 95. The most important piece of the puzzle here is to add memory to your computer.

 Look at the mother board inside your computer. There is a good chance you will have some free memory slots on your system.

 Adding more Ram up to a total of 32 Mb, for example, will give your Windows 95 system sufficient memory for most day-to-day uses such as word processing and surfing the Net.

 It is lack of enough memory, not a slow processor, that makes most PCs running Windows 95 slow.

 With too little memory, Windows 95 can get stuck using your hard disk drive for virtual memory and this is painfully slow on any machine - including the fastest Pentium.

 One bonus - the memory you buy for your 486-100 MHz computer sometimes can be re-used in the Pentium or Pentium II systems you may buy in the future.

 Non-EDO Ram often can be used in the newer motherboards which can run the faster EDO Ram.

 However, newer Pentium motherboards usually cannot run older 30-pin SIMM memory, only the newer 72-pin SIMM Ram memory.

 2. You have a decent Pentium Pro 200 MHz PC running Windows 95, but the applications you run involve lots of disk access and you find your hard drives too slow.

 In this case, a new computer is unlikely to make any real impact on the speed of your system. Instead, you need to consider changing the type of hard drives you are using.

 Most PCs use IDE (Integrated Device Electronics) hard drives. Based on the IDE interface card, IDE hard drives are fine for single-user computers and for applications which are not disk intensive.

 But IDE drives tend to be slower, with top transfer speeds between drive and PC of about 10 megabits per second. SCSI disk drives, on the other hand, offer much better throughput for disk-intensive applications, up to 40 megabits per second.

 In order to use SCSI disks, you need an SCSI card - a good PCI SCSI card costs less than US$300 - plus one or more SCSI hard disk drives (they cost only a little bit more than IDE disks).

 The great advantage of an SCSI card is that you can hook up to seven devices to your PC using a single card.

 This makes it more expandable for users with demands for large amounts of disk space for applications such as video editing or high-end publishing applications.

 3. You have a Pentium 133 MHz computer with 32 Mb of memory but you can display only 256 colours at 800x600 resolution. On top of that, you play lots of multimedia games which seem a little sluggish.

 This scenario points to an inadequate video card with too little video memory. Adding video memory to bring the card to 2 Mb or 4 Mb of video Ram, also known as VRam, will allow you to run the card at higher resolutions with up to millions of more colours.

 This can be very important for applications where colour depth is important, such as image editing, but can make a difference in the appearance of Web pages, video clips and graphics as well.

 To improve the performance of your video display for games and other graphics-intensive applications, you should buy a high-end, accelerated video card, preferably with the latest three-dimensional capabilities.

 This will make a big difference to the performance of your graphics-intensive applications where upgrading to a faster Pentium may make a minimal difference.

 4. You have a 386 computer which you have been using to run DOS applications and want to access the Net using Netscape and Eudora for e-mail.

 While some people say a 386 PC running Windows 3.1 can do the job, the reality is it can be painfully slow.

 But, if you are willing to get your hands dirty inside the computer, you can perform your own upgrade to a Pentium-class computer for far less cost than buying a new system.

 By purchasing a new motherboard, a Pentium CPU and some extra memory, you can use your existing hard disk drives, video card, monitor, mouse and keyboard to put together a respectable Pentium system to be used for more than just surfing the Net.

 If you have never upgraded a PC it is wise to consult a book.

  Upgrading your motherboard and processor is not as tough as it sounds and can be performed by most people.

 One thing to keep in mind is that with some brand-name PCs, the upgrade options may be more limited.

 Many motherboards will not fit inside PCs with custom-designed cases.

 Similarly, some older brand-name PCs take custom memory, making it impossible to buy regular memory for them.

 Also, some brand-name PCs which have video circuitry built in will not allow added video VRam and may not accept a new video card.

 Best to check in advance with a computer shop or consultant if you are unsure about how upgradeable your PC is.

 For most people, upgrading to keep up with the times is a reality and a worthy consideration before laying down a lot of cash on a new system.



Making the most of your PC by upgrading