A time will come when your beloved computer, where you spent countless hours working or playing, fails to keep up with your changing demands. The question of whether you should repair, upgrade, or get a new one has a lot of facets to it. The bottom line will always be what you require from it; however, there will be some considerations, which would make either one of the options be a suitable choice.
Updates for your applications, Windows or Mac OS, will, over time, weigh down your computer to a point where you won’t be able to get the latest version. Even a simple boot will be a burden. When the time comes, when more resources are needed to perform basic functions, you’ll just have to bite the bullet and shell out some cash to get something better. Here are some guidelines on how to make the most of your money.
Identify the Problem
Before you set your eyes on a new graphics card or motherboard, you should find out what actually is causing your computer to slow down. This will save you heaps because you’ll get more time with repairing or upgrading these items. Each component in a plethora of logic circuits running inside your computer has its own specific function and requirements. This means that anyone or two things could be causing issues with your performance. It’s always best to spend your money on the right component or components to expect more impact from the change.
You can start by looking for any lingering software issue. This will root out any security or malware issue that may be affecting your computer. While it can be tempting to maintain your hardware and hold off any software updates to save on memory, it poses a great risk on your files and data to keep your computer from getting security updates.
Checking the usage of your computer resources will tell you which application or system is gobbling up your resources and causing other functions to slow down. This also includes reinstalling your Operating System as the files can get corrupted over a period of time. One thing to note is that if the issue is prevalent on a number of programs, chances are, one essential software is bogging the entire thing down. This may require you to upgrade or replace your RAM.
1. Make A Budget
One practical factor determining whether you’ll opt to repair, upgrade, or replace your computer is your budget. You will also have to identify changes in components that will improve performance so as to make it worth your while on your expenses. Upgrading your RAM and changing from mechanical hard drive to SSD will give you a better boost in terms of latency.
Determining your budget is primarily important when it comes to changing motherboards or CPU, as if not done correctly, would just turn out to be a “nominal” bump in your speed. This is because, most of the time, to be compatible, these items require other components to be swapped out as well.
2. When to:
Although there are no hard rules on when to repair or replace your computer, identifying with these situations can help you weigh on whether you’re better off repairing or getting a brand new unit. With technology in a fast constant evolution, it can mean obsolescence on a lot of the previously released gadgets and devices.
Repair
Noting how technology churns out a new shiny product every few months, the average lifespan of a computer is three years. You may have a warranty on certain parts of your computer within that period. Hence if it fails, you may want to consider the repair route at this time. You can get a free quote from a number of repair service providers, and according to Nerd2Go, it is crucial that your service provider has readily available parts on-hand as repairs may, most undoubtedly, require components to be swapped out. While it may be tempting to try the DIY route, you have only yourself to blame if anything goes wrong.
Upgrade
When your computer fails years beyond the average lifespan, you may want to consider if the cost and time of sending it out for repair are still worthwhile. Additionally, if your productivity is getting affected even if you restore your computer’s performance, then upgrades are certainly warranted at this point.
You can benefit greatly from a few affordable upgrades, as mentioned above. Increasing your RAM is the simplest and the most cost-effective upgrade you can do, and it’ll improve your computer’s sluggish performance. Mechanical hard drives will eventually suffer from wear and tear. And although replacing it with a much higher rpm device can give you a boost, using an SSD will make a much greater difference in its performance.
Buy A New One
While upgrades can improve performance, if you have an old-timey computer, chances are there will be bottlenecks in the hardware, which will negate all the boost the upgrades provide. Also, newer software designed to work better with modern technology will not be optimally used if you’re using previous generation hardware. At this point, you may want to replace your computer with newer and better hardware technology. Even if your Windows 10 can sufficiently run on your old computer, this doesn’t mean it’ll perform on an optimum level, and you’ll end up frustrated waiting for your other applications to boot.
Replacing only a motherboard or a processor, as mentioned, may bring up compatibility issues that would deem your upgrades moot. Replacing bottlenecks would sometimes be impossible or more costly than replacing the entire module. One example is the memory on the motherboard; if this unit is soldered onto the board, then your upgrade will only be limited by that memory.
A good computer is an investment, and most of the time, investing in something that offers better performance and computing power is often expensive. Unfortunately, there is no one good answer that would apply to every person in any situation. A person who only uses their computer to write and edit documents will have different specifications as opposed to someone who works with image and video editing. This is why it’s always advisable to perform diagnostics and evaluate your requirements both currently and in the next couple of years.
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