Joel Durham Jr. - ExtremeTech
Three years ago, when you bought it, your new super-system seemed to be the ultimate computer, the PC with which you could rise to power and rule the world! It chewed through the most demanding games like a shredder eating envelopes; it let you run a half-dozen office applications at a time with no pauses, even with anti-virus and scheduling apps running in the background. It was supreme.
As the months flew by, software became more demanding. Minimum system requirements crawled up the CPU scale; what in one version required 500MHz in its latest revision wants 2GHz. Doom 3 came out, and your system would only spit out 14 frames per second with average detail levels. When you jump from one application on the taskbar to another, there's a noticeable pause while the hard drive churns and you wait. And wait.
In fact, you find yourself waiting more and more for everything you do. From loading apps to encoding home movies or changing a TIFF to a JPEG, you simply hate the fact that you can actually go and get a cup of coffee while the computer sits there and thinks.
It very well could be time to upgrade your system. That's not to say you have to toss the whole thing out and start with a brand-new computer; most PCs can at least accept minor upgrades, and desktop systems built with standard parts are almost completely interchangeable.
But how do you tell exactly which component needs to be upgraded? And how do you know if your particular system will accept an upgrade? Where do you buy the parts? What steps do you take to perform the upgrade itself? Read on.
What's Dogging Your System?
When your system seems sluggish, you first need to narrow down the symptoms to find the culprit. Could it be a lack of sufficient main memory? A pokey graphics card? An aging CPU? What about a stuffed-full hard drive? Deciding what needs to be upgraded requires a bit of detective work.
Let's look at some symptoms, and the part that most likely causes them:
SYMPTOM: You've installed a new, super-powerful GeForce 7800-based graphics card. Ever since then, when you play 3-D games, the computer sometimes crashes or reboots. You've checked the connection and it's fine, the card is powered, and its GPU fan is running.
SOLUTION: Check your power supply. Those new cards pull well over 75 watts alone. If your system's PSU was just getting by with its current components, the new load could be causing it to brown out other components when the graphics card demands its utmost power draw. Get a 500+ watt PSU with dual 12V rails.
SYMPTOM: Everything works great--except new games. You used to be able to run Quake 3 Arena at 125 frames per second. Quake 4 barely makes it over 15 fps. You meet the minimum requirements, so what gives?
SOLUTION: You should swap out your computer's graphics card. Newer cards not only have more raw processing power, but also more memory. Look for a modern GeForce series 6 or 7 series, or a Radeon X800 or higher, with at least 256MB of local memory.
SYMPTOM: Everything is slow. Loading programs takes forever, when it used to be speedy. Changing from one open program to another through the taskbar or Alt-Tab brings the system to a crawl. No matter what you do, it takes forever.
SOLUTION: Check your hard drive space. It sounds like it's so full that the paging file is fragmented, and therefore everything that swaps data to the hard drive in lieu of main memory is going to drag down system performance. You could either install a bunch more memory to stave off the computer's need to swap, uninstall anything you don't use on your current hard drive and run Disk Cleanup to clear up as much space as possible, or upgrade the hard drive itself to a much larger size.
SYMPTOM: You've discovered your artistic bent and begun editing movies and pictures and rendering 3-D objects and scenes. The problem is, when you do something like encode a video, render the 3-D stuff or save big picture files that you've altered, it takes eons to complete the process.
SOLUTION: Those are CPU-intensive activities. The processor crunches all of the operations necessary to transform and render the images. A faster CPU would make a world of difference.
SYMPTOM: The system boots up quickly and works great when you use one or two programs at once, but as you open more applications, it starts to slow down. This is especially noticeable when you have a program that loads lots of huge files, like PhotoShop Elements, with a bunch of massive TIFF images open.
SOLUTION: You need more memory to handle all that up-front computing. The data and program files of open programs are stored in main memory, but when that bank runs out of room, they're swapped to the much slower paging file. More memory will allow more programs and data to reside in the much faster main memory area.
Can You Upgrade?
Now that you have an idea of what needs to be upgraded, you have to determine whether your computer will handle the upgrade. This requires research on your part. You must first find out what your computer's motherboard is capable of, the form factor of your computer case, PSU and motherboard, and more. This may require you to research the motherboard manual, or even do research at the motherboard manufacturer's Web site. You also will have to open the case.
Before opening the computer case, power down the PC and unplug it. Be static safe; use an antistatic bracelet properly or plant your feet and ground yourself before you reach into the PC. Handle circuit boards by the edges and, whether removing or installing something, don't force it. You might break something.
? For a CPU upgrade, learn the fastest CPU your computer's motherboard will support (check the manual). If it won't support a CPU significantly faster than the one it's already rocking, you need to upgrade the motherboard.
? For memory, remember that Windows XP only makes use of a maximum of 4GB of RAM. Find out your computer's current memory configuration, how many memory slots it has, what type of modules are installed and so on. Then, research the motherboard manual for acceptable configurations. Can you add memory, or must you replace the modules already installed? Note: don't mix memory types. If your computer has, for instance, PC3200 memory already installed, and you plan to add to it, add PC3200 memory.
? For the graphics card, make sure you get a replacement that fits the proper slot. Graphics cards come in both AGP and PCI Express X16 varieties, and they're not interchangeable.
? For the hard drive, make sure you get a drive with the same interface. Don't get a SATA (Serial ATA) drive if your motherboard doesn't support it unless you also purchase a SATA adapter. For a drop-in replacement, find out what interface your old hard drive supports (IDE or SATA) and get a drive of the same type with a larger capacity.
? For a motherboard replacement, you need to learn the form factor of the board and get a replacement that will fit your case. Anything not compatible with the new board (possibly the CPU, memory, power supply and graphics card) will have to be replaced.
? For the power supply, be sure to get the same type with all of the necessary connectors connectors.
The Basic Steps to Performing an Upgrade
? Get the right parts! Research, research, research. Check manuals, manufacturer Web sites, and every other resource to ensure compatibility with your system.
? For components with drivers: Uninstall the current drivers.
? Power down the machine. Unplug it.
? Remove the component to be upgraded if necessary. Be on the lookout for clips and brackets that secure the components in place. Expansion cards have a screw that secures them; memory modules have clips on either side of them.
o You can remove graphics cards, sound cards, CPUs and memory modules that are no longer needed.
o Don't remove memory modules that you're supplementing with more modules. If you're replacing an onboard graphics or audio solution, don't try to physically remove it from the board. Disable it in the BIOS.
o If you're removing the entire motherboard, first remove all the expansion cards, then unplug all of the cabling. Remove all of the screws holding it in place. Gently remove it from the case.
o If you're removing a hard drive, note that many hard drives reside in removable brackets. Remove the bracket itself, then remove the hard drive.
o If you're removing an optical drive, pay attention to whether the case uses drive rails to seat the 5-inch external drives. If it does, look at how the drive rails are attached to the drive, and replicate their configuration when you prepare to install the new drive.
? Install the new component.
o If you're installing a motherboard, it helps to first install its CPU, memory and any cables that will reach, before placing it in the case and screwing it down. Before seating it, install the riser bezel (the metal shield that fits in the rectangular area where the ports, like the USB and Ethernet ports, reside.)
o If you're installing memory, seat it gently into place and then press along its length evenly until it snaps into its sockets.
o Secure drives with all four screws to reduce vibration and extend the life of the drive. This is especially true for hard drives.
o Make sure you cool a new CPU with a compatible cooler, and use a thermal compound between the cooler and the top of the CPU.
o Make sure expansion cards are fully seated before you screw them down.
o For a hard drive replacement, install the new drive as a slave. You can then use Norton Ghost to replicate the old drive onto the new drive, remove the old drive and discard the old drive.
? Check all of the cables and connections before powering up the computer. You may wish to power it up before you close the case, on the chance that you have to troubleshoot a loose connection.
? Fire up Windows. Install the drivers for your new equipment if necessary (and it will be necessary for graphics cards, sound cards, motherboards, other expansion cards and some CPUs). You might have to cancel the Windows hardware detection wizard and install the drivers through their own installation routine; read the instructions that came with the new part to find out for sure.
? If you've replaced a motherboard, Windows XP might not be happy without reinstalling it over the top of your current installation. It doesn't take kindly to low-level hardware replacements.
Those, in a nutshell, are some techniques to upgrading your computer. More thorough write-ups of each component could easily fill articles this size on their own, so consult the instructions that came with your components for more details. Also, hit upgrade guides on Web sites like PCMag.com and ExtremeTech.com.
Joel Durham Jr. is a freelance technology writer and author of "PC Modding for Dummies"(Wiley, 2005).
