Keeping Old Faithful Fast

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/how-to-pep-up-a-cheap-pc/' target='_blank'>http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com...-up-a-cheap-pc/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"My Dell came with AMD HD 4200 integrated graphics &mdash; and an open PCI Express (PCIe) slot for a future upgrade to a discrete graphics card. Lately I&rsquo;ve noticed that the computer seemed a bit sluggish when displaying high-definition video, and I wondered if adding a graphics card would improve its performance. I&rsquo;m not a gamer, so I wasn&rsquo;t looking for hot-shot gaming capabilities."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1283616250.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 0px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Computers are incredibly cheap, at least compared to what they used to cost over a decade ago, but that does not mean that people can afford to upgrade every year, or even every few years.&nbsp; I have computers that are well over 5 years old that are still in use, and I am willing to bet that a great deal of people out there are using computers even older.&nbsp; Old computers are trusty, longtime friends, but do not always perform great with what we demand of them today.&nbsp; Upgrades are a cheap way to keeping them perky, and adding a video card is one of the best investments you can make, especially now that hardware acceleration is becoming more commonplace.&nbsp; The only other major upgrade I could recommend is RAM.&nbsp; Computers sold four to five years ago tended to be anemic on RAM, often having 1GB or less.&nbsp; This was one of the reasons why Microsoft Vista performed like a dog.&nbsp; I have noticed that a lot of computers today are selling with 3-4GB of RAM, which probably helps considerably with performance.&nbsp; Even old Windows XP needs almost 1GB of RAM to be happy when a few programs are running.&nbsp; Without that space, your computer will spend more time swapping memory than actually doing something productive.&nbsp; Has anyone else found cheap, effective upgrades for their old bessie?</p>

[Reid Kistler]

Still trying to catch up from the long weekend (US Labor Day...) - but always enjoy talking about vintage gear...

RAM tends to be No 1; an improved video card second - especially if moving from integrated graphics to a discrete card.

Sometimes you can gain a bit by upgrading the CPU, and we have done this in a handful of cases where we Just Happened to have a compatible, faster CPU that was not in use.

Also like to add a second (or third!) HD, although performance gains are usually unnoticeable unless the system has serious space limitations to begin with. (But other advantages make this worthwhile in any case.)

Question becomes how many "upgrades" are you allowed until you are no longer "upgrading" buy simply building a new machine - ? :confused:

And then there is the matter that it is often less expensive to simply run out & purchase an entry level machine than it is to try to upgrade an older one: and the "entry level" system will often outperform the old one Even With the planned upgrades!

Still, there is a sense of satisfaction - and a bit of enjoyment - that can be had by upgrading an existing system; but some parts for moderately old machines have become rather expensive and/or difficult to find (AGP Graphics cards anyone? Older RAM chips as well....)