More and more people are throwing away their electronics rather than fixing them because of costs. Well, let me tell you, I don’t blame some of them. When a laptop motherboard needs to be replaced on a $500 laptop that you bought 2-3 years ago and the labor and motherboard total $350-400, well, yeah, it may be easier to just get a new one. The difference is that most laptop computers and desktop computers just need a small upgrade and a tune-up. The best upgrade any older computer can receive is a memory (RAM) upgrade. RAM is where your programs reside after they have been read from the hard disk drive (HDD). [Your HDD is where your data is stored.] One of my great business partners, Alejandro, has a great analogy about RAM.
Imagine you had three dogs in the bathroom and you wanted to play Frisbee®. The dogs represent the number of programs you have running, the bathroom is the amount of RAM you have, and the action of the Frisbee® is trying to access the information. Well, unless you have a mansion with a bathroom that is larger than most master bedrooms, it will not turn out well. Now, increase the space (RAM), and move out to the backyard. All three dogs should have just enough room to play and catch the Frisbee®. There does come a point where you can have so much RAM that you will not use it all. Think of those three dogs on a football field. You would be stuck at one end zone with another 110 yards of field unoccupied. The resources to keep up the rest of the field (think of energy to your RAM chips) would be a waste.
The second great upgrade to an older computer would be the hard disk drive. Most manufacturers ship their computers with slower drives, unless you bought a fancy one or ordered the upgraded drive. Putting in an Solid State Drive (SSD) can increase the responsiveness of a computer 10 fold. There are even reports of Seagate’s Momentus Hybrid Drives having great access rates under Windows 7 (Sorry XP, Vista users). As a great segue: It can help to upgrade to Windows 7 from Vista or XP if your computer will support it. Most all computers that run Vista can run Windows 7 and they will run better.
So, consider upgrading your computer and/or getting a PC Tune-Up.
Notes on prices:
Laptop Memory:
DDR: 1GB (2x512mb) is about $30 / 1GB is about $26 / 2GB (2x1GB) is about $50
DDR2: 1GB is about $15 / 2GB (2x1GB) is about $30 / 4GB (2x2GB) is about $45
DDR3: 8GB (2x4GB) is about $33 / 16GB (2x8GB) is about $60
Laptop Hard Disk Drives (HDD) & Solid State Disks (SSD):
Be sure to read reviews. They are not all the same. And you do get what you pay for.
60-64GB SSDs are about $55 to $128 depending on brand and speed.
120-128GB SSDs are about $85 to $229.
250-256GB SSDs are about $160 to $269 and up.
(I personally recommend the high end Hybrid Drives for Windows 7/8 Laptops if you want more GBs per Dollar)
320GB HDDs – $55 to $80
500GB HDDs – $70 to $200 (the higher end/expensive drives here are enterprise/server drives, not laptop drives)
750GB HDDs – $85 to $130
1TB HDDs – $90 to $300 (the higher end/expensive drives here are enterprise/server and gaming drives)
There are many other sizes and types available. This is just the gist of things.
Most often desktop parts are cheaper than laptop parts. Just remember that SSDs are smaller and most come with a mounting tray to put in larger computers (2.5″ to 3.5″ mounting tray). Also, laptop memory is smaller and cannot be used in desktops. Be sure to check what memory your computer can take. Every manufacturer is different on the type and maximum amount. Or just call us for advice.
One last note: Don’t want to upgrade the computer but it still works? Try installing a Linux operating system like Ubuntu. You will be amazed at how much faster a Linux operating system can run on an older computer. Not to mention they’re virus resistant and great when handing a computer down to others.