A two-year-old television, stereo, radio or telephone is still in its prime, going strong. But a two-year-old personal computer seems positively ancient.
Glance at any PC ad in newspapers or magazines, and your old clunker appears alarmingly deficient compared with today’s models. Your aged machine is slow and puny and taps into the Internet at a snail’s pace.
What to do? The computer industry’s self-interested advice is to buy a new computer every two or three years. But shelling out $2,000 or so every few years is awfully expensive. An alternative is to upgrade your old computer, either by yourself or with help from a professional.
So, recently I decided to try a PC makeover. The best age for overhauling a PC is when it is two years old. “That’s the sweet spot, when you spend the least to get the most benefit and the components you need are still widely available,” said Linda Rohrbough, the author of “Upgrade Your Own PC” (IDG Books Worldwide, $29.99).
My machine, a 2 1/2-year-old Compaq, was a bit old, she said, but it could still be upgraded substantially for a fraction of the cost of buying a new PC.
My upgrading effort was a mixture of success and setbacks. I chose to take three steps: adding more memory, getting a faster modem and installing a new microprocessor. These, I decided, promised the best payoff for cost and were things that a person like me, with some computer literacy, might well try. Yet, for the third step, I definitely needed the help of a professional: Bruce W. Stark, the president of CTSI Consulting/Computer Tutor in New York.
And I balked at attempting to put in a new hard drive (the computer’s permanent storage), figuring it was too difficult for me and most people. (With Apple Macintosh, the upgrading is similar but often requires fewer steps than with industry-standard PCs, which use Intel microprocessors and run Microsoft Windows software.)
Following is an account of a typical PC overhaul–what worked and what didn’t for me–with advice from Stark, a longtime PC consultant, who was on hand throughout this upgrading experiment.
Preparation: Before buying parts, do a little research. Retailers say 20 percent of components bought for upgrades are returned because people buy the wrong items. The upgrade options for your machine can be found on the Web site of the company that made your machine or in the user’s manual. In addition, large stores often have upgrade desks, where workers can look up the parts that your computer will accept.
Some computer experts insist that a “wrist grounding strap,” to discharge static electricity, is essential equipment, but in 15 years, Stark says, he has never used a wrist strap and never blown a chip.
– Memory. Increasing a computer’s memory, also called RAM (random-access memory), is the most cost-effective upgrading step. Memory chips temporarily hold the data that a computer is currently working on. With too little memory, your PC slows to a crawl.
My 1994 Compaq ran Windows 3.1 and came with only eight megabytes of RAM. I decided to go to 32 megabytes–the amount computer experts recommend to run Windows 95 programs.
It is easily done. First, turn the computer off, unscrew the housing and remove the casing. Your user’s manual will show the location of the sockets in which new memory modules–slender, four-inch boards holding chips–can be placed. A module has a small rectangular notch on one end, so it fits into the socket only one way. Little clips at the ends of the socket have to be pulled back. The memory module slips into place and is gently pushed with both hands into an upright position. It clicks into place.
When you turn on your machine, the screen should indicate that you have 32,000 kilobytes of memory (or 32 megabytes), and it should ask you to press a key to adjust the PC settings. For me, the added zip was fairly striking, as if a four-cylinder automobile engine were replaced by a V-8.
A memory upgrade can be done in a half-hour or less. The 24 megabytes of additional memory cost about $125.
– Modem. The modem enables a computer to communicate across telephone lines. A modem is necessary to send and receive e-mail, use an on-line service or surf the Web. Modem speed can determine how quickly a Web page, for example, will appear on your screen.
My 1994 computer came with an internal 14.4-kbps (kilobits per second) modem. For the upgrade, I attached a 33.6-kbps modem and decided it should be an external one. The little white box connects by cord to a serial port, or socket, in the back of the computer. Many experts recommend external modems, since they have tiny red lights that indicate when phone connections are made. After connecting it, I altered the software settings in Windows, telling the computer to sidestep the old, internal modem and to use the souped-up, external one.
A modem upgrade can be done in a half-hour or so. My new U.S. Robotics modem cost about $150, though discount stores, I learned, offer the same model for about $100.
– Microprocessor. The microprocessor, often called the brain of a computer, is the chip that controls most of the PC. A faster processor–the speed is measured in megahertz–will perform computing tasks more quickly.
For most, a processor upgrade is not necessarily recommended. But my machine had an older 486 processor running at 66 megahertz. One option was available: installing Intel’s Overdrive processor, which emulates Intel’s newer Pentium processor and runs at 83 megahertz. It cost about $200.
The Intel kit includes the microchip, clear instructions and even a little crowbar-like device for prying up the old processor. Pulling the old chip from the pinholes is a delicate job. But the real problem comes in pushing the new processor down into the pinholes. It goes in, but not all the way. Forcing it, I reasoned, would risk cracking the computer’s motherboard, the equivalent of a chassis. Undaunted, Stark, the upgrade pro, folded some cardboard under the motherboard as a cushion and pressed down hard on the new chip, which finally slipped firmly into position. He explained, “I figured it had to go.”
So ended this upgrade adventure. It was unrepresentative in two respects. I was accompanied by a professional, and I did several steps. Most people upgrade one piece of equipment or two at the most. My advice for all but the daring or truly skilled: Add memory and a modem yourself, but leave the rest to a pro.
Is the process worth it? Well, that depends. The computer industry has complicated the equation by making thousand-dollar PCs, which have half the memory but faster processors than my overhauled machine. The equipment costs for my upgrade totaled $475. But add $90 for Windows 95, and $100 or $200 worth of time from a computer consultant, and the savings become less.
