It's Time For An Upgrade... But What's Best? : Introduction

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It's Time For An Upgrade... But What's Best?

1:02 PM - 04/13/2000 by Patrick Schmid

1 – Introduction
2 – The Basic System
3 – Test Configuration And Upgrade Components
4 – The First Option: Adding More System Memory (RAM)
5 – More RAM: Office Applications
6 – More RAM: Office Applications - Continued
7 – More RAM: 3D Games
8 – Not All RAM Is The Same
9 – The Second Option: A Faster Processor
10 – A Faster Processor: Standard Applications
11 – A Faster Processor: 3D Games
12 – Why Celeron?

13 – Why Celeron? - Continued
14 – The Third Option: An Up-to-date Graphics Board
15 – New Graphics Board - Standard Applications
16 – New Graphics Board - 3D Games
17 – The Fourth Option: A Bigger Hard Disk
18 – Bigger Hard Disk - 3D Games
19 – To Upgrade Or Buy New Equipment, That Is The Question
20 – Benchmarks Summary
21 – Standard Applications - Windows NT 4
22 – 3D Games
23 – Summary
24 – More on this topic

The scene's a familiar one to anyone who owns a PC and uses it on a regular basis - two years after buying it; the computer is a lame duck. In the past, constant updates of Microsoft's operating systems and Office applications made hardware upgrades necessary. Times have changed however and 2D applications are no longer the driving force for new processors, as the following performance charts show. Today, 3D games are the most typical resource-eaters on the consumer market. In the professional segment, image processing, rendering, ray tracing and CAD constantly demand more processing power from a system.

Many users don't want to dump their old PC after two years in order to buy a new one. This means that the only alternative is to upgrade. We'll show you how new components can be integrated in order to 'revive' your old PC. The report investigates the various upgrading options that exist, such as a new processor, more RAM, a bigger hard disk and a new graphics board. Along with the effect of specific upgrades on overall performance, we'll also take a look at the relationship between price and the effort involved in carrying out the upgrade. Furthermore, we will point out areas where a specific upgrade may not produce any overall benefit in the performance of your PC. Anyone who intends to add new components to improve an old system should always check which components would actually have the desired effect.

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