One of the most common areas for confusion is in deciding whether to buy a new computer or not and, if so, which one. It’s also one of the areas that has no truly simple answer. Multiple factors have to be taken into account in order to make the choice that’s right for you.
Note that in this issue I’m really only addressing your computer itself, not peripherals, drivers, etc.
There are certainly valid reasons to need (or just want) a new computer but if you are on a budget, it may be possible to resolve some issues by changing or adding pieces of new hardware or software instead of replacing an entire computer. Some of these things are easy for almost anyone to do, some would require a quick trip to whomever helps you with your computer problems and some are really only for hard core geeks.
So the first thing I recommend is to decide IF you need a new computer or can try other steps to improve the performance of the one you have. Of course, if you just want a new one, there’s no need to walk through these steps.
Slow Performance
There are actually multiple possible reasons for this and it pays to investigate them a bit if money is tight. Your computer can run slow all the time or it can have considerable slowness only when performing specific tasks, depending on what is causing the problem.
Determining what is constraining the system is important because you can improve parts of a computer but if that thing isn’t what is causing the bottleneck, you won’t see the improvement you might anticipate. Thus I’ve tried to list the possibilities in the order I’ve found to be both most common and easiest/cheapest to fix.
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Viruses and Spyware
Everyone should be running regular virus scans of their systems along with having a real-time anti-virus solution in place. I recommend that an anti-spyware program be run as well. Viruses and spyware can cause a lot of problems, including slowing down your system. This is because the system is running those programs as well as the ones you specifically ask it to run and that uses up resources that your legitimate software needs.
Getting rid of these pieces of malicious software and keeping them off your computer can improve your system performance. The anti-virus and anti-spyware software may cost a small amount but it’s well worth it.
Legitimate Software Running in the Background
A lot of software that you legitimately want to have installed has an option to be set up to auto-run. This means it will be run when your system starts up. This is generally set when the software is initially installed.
The theory is to make the program immediately available when needed, rather than you having to launch it yourself. The price you pay for this convenience is that if you have a lot of these programs running all the time, they eat up your system resources.
I strongly advocate only letting programs auto-start if you really use them more than 75% of the time you are using your computer.
I’ll cover assessing this later in my message board but you can often disable the programs you don’t use constantly enough to need to have them always loaded. It’s free as well!
Too Little Memory
The average amount of memory (RAM or Random Access Memory) needed to make your system run at an acceptable speed varies because it really depends on what applications you run and how many applications you have open at any one time.
If you have too little RAM memory, your system will use something called Virtual Memory in order to run your programs anyway. In order to do this, the system will write data to and retrieve data from the hard drive constantly. The most common symptom of this is that your computer’s hard drive will be constantly active and the light on most of the time while you are using it.
There is a way to look at how much RAM you have and how much your system is using but it’s rather convoluted and I’ll take it to the message board.
It may be possible to increase the RAM in your computer to try to resolve the problem. Whether or not this is possible will depend on how much memory is in your system already, what configuration that memory is in, and how much memory your motherboard or processor can support.
If you have a name brand computer, the technical support staff for that name brand manufacturer can often help you to determine if you have options for adding memory to your system. If you do not have a name brand computer, you may have to speak to the person who built it for you or take it in to the computer technician you use.
The cost to upgrade memory is a fraction of what a new computer would cost.
Fragmented Drives
When you write and delete information from your hard drive, the drive can eventually become fragmented. This is because your computer tries to make maximum use of the space on your hard drive. To do so, if what you are writing is larger than the first available space found on the drive, the computer won’t just skip that space as “too small” in order to look for a place in which all the information will fit into as a single contiguous unit. Instead it will write whatever fits in that first space, then use the next space it finds for as much more as will fit in that space and continue this until the data is all written to the drive.
Lots of writing and deleting of files will cause everything written to the drive to become fragmented over time. This means when the system needs that data, it has to retrieve pieces of it from all over the drive instead of being able to read the whole piece of data from one location. All this hunting and assembling takes time, so the system will slow down, sometimes rather drastically.
This can be resolved by periodically de-fragmenting your drive. I’ll post instructions for doing that on the Message Board soon. This is another free fix.
Too Slow a Processor
The speed of your processor also has a lot to do with how fast or slow your system can run. You can look at the processor you currently have by clicking on Start, then right-clicking on My Computer and then clicking on Properties to see what processor you have and compare the speed of the processor to what is supported by your Operating System or software.
Note that processors are usually described as a type and then a speed. The system I am writing this newsletter issue on has an AMD Sempron 1.6 Ghz processor. In my case, AMD is the manufacturer, Sempron is the particular model of the processor and 1.6 Ghz is the speed of the processor.
My typical guidance is that if you want to upgrade your software, you should look at the requirements of that software and if your processor is less than 150% of that speed, you may need a faster processor. Remember that the minimum requirements are just that, minimum.
In most cases, if you need a faster processor, you are talking about getting a new computer unless you are a rather advanced geek and, thus, probably wouldn’t be reading this.
Unable to Run the Software You Want
A compelling reason to buy a new computer is that the one you currently have does not meet the requirements for the software you want to run on it. There are a few parts of a system – especially in a desktop system – that can be upgraded in order to meet software requirements if that is the only thing really stopping you from running the software you want to.
If you have multiple items that need upgrades or you need to upgrade an integrated or central part of your computer, you may decide to just buy a new one instead of attempting to perform these upgrades.
Graphics Card
This sometimes happens if you play a lot of games that are very current and sophisticated, you want to play videos or use some program that is very graphics intensive like CAD or something similar. There are quite a few graphics cards on the market but you can narrow down a selection by looking at the program’s requirements and asking other users of the software online what they’ve had good experiences with.
Installing the graphics card is relatively easy but if you aren’t comfortable opening up your system, you can take it to your computer technician.
Memory
Memory is relatively inexpensive and easy to obtain if your system supports an upgrade. Again, installing it is relatively easy but you can always have someone else do it.
Peripherals
Sometimes there is a dependency on a peripheral being present and those are generally easy to obtain and hook up. This can include things like a monitor, a joystick, etc
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Change in Form Factor
An insurmountable issue would be that you need or wish to have a different form factor than what you currently have. This could be a situation where you have a desktop computer but want or need a laptop, or vice versa. You could also need a smaller laptop for travel while the laptop you currently have is a heavy widescreen one.
This is a situation where you should just resign yourself to buying a new system.
Instability
Another problem that can signal a need to buy a new computer is if your existing computer is somehow unstable – it can crash frequently for no known reason, it can have recurring errors appear that can’t seem to be resolved, it can fail to boot up. It pays to talk to your computer technician or the technical support team from your computer’s manufacturer first, sometimes these can be resolved relatively simply. But if your computer is also a few years old, it may be a symptom of something going badly wrong.
Be sure to take full advantage of any warranty period in effect before you write off the computer you have. But you may have to buy a new system.
The next issue of this Newsletter will talk about picking out a new computer. Stay tuned!
© 2007 Maura Anderson