When upgrading the hardware on a computer, a lot of pre-planning is required before doing the actual physical upgrading task itself.

First, you have to know why you’re upgrading in order to know what particular components to upgrade. – For example; if your graphics are insubstantial; that is to say the screen appears to stick when you scroll and scroll in a chunky manner for instance, or you’re unable to get a proper frame-rate on a particular game – yet you know that your processor and RAM are well above the recommended system specs suggested for playing the game, then you’ll be looking to upgrade the graphics card., or to fit a graphics card that will take over from the motherboard’s onboard graphics capabilities.

There are several main components inside a computer which you can upgrade: -

Motherboard

Graphics card

Hard-drive(s)

Power supply unit (PSU)

Random Access Memory (RAM)

Processor (CPU)

One or two of the above may have to be upgraded when other main components are upgraded in order to maintain component compatibility. – For example; if you were upgrading the motherboard, unless the new motherboard takes the same processor and/or same processor socket designation as the previous one, then a new, compatible processor is called for. The same goes with the RAM: Unless the previous RAM sticks will fit into the slots and have the same slot designation as the RAM slots on the new motherboard, then new RAM is also called for. Sometimes a new power supply unit may also be called for too.

When upgrading a motherboard; which is about the biggest upgrade task you can do on a computer, you’ll probably want to change the processor and RAM for something faster that performs better anyway: There doesn’t seem much point in upgrading a motherboard just to have it bogged down by the CPU and RAM.

A well-documented way to increase a computer’s performance is to increase the amount of RAM. This can be accomplished by adding sticks, and/or by replacing existing sticks with new sticks with more capacity on them.

Replacing the processor with a faster and better-specced model of the same socket designation may also be a performance aid in some cases. (See this article, for instance.) Ideally, though, a processor upgrade should normally always be a part of a motherboard upgrade in my opinion.

Hard-drives are another thing you might upgrade: Either adding one or more, or replacing one or more. – You might just want more room to store data; and therefore might, for instance, change a 500GB HD for a 1TB HD, or even just add a 1TB HD as an extra storage drive. Perhaps your old hard-drive is making unsavoury noises, or is experiencing a recent glut of bad sectors, and you feel that it’s time to replace it.

Power supply units wear out and require replacing at times too. Alternatively you might require more wattage for the new graphics card that you’ve just installed, and therefore the upgrade is merely a matter of course.

I once described a computer as an adult Lego set; with wires, electricity, and data added to make it a little more difficult. Once you master how it fits together and at least the basics of how it works, you’ll find that it’s fairly easy to do your own upgrades, and save yourself time and a lot of money in the process. – It really isn’t as difficult as you may imagine: All you need is some basic electronics knowledge, general software knowledge, a static-free work area, take proper precautions, a small toolkit, a steady hand and relatively good hand-eye-coordination, and you’re away: You can upgrade your own computer(s), upgrade other people’s too for a fee, build new computers for yourself and others – The world’s your oyster.

There’s not a lot of money in building & upgrading computers currently, unless you do it en masse; but it’s a useful talent to have all the same, even if only for your own purposes: Whenever your PC stops working you can just usually fix it on the spot with a minimum of effort and cost, compared to calling a geek in to umm and arr, take it away for a few days, and charge you a small fortune when they return it in a working condition. Also, whenever you feel that you could do with a performance-increase in whatever respect, you can just plan whatever upgrade you need, buy the parts, and do it whenever it’s convenient to do so, all at a cost decided to the penny by you – in that you yourself are in total control over your spending, you decide what components you’ll use, what quality of components to utilise, everything.

Have you ever built, repaired, or upgraded a computer? Share your experiences.