NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, April 2004
To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade!
by Timothy Everingham, TUGNET
teveringham@acm.org
(click to email author)


To upgrade or not to upgrade, that is the question. Whether it is nobler to upgrade the computer you have or to put aside the invested fortune of your current computer and get a new one? Or yet do you even need to put your cash into computer hardware? Even Shakespeare didn’t have to deal with these questions, which in recent years have become even more complicated to answer.

Where you should start is by determining what your present and future needs and wants are going to be. Don’t try to project over five years. I am not talking about what hardware you may drool over, but what you will want or need to do with your computer. Will it be word processing; web surfing; email; burning CD and DVDs; database or list management; software development; photo, graphics, video editing and creation; or something else? Then you look at the application software that will accomplish those tasks. Also look at how long will your current application software and operating system(s) be supported by the manufacturer (Windows 98 will no longer have support and patches available after December 31, 2003). Also, if you have software that is known to be troublesome, like Windows ME, the need or desire to upgrade it should be considered. Then you look at the system requirements to run these applications: hardware, operating system, and other supporting software (software that is required to be installed on your system in order for your application to run).

Remember that the companies want to sell you the software or hardware, resulting in the minimum software requirements listed being as low as possible and may not reflect real world conditions. If you have a system that is exactly listed as the minimum system requirements (it is the minimum system requirements if only one is listed) consider that this product will run extremely slowly and crash at times. Some manufactures list both minimum and recommended system requirement, and you do not want to be too far below the recommended requirements. Also, some system requirements listed do not change the RAM requirements for different operating systems. They list as minimum RAM the one for the oldest operating system. A program may run on Windows 95, 98, 98 SE, ME, 2000, and XP; but the amount of RAM needed in reality is more for Windows 98, 98 SE, and ME than Windows 95 and more for Windows 2000 and XP than Windows 98, 98 SE, and ME.

There are some general guidelines. If you have a Pentium II computer, AMD equivalent or older and are doing anything else than word processing, simple web surfing and email you are looking at having too many things needed to upgrade for it to be worthwhile. With Macintosh or notebook computers, upgrade options are more limited than desktop PCs so, unless it is fairly new, you should be looking at getting a new computer. Also, you have to look at how many of your computer’s components are close to or past their expected lifetimes. If your computer’s components are five years or older, your computer is living on borrowed time. Where the upgrade option looks better is with Pentium 3, Pentium 4 or Athlon-based desktop computers. However, software activation has made this more complicated. With activation the software takes a snapshot of your computer’s hardware configuration. If you try to run it after doing too many upgrades the software decides that it is not the same computer; violating the software license and shuts itself down. You then have to go to the software manufacturer and try to convince them that the computer you upgraded is not a new computer. The most famous of the programs that includes this feature is Windows XP, but there are a growing number of application software packages that also have this feature.

Of course this has bred a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) about upgrading computers, which the people who sell new computers are happy to take advantage of. If you do a combination motherboard (main circuit board) and processor replacement, activation should be a problem for you.

If your current computer fits your system’s requirements of your expected needs and wants, congratulations; you are done without having to spend any money.

However, if you still are considering upgrading, the next thing you want to do is get out your motherboard manual (may be contained in computer manual). It will tell you what components can be installed on it. If you can’t find your manual, there is likely to be a PDF of it on the manufacturer’s website. While you are there check to see if there are any BIOS updates available that may give the motherboard new features that you may need. If the motherboard does not support the processor; type, speed or amount of RAM; or the type of plug-in card (AGP, PCI, EISA, ISA) you want to install, you will have to install a new motherboard that will. For drive (IDE, ATA, SATA, SCSI), IEEE 1394 (Firewire), and USB interfaces you can get plug-in cards instead of getting a new motherboard.

Upgrading your RAM is probably the thing that can be most effective in putting off the need to buy a new computer. The others would be a new video card and a new hard drive.

Installing a CD or DVD R/RW drive is also a good option in order to backup things on your hard drives and being able to take data and media files off your drives that you use infrequently.

Don’t forget to calculate your power requirements and have the case be able to fit the motherboard. After you make up a list of your proposed upgrade parts, add up the cost of them. Then compare this cost to the cost of a similar system to what your upgraded system would be. If you are doing a lot of upgrading you will find that the totally new computer will be close to or cost less than the cost of upgrading (there is a discount for buying an entirely new computer rather than just the parts of one). If you find yourself in this position you should lean toward buying a new computer. With this type of consideration you should also be looking at how you will transfer data and applications from your old computer to your new one (remember software activation issues).

With AMD releasing their Athlon 64 bit desktop processors, one of the issues in upgrading or buying a new computer is “will I need a 64 bit processor.” For most people the answer is not until the later part of this decade. To get the most out of a 64 bit processor you need 64 bit applications running on top of a 64 bit operating system. Of course if you have a Mac G5 system running Panther (Mac OS 10.3) and some of the recent versions of the high level Apple content creation applications you are already there, but for the PC world only 64 bit applications programs now are very high level server based or scientific applications.

There is 64 bit Linux, but the Windows XP version is still in beta and won’t be out until spring 2004. There will be 64 bit versions of some games in 2004, but do not look until 2005 for a significant amount of 64 bit software for Windows XP. Because there will be a lot of 32 bit computers around for a while there should be plenty of 32 bit software. The 64 bit Athlons and what rumors say Intel is developing as a 64 bit desktop processor will be able to run 32 bit applications well, which should also keep the 32 bit software market healthy for quite a while. So unless you are a high level gamer, run high-level scientific or content creation applications, or run Macs you should wait on getting a 64 bit processor computer.

Making the decision on whether to upgrade your current computer or buy a new computer has become more complex than it was a few years ago. A systematic step-by-step approach is appropriate. First determine your needs, then what will support filling those needs, and then weigh the costs of upgrading or buying new. May the wisdom of the Great Elizabethan Bard be upon you, resulting in a fruitful bounty of computer buying.

Timothy Everingham is CEO of Timothy Everingham Consulting in Azusa, California. He is Vice Chair of the Los Angeles Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH and is also on the Management Information Systems Program Advisory Board of California State University, Fullerton. In addition he is the Vice President of the Windows Media Users’ Group of Los Angeles. He is also part-time press in the areas of high technology, computers, video, audio, and entertainment/media and has had articles published throughout the United States and Canada plus Australia, England, & Japan. He is a member of TUGNET. Further information can be found at http://home.earthlink.net/~teveringham

There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author. The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.

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