5 Affordable Upgrades to Make Your Old Desktop More Efficient
Windows PCs slow down over time, that’s a long known fact. These day in the era of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), your desktops must have been sitting in the corner, eating dust. However, it is also true that desktops come with better upgradation options than laptops. Meanwhile, these desktop also prove to be worthy companions to your laptop, if you want to work across multiple devices.
Be it your personal PC or an office one, you can oomph these devices to work better without spending too much from your pocket. We are listing top 5 affordable upgrades that will make your old desktop more efficient.
1. SSD Storage
If your desktop is still running on a hard disk drive (HDD), the first and foremost step is to replace it with a solid-state drive (SSD). You will see a considerable speed-up in practically every aspect of your computing experience. One glitch you may experience is the high price of SSD for a large storage capacity. A simple hack to this problem is to install a smaller 128GB or 256GB SSD drive as the primary drive, and use a high-capacity HDD as a secondary drive for which you can use your existing HDD.
2. Expand Your RAM
With a 4GB DDR3 RAM stick from Kingston costing less than Rs. 3,000, a RAM upgrade is something to seriously consider. This simple upgrade from 2GB to 4GB RAM will deliver a noticeable boost in performance.
Most desktops have between two and four slots, and you will need to swap out lower-capacity RAM modules for higher-capacity ones if there are no empty slots available. And while most PCs should be using DDR3 RAM by now, some older machines use DDR2 RAM, which tend to be more expensive to upgrade.
3. Speed up the Networking
If you need maximum network performance, go for wired Ethernet connectivity instead of wireless networking. The Ethernet is far more reliable, offers dedicated bandwidth to your PC, and factors that commonly affect wireless signals such as office layout will not be an issue. You can also check weather your PC comes with Fast Ethernet (100Mbps) ports, so an upgrade to Gigabit Ethernet with an add-on network interface card (NIC) may also work on your benefit.
4. Multi-monitor set-up
Over the years, users and tech analysts have noted that multitasking is easier and smooth with two or more monitors. While laptops can run multiple monitors as well, it is much easier to set up desktop systems to do it. Indeed, many desktops can probably support at least two monitors without any external upgrades.
5. Desktop casing
This one will make you work a little bit. Changing your desktop’s casing will open you up to many upgradable options. You can get space for more components and more cooling. You can also make your desktop look new with some fancy features such as clear side panels or glowing fans and lights. And yes, you can also upgrade your front-panel connectors to support the latest and greatest connection types.
