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More Bang For The BuckProbably the hardest part of dealing with a PC that just isn't getting it done anymore is contemplating the price of replacing it or paying someone (like us) $50 an hour plus parts to upgrade it. The truth of the matter is that there are several free maintenance programs built into Windows and a host of freeware programs online that can make your system run 10 - 50% better. It is also possible with a little web savvy to improve performance of you PC above the 50% simply by adding $100 - $200 in upgrades that easily plug right into the Main Board (aka Mother Board). Part of any regular system maintenance should be a periodic disk clean-up and defragmentation. If you save and delete a lot of information fragments of this information are left on your hard drive and windows has to navigate through the "trash" to find the data you are seeking. On the same note, installing programs, surfing the internet, downloading plugins and other activities create a host of cookies, temporary and log files that you will never need again. These Windows System Tools can be run relatively safely though it is recommended that you create a restore point and/or backup before you run them. These are paths in Windows XP:
On the hardware side the easiest way to boost performance is to upgrade the memory and the video card. Most systems out of the box have an 50-100% upgrade path already built in. That means that most of the time your system allows you to almost double the memory and video performance on your motherboard. Windows 32bit systems and that includes XP and Vista can "see" or handle up to 3GB or 3000MB of memory. Some systems, especially laptops will reallocate memory over 3GB to the onboard video. So the first thing to do is check your PC book or Google your PC Model # and Memory Upgrade to see what kind and how much memory you can install. There are 3 basic types of commonly used memory types today, PC100/133, DDR, and DDR2. Your PC Manual or Manufacturer Website should give exact specifications including how many memory slots your board has available, what is already in use and what configuration upgrade possibilities exist. Then it is simply a matter of Googleing the type and size memory and getting the best price. Video cards in use today most commonly fall into 2 categories: AGP 4/8 and PCIe type interfaces. Again consult your manual and/or Manufacturer's site to see what you need. There will also be information about any limitations though the cost limitations of these cards is usually the first one we encounter. The individual manufacturers and performance differences are really only of interest to the gamers as they will almost always be an upgrade to what came with your system. As this can be one of the costliest upgrades just remember that again the memory that the card has is probably the most important for these purposes because the more power the card has the less it needs to tax the PC Processor and system memory to do its job. Now it is time to gain entry to the box, usually two screws holding the cover and some trick to slide or lift it off. Please remember that before you touch anything inside the case touch a part of the metal case to ground yourself and unplug the PC from its power source. Once inside it is easy to see the memory chips (they look just like the ones you bought) but there are usually a series of 3-5 upgrade slots on the board that will be used or unused. The Video Slot is almost always the top slot because it is the hottest card but check your documentation again to be sure. The memory is held in place by two clips, the video card by a screw and sometimes a clip in the back. Sometimes you need to move the cards up and down by the upper edges to release or install them. Always make sure that they are properly aligned in the slot and pushed all the way into the slot when installing. Try starting the PC before replacing the cover to make sure it will boot and sees the new and/or added items. If it hangs or gives any error messages try unplugging the power and reinstalling the new components buy removing and resetting the card. Once the new components are installed correctly and recognized by the system allow it to boot to Windows and install the drivers from the disk supplied with your video card.
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