Looking to Upgrade Your Computer? - 4 Reasons You Should

Computers – whether of the laptop or desktop variety – still play very critical roles in the lives of millions of people throughout the United States. They remain among the most important productivity tools that many of us have at our disposal. Big businesses depend on hundreds (or thousands) of them to provide their employees with the resources required to get the job done. So, too, does the average small business owner across America who relies on their trusty desktop or laptop (and a complementary software package) to keep their home-based operation chugging along at its maximum efficiency. These gadgets also continue to satisfy the entertainment and recreational needs of many people. They remain particularly popular with those of us who just can’t wrap our minds around the idea of watching something like a full-length movie on the relatively smaller displays that come standard with the average mobile device. However, as with any other electronic device, our beloved computers eventually age to a stage where we have to seriously consider whether it’s time to replace them with a newer model.

 

4 Ways to Tell you Need a Computer Upgrade

It’s always difficult to part with anything to which we’ve become attached. A computer is no different. However, it’s worth remembering that keeping an old, inefficient computer going will only compromise your productivity and the quality of the user experience that you’re able to enjoy. So, how exactly do you determine that the time has come for your good ol’ supercomputer-sized desktop to be retired in the public’s (i.e., your) interest? Here are five telltale signs that’ll let you know when that fateful moment has arrived:     

 

 

• It runs painfully slow

There are very few things more annoying than dealing with a computer that moves at a pace so slow that it’d cause even a snail to blush with embarrassment. Such a situation typically results when your computer’s random access memory (RAM) resources are stretched beyond their natural limit. In many instances, the RAM of older machines is placed under this strain because we choose to run a number of programs on them simultaneously. It’s become so common for us to multitask that we think nothing of it. However, for a machine that doesn’t possess the requisite memory resources to support such activities, it can be a painfully slow process. If you routinely have to deal with such slowness, you need to seriously start thinking about a computer upgrade in the near future.     

 

• It constantly runs out of hard drive space

There was a time not too long ago when the latest desktops routinely came with 40 GB and 80 GB internal hard drives. Back then, the average person didn’t typically have the need to store as much media on their machine as the average modern-day American does. Now, however, the full capacities of such hard drives can be totally consumed by archiving just a few high definition (HD) movies. If you constantly run into storage shortage issues when trying to save files to your machine, the chances are pretty good that you need to start planning an upgrade immediately. (Of course, the internal storage capacity of your computer can be supplemented by external hard drives, flash drives, etc. However, it’s always good to have these gadgets to provide backup (secondary) storage, as opposed to primary storage.)    

 

• It doesn’t meet the minimum hardware requirements for basic software installations

Any computer is only as good as the software that’s installed on it. If it isn’t running the right programs, it isn’t much more than a decorative shell that accentuates the décor of the room in which it’s placed. Unfortunately, there are many older machines that don’t possess the basic hardware required to facilitate installation of most modern software titles. Let’s illustrate by taking a look at the minimum hardware specs that Microsoft recommends for users who intend to download its very popular Office 2013 productivity suite:

 

• 1 GHz processor

 

• 1 GB RAM (32-bit version) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit version)

 

• 3 GB available hard drive space

 

If your computer doesn’t meet these basic requirements, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to tap into the power and potential productivity that Microsoft Office 2013 brings to the table. Of course, this is unless you get a much needed computer upgrade.

 

• It constantly gets infected with viruses

There are more threats floating around on the Internet than we’d like to even acknowledge. Viruses, Trojan horses, and worms are just a few of the malicious programs that can infect your computer when you go online. These threats can negatively impact the performance of your machine while corrupting many of the important files that you have saved on it. Older machines are naturally more susceptible to these dangers because their hardware and operating systems are less likely to support the antivirus software that could provide them with protection. So, if your old desktop or laptop is constantly being infested with these programs, it might just be time to get an upgrade. After doing so, it’s strongly recommended that you install an up-to-date antiviral package that’ll prevent your newer machine from suffering the same fate as the one it replaced.  

 

The End of the Road

No matter how much you treasure your old computer, the day will eventually come when you’ll need to replace it with a newer, more advanced machine. Thankfully, there are a number of performance-related indicators that you can look out for when seeking to determine the right time to make this important move.  

 

Looking to Upgrade Your Computer? - 4 Reasons You Should