Before buying a new PC, read on to see if you need to spend the money on a new machine

Many people think that PCs slow down over time, and therefore need to be replaced. However, there is often a good reason for the drop in performance, and there are a number of simple fixes which can extend the life of your existing PC...

Before parting with your hard-earned cash, consider the following:

Do you really need a high-powered PC? The more expensive PCs are designed mainly for gaming, as some modern games require a very powerful processor (CPU), and lots of memory (RAM). If you are doing a lot of intensive Video editing, or editing a number of large images or photos simultaneously, then you will also see benefits from a powerful PC.

However, if you only use your PC for Web Browsing, Email and some word-processing, simple spreadsheets and basic photo-editing, then most PCs from the past 8 years or so are likely to be sufficient for your needs. Do you really want the latest Operating System right now, or would you prefer to stick with what you know?

So why is my PC running so slowly?

There could be many reasons for this, some with simple actions you can take yourself:

• The first thing to check, is that you have cleared out the cache on your web browser. This is something you should carry out on a regular basis. All browsers have options for doing this. On Internet Explorer, for example, click on 'Tools/Internet Options' and take the option to delete files. The most important area to delete is the 'Cache'. If you have not done this before, then it may take some time to complete this step. Be patient!
• Hard disk filling up. With most people now taking digital photos and video, you may find that these are taking up more and more of your hard disk space. Open Windows Eplorer (Right-click on 'Start' and select 'Explore'). Right-click on your hard drive icon (C: or D:) and select properties to find out how much free space you have. When your free space drops below 20-25%, you can often find that your PC starts to slow down as it struggles to find the free space it needs to work. There are various ways to get around this:
  
  • Add a second hard drive. Cost of disk storage has dropped enormously over the past few years. If your PC is 7-8 years old, it's hard disk may 80-160GB. You can now buy a hard disk with 1TB (1000GB!) from a little over £60, and smaller drives will be cheaper. The new drive can be installed and configured to hold all your data (files & photos) to spread the load across the 2 drives.
  • Good housekeeping! You should always take backups of your important files on a regular basis, just in case you lose the files from the hard drive. Use an external hard drive (very reasonable value currently), or copy your files to CD/DVD then store them safely. Once archived (and once you have confirmed you can read them from the archive device), delete any files you don't NEED to keep on your hard drive to free up as much space as possible. At the same time, do you really need to keep all that software you have installed but never use? If not, let's uninstall it and get it out of the way.
• Hard Disk fragmented - This will happen to all PCs over a period of time, resulting in your files being fragmented across your hard disk, and slowing down access to these files. You can easily check and recify this. Click on 'Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Defragmenter'. Firstly select your main data drive (normally 'C:', but may be 'D:'), then click on 'Analyse'. The PC will check the state of the drive, and may suggest that you should defragment it. Allow it to defragment, which may take anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours, depending on how badly fragmented the drive is. When first running this process, it may need to be run a few times in order to tidy things up properly.
• Many background processes using up resources but providing no real benefit. These are often installed subtly in the background when installing other software and are automatically started when you boot up your PC. This can also result in a slow start-up of your PC as well as potentially exposing you to security risks. Do you have iTunes, Yahoo Toolbar, Google Toolbar etc etc? These are just a few examples of software which install additional processes. If we stop these starting automatically, they will still run when required.
• Browser Add-ons. If you find that your browser is slow to start up and to load pages, it could be that you have collected a number of 'add-ons' such as toolbars, helpers etc. Many of these install themselves as a side-effect of installing other programs, but don't really offer you any real benefit. They are simple to disable, and the improvement can be immediate. Be aware that some security software such as Norton, MacAfee, AVG etc include add-ons which can enhance your security whilst browsing the internet. You should consider leaving these if you want to maintain your security.
• Lack of memory (RAM). A cheap and simple increase of RAM can work wonders! Many older PCs were supplied with 256MB or 512MB of RAM to keep the cost down. The latest versions of web browsers and other software require more RAM to run effectively. RAM is now relatively cheap, so a typical upgrade of 1GB may only cost from £20-£30 and is straightforward to install.
• Slow CPU. This is a tricky one to assess without knowing exactly which application software you wish to run. It is perfectly feasible to browse the Internet and carry out simple word-processing etc with a processor of less than 1GHz,  but if you are running Windows, it may struggle with some tasks. You may consider using a different Operating System such as Linux, which has some very good applications for email, Internet browsing and word-processing / spreadsheets etc. Most of these are available free of charge. However, if you want to stick with Windows and Microsoft Office etc, then this may well be a good time to consider buying a new PC!

If you are unsure of whether to upgrade your existing PC, or buy a new one, please call or email me to discuss. If you wish to upgrade, I can purchase quality parts and carry out the above upgrades, as well as backing up your data on your behalf if required.