Introduction
Nobody likes a PC that lags. For some, it may even be stressful and nerve-wracking if the PC takes a long time to download something or if the game starts to flicker and is lagging more than what is normal for your set-up.
Best PC Upgrades to Improve Performance
For such cases, here are 5 upgrades that can increase the speed of your PC and make it faster. If you’d rather just buy a new, affordable PC instead of making upgrades, you can get a great gaming PC under 1000 bucks as well.
Essentially, what you need to do is upgrade the HDD to SSD or to a larger HDD, or your existing SSD to a larger SSD. Plus, upgrade the RAM, and the graphics card. Upgrading to an SSD will take some time, money, effort, and energy. On the contrary, RAM and the graphics card can be upgraded very easily.
Upgrading the Disk Drive
The best way to make your computer faster is to upgrade the disk drive. If your computer has an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), switching to an SSD (Solid State Drive) could possibly be the best thing you could do. This one, simple upgrade is going to give your computer quite a boost.
Why switch to SSD?
There are many reasons for switching from HDD to SSD. For instance, hard drives are very noisy as they spin at high rates to work and have many moving parts that tend to wear out over a period of time. In contrast, SSDs work very quietly, efficiently, and are less prone to damage than HDDs.
Plus, SSDs have a non-volatile memory so anything saved stays on the instantly-accessible memory chips as opposed to the HDDs that store data on mechanical platters and need a moving read/write head for accessing the data.
Another interesting fact is that SSDs are more shock-resistant as they do not have any moving parts as opposed to an HDD that is a mechanical drive and therefore has far more chances of failure due to external shock.
SSDs also do not get affected by the magnetic fields, where HDDs can get damaged when exposed to errant magnetic fields.
At the most, they can induce a magnetic flux in the wires but there will be no change in data. The read and write speeds of SSDs are also far better than HDDs. The only drawback is that an SSD costs much more than an HDD.
How to upgrade to an SSD?
You can follow the following easy steps to upgrade to an SSD.
- Firstly, you need to buy an SSD and then move your data onto it. For moving the data, you need to have an external drive case or drive sled or enclosure so that you can connect your SSD to your PC for data transfer.
- Secondly, you have to copy the data from one drive to another. Copying the data from one drive to another may not copy all the data needed to boot the computer. A solution for this may be cloning a hard drive onto an SSD. For this, you would need cloning software.
- After cloning your existing hard drive, you can place the SSD into your computer. You can keep the previous hard drive as an external drive for backup.
Upgrading RAM
RAM is a temporary data storage space that provides speedy access to files and folders and high-level games. When you go to estimate the amount of RAM you need, you must take into consideration the limitations of the motherboard and CPU of your PC as they can only handle a certain degree of upgradation, depending on their build.
Why upgrade RAM?
When deciding whether you want to upgrade the RAM of your machine or not, you need to understand that a lot depends on the kind of work you do on your PC. How much you can add, whether you can even upgrade or not, etc.
Also, you need to decide how much RAM you really need. If you are using your PC for just day to day tasks such as streaming videos, editing photos, working on MS Office, etc, then 8GBs of RAM would be sufficient.
If you want to do some gaming then you will need a 16GB RAM for an efficient gaming experience. You would need a further upgrade of up to 32GB if you do video editing and other media-related stuff on your PC. From 32GB to 64GB, upgrading will show improvement in terms of smooth and efficient multitasking with excellent performance.
How to upgrade?
Once you have that part figured out, changing the RAM on the desktop is as simple as slotting in the new RAM modules.
- First, you need to shut down your computer and unplug all of the cables connected to it.
- Remove the side of the computer case so that you can get access to the motherboard.
- You will find the RAM slots adjacent to the CPU socket.
- Take out the old RAM sticks from the memory slots next to the heatsink.
- Place the new RAM sticks.
- Lastly, close up the case and connect the wires to get the PC working.
Upgrading Graphics Card
After upgrading the SSD and RAM, you can further improve the performance by upgrading your graphics card. A bad graphics card will mean there won’t be a clear picture and lots of flickering, and I bet no gamer would want that.
It would look terrible if you are playing a game and suddenly experience screen tearing or weird colors appearing now and then. Your screen can even turn blue if you play heavy games or engage in graphics-intensive tasks.
Why upgrade the graphics card?
Upgrading the graphics card will improve the visual performance of your PC. It can also enhance the video editing and image modification abilities of your computer. With an upgraded graphics card, you can easily play heavy games and watch high-resolution Netflix.
How to Upgrade?
This one is the easiest of the upgrades.
- Simply undo the slot latch by removing the screws after removing the power cable.
- You can gently push down or pull on the catch at the end of the PCI-e slot that holds the graphics card in to take out the old graphics card.
- Then, place the new graphics card and turn on the power.
- The next step is to install the new drivers and you are good to go.
Upgrading CPU Cooling
When you work on your computer or play games, the hardware generates heat that overheats the components of the PC and affects the performance of your PC. Hence, a proper cooling system of your PC can provide you with the best performance.
Why to upgrade the coolers?
Heat generation in your PC can slow down your entire system. If too much heat is generated, your PC has a safety mechanism of dynamic frequency scaling for preventing damage to the processor. When this mechanism triggers, the operating frequencies are adjusted by the CPU to reduce power. Hence, the performance of your PC is affected.
To provide sufficient cooling and prevent the safety mechanism to trigger itself, you should have proper coolers. You should upgrade the coolers to enhance the performance of your PC.
How to upgrade the coolers?
You can easily upgrade the cooling system in two ways; either upgrade the air cooler by improving the airflow or upgrade the liquid cooling system. For better airflow, you need to look at the size and speed of the fans.
You can just adjust the speed of the fan with a fan controller in order to acquire the perfect balance between maximum revolutions per minute and the noise of the fan too.
- Improving airflow: Bigger fans move at lower revolutions per minute as compared to the smaller fans. Hence, they provide the same amount of air but more quietly. So you should get bigger fans if your PC case has the capacity to accommodate them.
- The liquid cooling system: Cooling the CPU with a liquid cooling system is great as liquid transfers heat much better than air. Plus, it is much quieter than the air flow system. You can simply attach a completely closed water system to the CPU. Then, place the radiator on one of the fan slots in the case.
Upgrading the Processor
The CPU or the processor is the brain of the computer. CPU is where all the data processing takes place. It not only stores data but also the results and instructions for the programs. Hence, all the parts of your computer are controlled by the CPU.
Why Upgrade the Processor?
Upgrading the processor may be a bit expensive and tricky with a little bit of compatibility issues but it can provide better performance with faster data transfers.
However, you need to think about upgrading the processor if your processor is of older generation and you want a better one.
How to upgrade the Processor?
You can upgrade the processor in the following ways.
- You must make sure that the CPU is compatible with the motherboard.
- And you should make a backup of your data on the computer if you want to.
- You should update your Basic Input/Output system (BIOS) if needed.
- Open the case of the PC.
- Then, take out the heat sink.
- After that, clean the old thermal paste.
- Remove the old processor.
- Gently place the new processor in place of the old one.
- Apply thermal paste by making a small ball right in the center of the processor.
- Place the heat sink back by reversing the process of taking it out.
- Finally, close the case.
The performance of your PC will become much better if you upgrade your disk drive, RAM, graphics card. You will see a considerable improvement as there will be less buffering and faster completion of tasks.
And you can also try getting an affordable PC for a refreshing new start if your current machine isn’t able to manage these upgrades. You can find a great PC and you can then upgrade it later if required according to your liking.
Granted, all these upgrades can cost a fair bit but if you upgrade your existing PC you are going to save a lot of money instead of outright buying a new PC. That is going to cost a lot more!
