Monday, January 29, 2001		On Hardware

Don’t upgrade, buy new
By Vipul Verma

THE computer that you buy today remains current for a maximum period of six months. The only option one is left with is to either buy a new machine every few months or upgrade. "Upgrading a computer" in simple term means getting rid of old components and replacing them with the ones that are current in technology. Normally, when people approach their PC vendor and ask for the upgrade for their PC, what they invariably end up is an estimate for a new PC, because almost every part in the computer has a superior product available in its category.

Upgrading is a purely personal option and unless your current computer is unable to perform the operation you want, it is best to continue using the computer in its present form. Take for example the case of Pentium – I computer. This class of computers, which attained a maximum clock speed of 266 MHz with MMX technology, are nothing more than junk as far as upgrading is concerned. If you ask your hardware vendor to upgrade the Pentium – PC, it is most likely that you will get the following recommendations from your PC vendor.

Since the motherboard of this class is not compatible with the Pentium–III, Celeron, AMD Athlon, Duron, Pentium- 4 processors, both in terms of bus speed design, so upgrading your PC would require a new motherboard and processor. You will also agree here with your PC vendor. Next recommendation would be regarding the RAM. Since the old computers normally used EDO RAM and the latest computers uses 133 MHz SDRAM, thus you would require new RAM. Here you may get several options like one month warranty, one year warranty and life-time warranty.

As far as, hard disk is concerned, 2.1 GB of hard disk, which used to be a big enough hard disk at the time you bought one, now looks grossly inadequate. Thus, it will be more or less compelling for you to buy a new hard disk too. Since most motherboards today comes with an AGP chip and sound card on board, all you are left on your old computer is your old floppy drive, which cost only Rs.550, the old CD ROM drive costing Rs.2000 and the cabinet costing Rs.800. So all that you have saved from your old PC, which will adjusted in the price of a new PC, that you are buying as a upgrade is mere Rs.3350. Now for a saving of this amount, the upgrading does not sound a good option.

This is what you save from a Pentium –I class of computers, there are however people who even attempt to get their old 486 DX2 and 386 PC upgraded. Normally, in a barter deal like this you eventually end up loosing your PC for free. Here I do not intend to say that all the hardware dealers who offer you such kind of a deal cheat, but in a majority of the cases this is true. Under such circumstances too upgrading is not a very viable option.

If you have a Pentium – II onwards computer, then you can go for upgrading with limited options. By limited options here I mean that you can choose to replace your old processor with a new processor, which matches the bus speed of the motherboard. Thus for example, if you motherboard supports only 100 MHz bus speed, then you can only upgrade to a newer processor, which supports this speed only. However if you upgrade your processor, which supports 133 MHz bus speed, then you will not be able to derive the benefit of 133 MHz speed as the computer will have to be run at 100MHz.

There are several other issues, which are very critical for upgradation which you must know before hand. One such issue of upgrading your computer is related to resources. Generally speaking these resources could be related to availability of necessary ports and slots. Regarding the ports, it’s a common observation that many old computers did not have USB ports and also had limited PCI slots. However, in a modern computer both these things are very important and also very critical. Thus even if you get your PC upgraded to the latest clock speed, but the old design of your motherboard, will not allow you to take the best from your computer and thus you will always have this complaint that despite putting in so much money in upgradation, you are not able to get the desired results. Though it may not be true in all the cases, but normally even in early Pentium –II PC’s, you will find old designed motherboards, with no USB ports and very limited PCI slots, though you will find 2 ISA slots, which are more or less redundant in the present day world.

Yet another issue which is normally ignored but is very important in decision making is the BIOS. The BIOS, which used to be a replaceable item earlier, is now a fixed part of the motherboard. Thus it is very important that it should be of excellent quality, as it is the focus of virtually all PC operations, including the boot-up process. Nowadays, flashable BIOSs are commonplace, and well worth considering in your motherboard upgrade decision. Thus, if you have the BIOS fixed on your motherboard and it is of old quality, then merely upgrading your processor to a better clock speed will improve the performance of your computer, but it will not be even near the best performance of its processor capabilities. So, ultimately the price to performance ratio of the upgradation will always be very unsatisfactory.

Thus taking all these factors into considerations, the question that arises in ones mind is whether upgrading your PC is a worthy option. Well! Precisely there can be no universal formula for deciding this. But given the facts, the option of upgrading your PC may not be beneficial for a majority of people. To put it in simple words, in the home segment of computers, which also includes people who do not use computers heavily for professional/ official purposes, upgrading of PC is not a good option. As normally in this segment a PC is hardly ever utilised to its full capacity. Thus a home PC remains good over a large period as it serves the purpose of the user with relatively old technology in comparison to the latest one. But, in case the hardware supports the upgradation fully, and it does not has problems as mentioned above, then even the home PCs could be considered for upgradation. However, regular upgradation is necessary where the computers are being put to commercial applications.