Nothing is better than having the bragging rights of owning the latest Intel or AMD based desktop computer system, but how often do we really need to upgrade? If you're an avid gamer, you'll probably upgrade more then the normal user because the latest computer games, notably Doom III and the Sims II, require super fast hardware. But, for us normal users who use our computers for nothing more then spreadsheets, word processing documents, web browsing, email, and online chat, what hardware do we really need and how often do we need to upgrade?
Because of my personal large collection of music and movies it's easier for me to store this media digitally. This media I store on a separate server on a separate hard drive. The throughput I receive over my home network is typicly around 50mb/s, faster enough stream full motion picture video at perfectly clear better then TV resolution. This server hardware I've also tested with windows XP, which ran without incident at nearly the same speed as my 1.7ghz p4 Pentium machine with 512mb's of ram. So what inside this mystery machine? A 200mhz Pentium pro with a little over 300mb's of edo ram. Although this system isn't as fast as the 1.7ghz system, it's more then usable for every day purposes. It's useful to note that the Pentium pro was introduced in November of 1995, windows 95a was released only months prior. That makes this system almost ten years old. So if 10 year old hardware still runs an up to date operating systems with out issue, why does the average user need to upgrade every 2 years? They don't. Intel, AMD, Microsoft and other hardware and software manufactures pressure the user to upgrade under false pretenses. I've seen family and friends buy completely new computer systems because the systems were “slow”. Only laster did I find windows was having major registry,hard drive, or memory issues. All to often we're led to spend thousands of dollars when all we need do is use a little common sense. So, the next time you're thinking of upgrading; ask your self these questions. Have you installed the maximum amount of RAM for the system? Have you tried installing a newer faster hard drive? Have you tried backing everything up, formating, and reinstalling windows? If the answer to any of these questions is no you need to re-evaluate your need to upgrade. Is 1,300 dollars worth the bragging rights of system that might as well run just as fast as your old computer?
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