Speed Up Your Computer Hardware

RAM
 
Adding memory doesn't cost much or take too much work. Conventional wisdom labels it the best upgrade for the price, although not all tests agree with that.

If you're going to upgrade your PC's memory, keep these issues in mind:

First, your motherboard can only handle so much RAM, and before you buy any, find out how much it can take.

Second, if you're running a 32-bit version of Windows, it can only use about 3.5GB of RAM. (The 64-bit versions can take more than your motherboard).

CPU
 
Should you upgrade the chip at the heart of your PC? Perhaps, but only if you're comfortable working deep inside your PC and the new chip is considerably better than the old one. What's considerably better? It should have either more cores or at least a 50-percent gain in clock speed.

I have yet to find a Crucial-like web site for CPUs. To find a compatible CPU is to check with the manufacturer of your computer or--if its home- or locally-built--the manufacturer of the motherboard.

The Graphics Card
 
If you're a serious gamer, you want a powerhouse graphics card. If you're not, you don't. 

Storage
 
Are you ready to replace your hard drive with something faster? A solid state drive (SSD) has no moving parts, and thus can read and write data with a speed that a 7200rpm hard drive can only envy. Tests done by the PC World Test Center showed improvements in disk-related tasks of up to and over 30 percent.

But there's a heavy price you pay--literally. By the gigabyte, SSDs are much more expensive than hard drives. You can buy a 1TB internal hard drive these days for well under $100. You can't buy a 120GB SSD for twice that.