Summary

A carefully planned upgrade can be less expensive than buying a new complete PC system, however the additional organizational overhead is higher. If you can invest a little time and thought the one component really worth exchanging and upgrading is the processor. Upgrading from 266 MHz to 466 MHz for about $80 helped our PC run about twice as fast in most application areas. The average performance gain was about 30%. Pay great attention to the socket type, make sure the BIOS is up-to-date and ensure that the power supply voltage (for K6 devices) and possible multiplication factors are available on the main board. Investing in memory helps to improve things too because the system doesn't have to swap data to the hard disk so often. 128 MB is sufficient for most Windows 98 users. The current price for 64 MB memory is about $45, which is an acceptable price.

If you're thinking about buying one of the latest graphics boards, then consider the real use of the card very carefully because the prices are very high in comparison to the additional performance they offer. As the test showed, those high-tech boards don't necessarily run better and faster than older ones, unless you are looking at high resolutions. If however, you're swapping an old board that has no, or little 3D functions, then buying a new board is a good idea for gamers. Voodoo2 users (especially for boards with SLI combination) can, in our opinion, do without a graphics board upgrade for the time being, if games are only played occasionally.

Exchanging a hard disk is only worthwhile if you need more space. If you want higher performance, going for a new processor or more memory is a better idea. You should only buy a new hard disk if the old one is bursting at the seams. If you want to buy a new hard disk, consider the following setup: use the new, faster hard disk for the operating system and applications and the old hard disk as a secondary storage medium for your data. Installing the operating system and your applications takes time and each upgrade contains a certain risk factor. Therefore, look around for a competent and a good dealer because incompatibilities are not rare. If all else fails, you should be able to either swap or return a component in order to avoid wasting money.

Happy upgrading!