Bringing
a "Bargain" Computer Up
to Speed
It seemed like such a good deal
at the time...
Maybe you'd never touched a computer
before you bought your first one.
Maybe you have a "hand-me-down."
Maybe you got a great deal buying
a system through an online auction
or got a "free" computer
by signing a long-term contract
for Internet service. Maybe you've
been completely happy with your
"bargain" system.
But maybe you don't feel like you
got such a good deal anymore.
No
matter how you got it or how much
you paid for it, if your computer
doesn't perform like you expect,
it's easy to feel like you got ripped
off. Fortunately, you may be able
to improve your system's performance
without spending a lot of money.
Like
putting your computer on vitamins
"It's astonishing how much
faster this machine suddenly got
with the addition of a mere 32 megabytes
to its original 32! Everything's
faster, even Web pages (no more
savings-to-disk, presumably). [My]
machine behaves like it just got
a megadose of vitamins and joined
a health club."
If
your computer seems like a ninety-eight
pound weakling, a RAM upgrade just
might give you what you need to
"bulk up" your system.
According to the Council on Computing
Power, a mere 64MB upgrade improved
performance by an average of 42%
on the systems they tested. And
in our tests with Windows 2000,
upgrading up to 256MB improved performance
up to 103%!
In
fact, the amount of RAM in your
system often has a bigger impact
on the overall performance of your
computer than the speed of your
processor. In those same tests performed
by ZDLabs for the Council on Computing
Power, a RAM upgrade made systems
with Pentium II processors perform
as well as or better than comparable
systems equipped with Pentium III
processors and less RAM.
Many
people find that having a faster
computer not only makes the experience
of using the computer more enjoyable,
it also helps them get more accomplished
in a shorter period of time. In
a business setting, PC Computing
magazine reports that due to improved
worker productivity, "a memory
upgrade pays for itself in just
over a day for managers and in about
five days for administrative workers."
Whether you use your computer for
work or home, your time is valuable,
and a memory upgrade can help you
make the most of the time you spend
using your computer.
