Tech Reaction

Identifying your needs, wants and haves.

The first step of upgrading a PC is identifying the specific functions that a PC is going to need to handle at the final build.  This may change depending on your build upgrade timeline, as newer architecture is being released, and unanticipated price drops occur.  Spending a few minutes a day reading about upcoming hardware releases helps to predict price drops on components as well as identifying features that you may want to add.  OEM PCs make their money on “less expensive” PC’s by eliminating your ability to upgrade much further, and the higher performance you go in a given architecture the more expensive it gets, this trend is more pronounced when something goes EOL (End of life).  When something is not manufactured anymore and demand still exists, prices are inflated because shoppers did not know about piecemeal upgrades.

Although there are many different types of “purpose built” computers, there are 4 basic factors that can be considered, in which most other designs can be narrowed down into.

• General Purpose (WebPC) –  A basic internet connectivity machine, for internet browsing, light word processing, and communications, low necessity on all components.  Web 2.0 has slightly higher necessity ratings, with faster CPU for flash videos, more ram for high speed internet and bulging browser caches, more hard drive space for shared photos and videos, but a simple GPU that can at least handle a widescreen resolution is recommended at a minimum (for monitor upgrades in the future, 4:3 does not have widespread support any longer).
• Office PC – High powered CPU for specific professional software, similar to General Purpose in tech necessity ratings with exceptions to GPU necessity.  GPGPU applications will need more powerful GPUs to take advantage of the advances in general purpose processing on the GPU.  Typical office machines will have lower resolution monitors and onboard graphics, which saves money on the overall system. Processor power can range from low to extreme high CPU necessity.  These machines have the lowest hard drive necessity, as most data will be stored on a server. Enhanced cooling for higher power processors in important, and overheating can be an issue on many OEM PCs with sustained CPU load scenarios.
• Multimedia PC (Home Theater Computer)- There are two main branches of multimedia computer:  The home theater system, which will handle recording and displaying Television and movies, playing music as well as converting your DVD/CD collection to digital format,  and the artist’s machine, used for making music and videos at home processing and distributing them. Both benefit from maximized storage space, higher CPU performance, and a mid range video card needs, put different expansion card necessities.  Enhanced audio video peripherals are an important part of this purpose PC.
• Gaming Computer- Typically thought of as a high end everything rig, it does not have to be.  The gamers’ PC has mid-level necessity on CPU and storage, but upper necessity on memory and GPU.  While they will see performance improvements from upgrading storage system and CPU, the largest gains are seen when upgrading the GPU.   Memory matters less to do with performance than amount. Too much memory does little benefit, but making sure you have enough memory is important to booting your operating system as well as the performance and number of applications you are running.  Anything loaded will reside in your RAM or on your hard drive, with approximately 100x speed difference the two, having enough RAM to meet system requirements is important.

Secondly, wants affect your upgrade path as much as needs.  Aesthetics may encourage a flashy expensive looking computer sitting on their desk.  Utilitarian users may want something out of sight, running quietly and unobtrusively.  Tinkerers may want something completely open to facilitate hardware adjustments, rapidly cycle parts for experimentation, or add radical concepts in cooling components for competition.   These will all drive your upgrade path in different directions affecting the choice of chassis most of all but individual components choices will be drastically affected as well.

The third step to a piecemeal upgrade is identifying existing components and peripherals.  Peripherals are the parts of the computer that you see when sitting in your chair.  The monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, printer, digital cameras, web cam are all peripherals.  A computer chassis (tower) will be included in this part because of the role it plays in the ability to upgrade the components.  Peripherals are how all interaction with a PC occurs and the upgrade rate of these components is much slower than components.  As such more longevity should be expected with said components, which can be money saved with recycling older parts that are still useful, or money spent on a piece of a computer that will last a long time.

The ultimate goal of a piecemeal upgrade as it stands in late 2009, is a finished product from either AMD on the AM3 socket or Intel’s socket 1366.  Currently rumors are that the 6 core 12 thread Intel CPU’s will work on existing x58 motherboards with just a BIOS upgrade, the AMD hex and octo core CPUs will require a socket with a much larger pin out. (which means a motherboard upgrade will be necessary).  Currently Intel has top of the line CPU performance, where AMD holds its own in gaming performance per dollar spent.  A motherboard, CPU and RAM combo purchase can occur at one time to skip over a lot of steps, however the rest of the system is must be capable of handling the upgrade, it will cause more problems than the increase in performance is worth.  The piecemeal upgrade is ideal for purchasing single components and using them during the entire upgrade process, so hardware is not devalued before it is even used.

Due to the length of peripherals and components breakdowns, they will be listed as separate articles here and here.