Now, I don’t have the original packaging anywhere, (didn’t see a reason to keep it for three years) but the contents included the headphones and manual only. No other accessories, just the bare necessities (although a manual isn’t exactly needed).

The looks of the headphones are decent. Nothing fancy, but it does look a tad retro. The headphone jack is of pretty standard quality. As shown in the second picture, you can adjust the sides to fit your head length. Also, there is a stencil of the letters L and R on the left and right sides respectively so you know which side to wear. If you see the manual, it explains that quite bluntly.

The manual, a fold able flimsy piece of paper that I stored for some unknown reason, warns against a couple of basic things in over ten languages that I’ll go over. These could apply to headphones in general I suppose. Don’t store them in a deformed shape (see example A in the second picture), don’t sit on them (common reason for having your headphones break, of course), don’t listen to deafeningly loud music (though if you want to, you can. Don’t blame me if you become deaf in the next twenty to thirty years!) and most importantly, don’t catch your fingers as you fold them (this is very difficult to pull off, even intentionally, and it won’t hurt much) and don’t dispose of them in your standard garbage can; they should be treated as electronic waste. Remember: Think of the environment!

Also, some technical info: Mass 52g (1.84 oz), cord length:1.2m, Plug: gold-plated L-shaped stereo mini.

Now, for quality, these are better than your throwaway dollar earphones and headphones, and to the average Joe, these are great. But if you’re looking for true quality, or are an audiophile, you’ll definitely want to stay away. Internet reports and reviews will give you mixed results. Then again, if you were looking for quality, you should probably spend more than ten dollars. Otherwise, this will not disappoint.

These headphones are relatively comfortable, I can wear them for two to three hours without feeling irritated. Like most headphones, you can rip off the foam covering to acquire better sound at the expense of comfort. With their foldable design, they’re semi-portable; but it’s pretty easy to store them incorrectly and deform them.

On a final note, the Sony MDR-410LP that I have was used quite extensively over a period of three years; they’re still in excellent condition, and I’m still getting the great sound quality I was getting for the past years. I would recommend these if you’re looking for extreme budget, longevity (3 years and counting), and don’t care about quality.

As already discussed, a piece meal upgrade is performed when a jump to an entirely new platform is not financially possible. A ground up all new part design is best and will give the best price performance ratio if properly setup.  For those that cannot afford a complete rebuild though, designing a system with affordable parts that also support upgrading over an extended period of time is the only option.  While more money will be spent over the life of the upgrade, reselling used parts before they become worthless is the best way to help narrow the gap in the price performance ratio.  Now that some reference material has been supplied in the first 2 parts of this series, we can focus on the intention of this article, the end result.  Taking a trip without knowing the destination, can be a fun diversion, but is not an efficient means of accomplishing a goal.  Discussed in part two of this series we covered the four basic purposes of building a new personal computer: web browser, general purpose, Home Theater (Multimedia) PC, and a gaming PC.  It is important to know that CPU architecture can vary greatly, and certain tests used to measure a systems performance may favor one manufacturer over another, architectural differences bring with them their own strengths and weaknesses.

For example, Intel currently makes the most powerful commercially available CPU.  Their i7 line outperforms anything AMD manufacturers for numerical processing in a desktop system.  Intel has maintained a competitive edge in industry, because even back at a time when in all other areas their chips were inferior to the competition, one thing they could always do well was crunch enormous amounts of data fast.  Enhanced instruction sets can carry this lead even further, if using specialized software.  (SSE4 instructions for Intel CPUs, CUDA for NVIDIA GPUs, Stream for ATI GPUs or DXVA for either GPU manufacturer, will all provide enhanced performance in software based on its specific purpose). Stream and CUDA use a GPU for number crunching abilities that outperform an i7 CPU to a magnitude of 10 or more.  This requires thought and explains why AMD maintains a competitive level.  While strict number crunching is important for a CPU, flexibility is more important.  Latency is a key player in flexibility, and this is an area that AMD has been very successful in over the last few generations.

Software choices are as important as hardware choices in designing a system.  All software is not created equal.  Simple programs written in Java or Visual Basic can be found for free all over the internet.  Usually this software, due to free licensing requirements, does not allow proprietary code to be instituted in its design.  Companies that include technologies in their architecture, for enhanced software performance, must pay a licensing fee to the company that developed it; software is not excluded in this.  The software you intend to use effects the hardware you purchase based on these architectural features. This is not meant to denigrate open source software, only to ensure that the right hardware is being purchased for the task at hand.

Particular attention should be paid to operating system choice, the first software you install on a PC.  90+% of users will choose Windows for their desktop preference, but OSX and Linux have made some great strides in the ability to completely replace windows in the office.  Due to even more restrictions, this series will focus on windows based computing, as all hardware is not fully supported on the alternatives.

Microsoft, in their wisdom, sees fit to offer a range of OS choices and among those OS choices, variations in licensing.   The most expensive is the “retail” choice.  OEM and upgrade versions can be as cheap as half the cost of the retail version of the OS; however they can severely limit your ability to upgrade.  The limitation is in the license, an OEM license is tied to hardware that you purchased (specifically, the motherboard), an upgrade is tied to a previous operating system you own.  (***Check and see if an upgrade on an OEM license, is tied to hardware***).  A retail operating system is tied to the purchaser, as long as you only have the OS installed on a single system, you can reinstall it as many times as you need to.  If online activation fails, a short phone call to a Microsoft representative will have the OS up and running legally in less than 5 minutes.

For general purpose and web browsing PCs, the choices of software matter less than for specific purpose machines.  In either case, a lower performance PC will be adequate to meet the average end user needs.  For simplicities sake, a recommendation of AM2+ socket AMD system architecture will offer the simplest upgrade options.  The average AM2 motherboards supports (with BIOS updates) older AM2 socket CPUs, the improved AM2+ socket CPUs, and the current generation’s AM3 socket CPUs.  This upgrade process covers the currently less expensive DDR2, and the soon to be less expensive DDR3.  One can even purchase an AM2+ motherboard that includes both DDR2 and DDR3 slots.  Although this limits the user to only two sticks of ram of either type (not to be run in tandem) it does offer the user the ability to purchase a motherboard now, which supports 3 generations of CPUs and 2 generations of memory.  This allows the piece meal upgrader to only purchase one new component at a time.  The essence of the piece meal upgrade, purchasing a component that utilized immediately.

Gaming PCs are typically among the most powerful PCs that a user can build.  These require more powerful CPUs, more memory, a better GPU (or even multiple GPUs), a computer case capable of cycling the air in and out very quickly and of course a PSU that handle the demands of a power hungry system.  Many advertisers offer “gamer specials” which are little more than general purpose PCs with a slightly more powerful GPU attached.  Generally the term “Gamers edition” on a product means a 25-50% increase in cost, and a flashy package.  There may be some small increase in performance, generally not worth the extra cost incurred.  A gaming PC does not need the latest and greatest of every component to be successful.  More often than not, designers are building lopsided systems, which are not efficient at all due to bottlenecks.  Running a lower resolution display decreases demand on the GPU, but increases the demand on the CPU.  Running a higher resolution display with a weak GPU will also create an unbalanced and inefficient system for gaming.  Balance is more important that having the latest and greatest component.

The age of the system being upgraded can also make a huge difference in the initial investment, and in some cases, an older system could have more upgrade options than a slightly more modern one.  A dedicated video card can be reused in a more modern system, except in the case of AGP.  PCI cards are not necessarily an upgrade option, if drivers are not supported by newer Operating Systems or carry widescreen format resolutions. There are modern PCI video cards, a 2400 pro PCI card will make a welcome upgrade to any aging IGP based computer, and carry over into even the most modern of systems.   Although price performance ratio takes a hit, the fact that it is a noticeable upgrade carries over, and is the essence of the piece meal upgrade; not just upgrading on a budget, but seeing a difference in every purchase.  This is a goal but a difficult one, there are times when an upgrade you make now, will not be realized until a future upgrade.  CPU/GPU plays a delicate balance when considering the best price performance ration, the only constant in computing is, new architecture comes out and prices fall on less competitive products. When a device is EOL for too long, high end parts of said architecture will go up in price for a little while, far beyond their efficiency.

The upgrader following this series will have upgraded the peripherals, either before, or in conjunction with upgrading components.  Sometimes a small video upgrade is needed when upgrading a display unit or OS upgrade due to driver or hardware support issues.  So this section will now focus on CPU, motherboard and memory.  These are not necessarily mutually exclusive upgrades.   It is common to upgrade all three components at the same time.  This is an architecture jump and has its benefits and drawbacks.

The immediate benefit is a possible massive performance improvement in all system experiences.  The drawback is, to keep costs low you have to sacrifice something.  Purchase a motherboard that will give you options for upgrading in the future.  AM2 socket is great for this, especially the 780/790 chipsets.  For a piecemeal upgrade 775 is an option, although it EOL, it covers CPUs from the Pentium 4 era (the Pentium D) all the way up to 45nm quad core processors, and DDR3 was also implemented near the end of socket 775, so a ram and motherboard upgrade offers a step towards the newer p55/X58 Intel chipsets that will only accept DDR3 memory.

Focusing on the finished product sets the upgrade path that is best suited for the piece meal upgrader.  Purchasing components that help you meet your end goal, while at the same time utilizing the components in a current system build, is the definition of piece meal upgrades.   Focus attention on price trends both at online retailers and used marketplaces such as craigslist and eBay.  If you are currently a member of any technology based web forum, see if they have a classified/marketplace area of the site devoted to individuals selling or shopping for individual components.  Next week stay tuned for data protection.  Maintaining multiple copies of important data both offline, online and redundancy, for multiple Operating system reinstalls associated with motherboard upgrades.

The longevity of your computer components varies wildly, with the most expensive pieces often being a top performer for the shortest period of time.  In order from longest lasting to shortest Hard Disk Drive/ Optical Disk Drive, Power Supply Unit, Video card, Memory, Motherboard, CPU.  This breakdown is purely subjective, and while easily could instigate discussion on what pieces do have the longest longevity citing specific models of components, for brevity’s sake we will continue in this order with explanations as to why.

HDD/ODD Drives have been using a 40pin or 80 conductor interface for over a decade, while device performance has increased and the interface has evolved to accept Serial ATA over Parallel ATA for various reasons, the PATA interface is still included on motherboards today.  PATA Expansion cards are also available very cheaply to allow even more devices to be connected to a PC. The newer SATA interface, is about due for another upgrade, but much like USB and PATA before it, the ports will be backwards compatible to support older hardware, either automatically, or more likely initially by a BIOS setting controlled by the user (much as early SATAII/SATA300 did).  Both hard drives and Optical disk drives however are mechanical and will suffer the effects of wear and tear faster than many other components will, and it is very important to secure your data accordingly.  Extra hard drives in your PC for data storage, their access rate will not be as severe as your operating system’s hard drive and will be less likely to fail.  Raid is instituted on many motherboards today to allow you to use two or more drives for performance or data redundancy.  Online backup is also a viable option with high speed internet, as it provides a 3^rd or 4^th tier of data backup.  Lastly a flash drive or optical disk with network drivers on it is important, if you ever have a PC fail in a single PC household, and nothing else works, an operating system reinstall can get your PC back up and running.  The network drivers you have secured are to make sure that you can get online to download updated drivers for other components.  A small spare hard drive can also be used, as a “backup OS” to just install when you need to recover data from a corrupted or infected PC.

Note: Most motherboards only have a single IDE (PATA ) channel built on them, if ODD and HDD are run on the same IDE cable they will operate at the speed of the slowest device (the ODD).  A cheap SATA drive will alleviate this major performance issue, and to further enhance storage capability external solutions can usually be found for your PATA hard drive in the $20 range, this also gives portability to your backed up data)

Power Supply Units (PSU), only handle longevity if purchased well as an individual component.  OEM Companies will install a power supply made of the cheapest available parts that will handle exactly what it is specified for with very little else added.  Modern CPUs with discrete Video cards, extra hard drives or upgraded multi-core CPUs can put a toll on the PSU that will have it overheating, breaking down or simply failing to boot within no time at all.  A solid PSU from a reputable company, purchased with headroom on the wattage, will make upgradeability and longevity synonymous.  There are a number of online power calculators to help you consider the wattage needs of the planned system, extra head room should be added for upgrades that are not foreseen.  Power efficiency of a PSU tends to be greatest in the midrange 50-70% of a PSUs wattage rating, and the online calculators are geared for full load on the entire system, something very few applications can do at this time.   While the difference is only a few percentage points, it is something to e considered when building a power efficient general purpose or home theater PC where heat is more of an issue.

Video cards, for the most part have a pretty decent longevity, for all but Video game PC builds.  As long as the GPU is supported with software and can handle widescreen resolutions it can be used on even the latest x58 core i7 system.  AGP cards are the exception, as an EOL interface, AGP cards that are still being manufactured break the price: performance ratio into the expensive category, and tie one to a motherboard that is most likely end of life as well.  Before AGP there were PCI video cards, while these cards are not capable of supporting modern video games, due to limitations in bandwidth on the interface, PCI slots are still included on motherboards due to the wide range of expansion devices that still utilize it.  PCI-e or PCI Express is a new interface standard, with much higher bandwidth capabilities that all new video cards are built on.  (Note: PCI-X is another industry standard, a PCI expansion that offers a double wide data path for PCI, used almost exclusively in servers and workstations, when PCI was not fast enough, but PCI-E had not yet been standardized.  This is an unusable standard as well).  There are 2 revisions of PCI-E out at the present with a third version due out in 2010.  Backward compatibility should be identical to PCI-e 1 and 2 with cards from either generation working in any of the others. (Although with reduced bandwidth, it could cause performance issues).  As long as the card is supported with software, and in some cases, by your PSU (with PCI-e power cables) it can remain in a system or carry over in upgrades through a few generations.  The average $100 video card today from an online retailer like newegg, should handle even minor video gaming for the next couple of years, by then DirectX 11 might be fully supported and an upgrade could be reconsidered.  For Avid gamers, a more powerful GPU is more important and care in selection should be treated as such.

RAM or memory is only readily available in 2 standards currently, DDR2 and DDR3.  DDR2 is in the process of being phased out, as both CPU manufacturers are supporting DDR3 now.  As such DDR2 is selling for much less than DDR3.  While some chipsets support using DDR2 or DDR3 the only motherboard that actually supports installing either one on the same motherboard is Asrock.  Asrock dual standard motherboards will be covered in the motherboard section of components.  DDR2 is slower, with tighter latencies than DDR3, and is available to run in single or dual channel configurations.  DDR3 has the same pin structure as DDR2, (240 pins) but operates at much lower voltages, with superior speeds, usually at the expense of latency, and can run in single dual and triple channel configurations.  32 bit operating systems can only address 4 Gigabytes of memory, this includes all memory a system can access not just the amount of RAM you have.  PAE extensions can add support for more memory in a 32 bit environment with an accompanied loss in performance; 64 bit operating systems can address much more ram and should be considered when shopping for an Operating System.  Purchasing enough memory is important, 4 gigabytes is the new standard for serious PC usage, with 2 Gigabytes being accepted for almost any usage in a 32 bit PC (with gaming being an exception in certain cases). I7 in triple channel works well in 3 or 6 GB amounts, although 4 GB in dual channel will also work very well and be a great upgrade for many PC users.

Motherboard upgrades are the trickiest, and the shortest longevity next to CPU’s.  A motherboard upgrade usually necessitates an operating reinstall, both for OS activation reasons and Driver incompatibilities.   The previously mentioned support for soon to be released operating systems, is a little more lax, since one can often ID the specific ICs (integrated circuits, or computer chips) used on a motherboard with a simple web search, (chipset, audio, networking) and find updated driver support from the original manufacturer not the company that built the motherboard.  BIOS support however is up to the motherboard manufacturer, and purchasing motherboards with well known BIOS support is important to using your motherboard as a stepping stone to more powerful setups.  Price is not indicative of effectiveness either, as many manufacturers will simply code out some enthusiast class features, and remarket the board for less money, as a “budget” board.  Motherboards should be selected based on expansion slots and onboard features that enhance any upgrade roadmap.  Integrated Graphics Processors, or IGPs are video cards that are built into the motherboard, while not suitable for gaming purposes, some models are more than adequate for most other purposes, from multimedia playback to hardware accelerated video encoding for HD/BluRay video.  AsRock (a budget brand of motherboard from the makers of ASUS products) have cross-architecture motherboards available, which support 2 separate architectures on the same motherboard.  Socket 939 to AM2 upgrades, DDR to DDR2 upgrades and DDR2 to DDR3 upgrades were all designed and produced, the effectiveness however is debatable.   Most modern motherboards that support AM2 socket will support AM2+ and AM3 socket CPU’s as well.  Intel socket 775 maybe end of line, but it supported chips from the Pentium D processor, up to quad core processors with a couple of die shrinks thrown in as well.

CPU or central processing unit is the brain of the PC.  The most rapidly evolving piece of technology in your PC, keeping up with the changes can be a constant process.  There are traps to get caught in with these purchases as well.  As mentioned previously in the motherboard components section, socket 775 and AM2 both had a very good run with support for a number of architectures that suits the piecemeal upgrade perfectly. Bottom of the line electronic components can be purchased very cheaply online either from e-tailers that offer used/ refurbished components, eBay/Craigslist sales, or from your local paper.  While the ultimately dead socket 478 Pentium 4 systems can usually be purchased for under $100, a Pentium 4 D or AM2 Athlon 64 system can be found for little more, and offer many more upgrade options.  Purchasing an entire PC also can add temporary memory, PSU and storage increases until a better performing upgrade can be acquired.  Parts can often be sold individually for more than there sum as well.  White box purchases (no name complete PC purchases) are also a good way to acquire Windows licenses, especially if it is a retail license.  These are most valuable as a retail license can be reused on many PC’s (although only one at a time) any issues with activation can be solved with a simple phone call to Microsoft.

The main problem with using an OEM build to start off upgrading however is part of the end of life path.  OEMs often cram the best components on a motherboard it can handle, and even though the architecture could support upgrades that would vastly improve performance, without BIOS updates, the OEM PC’s are maxed out.  This saves them money on construction costs, and reduces user error issues and damage, as well as well as generates new revenue, when a consumer needs to upgrade the entire PC to see a performance boost. Identifying your needs, wants and haves is vital to designing a system that keeps you from making a large financial investment, or if purchased on credit, still paying for the equipment after the expected lifespan of the system has expired.  Another large benefit of upgrading your own PC, aside from financial reasons, is knowledge gained.  The average person can benefit greatly just from knowing about the different components in a PC and that there are different industry standards with interfaces.

Monitors, come in 2 distinct flavors, CRT (not manufactured anymore) and LCD.  The difference between CRT and LCD is dramatic, with vivid colors and crisp geometries on LCD, higher resolution and better contrast on CRT.  LCD’s can be upgraded very cheaply now, CRT has no upgrade path, it is only mentioned if the upgrade inventory currently has a high resolution or widescreen CRT monitor, it may be reused rather effectively until the size and power requirements effect the end user.  A very cheap sub $100 LCD of the 17-19” variety may work well as a primary monitor with CRT being used secondary  for specific purposes or multi monitor applications, this will prolong the life of the CRT as well as lower energy costs (by powering it off when not in use).  The average 1080p HD Television set may work very well as a computer monitor as well.  1080i/720p TV’s will also work, but the resolution (1368×768 or 1280×720) is low enough it usually is not much of an upgrade. 22-23” 1080p monitors can be purchased from Best Buy or similar company for around $200 right now, with 1680×1050 22” monitors on sale or purchased used in the $120 dollar price range.  If going digital (DVI/HDMI) make sure to pick up a decent quality cable from a decent retailer, cables are not expensive to make or purchase, but the ones that come with inexpensive monitors are generally of the worst quality.  An online like e-tailer like monoprice.com has excellent prices, but it is best to purchase a few needed items at one time to spread the cost of shipping out.  (Shipping prices are not linear with weight)

Keyboard and Mouse.  The same I/O devices used a decade ago could still be in service today.  AT to PS/2 to USB is the interface upgradeability, with 2 of them still supported on most motherboards.  A simple adapter from AT to PS/2 or PS/2 to USB can prolong the life of an ageing device until physical wear takes its toll.   Ergonomic function and LEDs are the primary differences in keyboards today from yesterday, where the mouse has gone from a rubber ball to LED or laser measurement.  Reactivity and control are much more precise than the older mechanical mouse designs, but work on a smaller number of surfaces.  Upgrading here can be a very inexpensive way to get a whole new outlook on your PC.  Keyboards and mice with too many functions can be poor upgrade choices if you intend to upgrade your Operating system, manufacturer support should be checked before purchasing.

Speaker quality is another peripheral that is entirely up to the end user.  Some may get by with the case speaker on their OEM tower, while others may want a 500W Surround sound Home Theater receiver for really immersive music, movies or video games.  Most motherboards made in the last few years, have adequate audio onboard, with some supporting Dolby/DTS encoding, while all support digital pass through to send the uninterrupted signal to a receiver for processing in a pure digital environment; a motherboard or soundcard must have digital audio output, and receiver or speaker setup must support the same type of digital input (TOSLink or Coaxial).  For those with older analog only receivers, a 3.5mm to stereo RCA adapter cable can be purchased at radio shack for under $10, and online for as little as $1, to use your motherboard/soundcard’s analog output to replace a set of desktop speakers.  Many audiophiles actually use headphones instead of speakers on their PC; the choice is entirely up to the end-user.  Yet again, this is a part of your PC that has great longevity, and as such should be purchased with that in mind. Audio cards supporting SPDIF pass through (digital audio) can also be purchased rather cheaply especially on eBay.

Printers, scanners, digital cameras, flash drives, have many different formats, and software support is wildly erratic.  USB is a backwards compatible standard, and USB 3.0 is due to be released soon. USB 2 devices will continue to function as normal, the new standard implements higher speed with the addition of twice as many conductors, higher power support up to almost 1 amp, and greater power conservation.  The main concern with longevity of USB peripherals is driver support, for different versions of Windows or Linux.  With Windows 7 release looming, if a company does not already have Windows 7 drivers listed on their website for your device, expecting a peripheral to function properly is a gamble.  A company that updates its drivers every few months is more likely to make the changes necessary than one that still lists the original driver version a piece shipped with on its website.

The Chassis or tower, of a computer says the most about expectations of performance.  Cases come in all shapes and sizes, from micro-ATX Small Form factor cases to full size E-ATX server chassis.   They also can be made into entirely new concepts, which will be discussed in the final part of this series (tweaking, overclocking and modding).   Most computer Companies follow a industry standard ATX format, that is a 9×12” motherboard with 7 expansion slots, a PSU installation point that fits ATX, ATx12v and EPS form factor power supply units, 5.25” and 3.5” drive bays for optical storage and hard drives as well as other devices (fan controllers, floppy drives, card readers).   Some OEM companies have developed unconventional computer cases to fit as much as possible into as small a space as can be managed.  These maybe ITX, or FlexATX form factors, that although interesting, tend to disrupt the normal price performance ratio, an ultra small form factor PC is not something generally considered to be built on a budget, and also may not be easily upgradeable to new standards.  An existing ATX tower from a Dell or HP machine can usually be used, with simple modifications to airflow with or without mechanical modification.  Modding for cooling will also be discussed in the final installment of this series.  If purchasing a new case for an upgrade, making sure that it meets your future needs is vitally important.  Expandability, cooling and effective space utilization are all important.  Knowing the motherboard and what expansion devices will be added are important in finding a case large enough to fit your needs.  Caseless or “bench station” is always a “free” or inexpensive option with lots of room for modification, but leaves the components open to damage from careless humans, the environment and pets.

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.

One cannot help be impressed with the gaming power of a new socket AM3 system from AMD, or the sheer computational power of an Intel i7 and even i5 system.  Comparing them to an OEM system build from just a couple of years ago can be embarrassing.   Running software designed today, may not even be possible on an older system, and if it does run, could experience all sorts of performance problems: Stuttering video on HD playback, freezing, crashing or overheating of your system.  All of which will do more for generating frustration than productivity.  What options do you have other than buying the latest OEM PC from Dell, HP or other large company with a credit plan?

A budget minded consumer may just purchase a second generation hardware system from a smaller company for much less than retail cost.  This is a viable alternative, but leaves you with a system that could already be End of Life, if not fast approaching it.  While second generation systems do save you money initially, as the system matures and needs upgrading, parts for the system end up costing more than current generation system as manufacturers no longer produce parts for it and demand exceeds supply.  A perfect for instance, is socket 775 from Intel.  Currently DDR2 prices are very low.  This is due to a glut manufacturing process, and people moving to DDR3 for the AMD socket AM3 and Intel’s i5/i7 series PCs.  (Supply exceeds, demand).

However the previous generation DDR, is relatively expensive.  Although 256 MB and 512 MB sticks are relatively cheap, motherboards have a limited number of memory slots, so upgrading to 2 or 4 Gigabytes of RAM (the accepted minimums for a productivity machine currently), would require 1 or 2 GB sticks.  The higher demand and lack of supply, drives the prices up.  SDRAM and RAMBUS in the 512 MB and larger category is even more expensive, costing as much or more than an entire PC that would use these memory standards.  Price/performance is a term you will read constantly on tech boards around the web, and is paramount to a piece-meal upgrade.

Piecemeal is defined as gradually, or more appropriately, ‘one piece at a time.’  This is a very accurate description of how to transform an older OEM rig into a modern day powerhouse, capable of ripping through spreadsheets, High Definition video streaming, the latest video game from Crytek or converting a CD/DVD collection to a digital format.  You can not jump into a piecemeal upgrade just by buying better components to your existing machine without looking to the newer stuff and seeing where it fits into the larger scheme of things however.  These blog posts will cover the steps of performing a series of upgrades to your PC, identifying which pieces are recyclable, and which pieces have a decent value to sell on eBay to help fund the upgrade process.

• pt2 Identifying and categorizing your current inventory. pt 2.1 Peripherals and pt 2.2 Components.
• Steps to take in upgrade process. Platforms to build as a stepping stone to modern chipsets.
• Data protection. Data redundancy, online storage and temporary backups.
• The case.  Adventure into modding.
• Tweaking, overclocking and benchmarking. (A descent into madness and addiction)

These steps will be discussed and explained in the coming weeks. This post will be updated with hyper-links when available.