by Philip G. Coggin

Created on: November 05, 2008   Last Updated: April 08, 2011

Updating your computer - Should I replace or not?

Should we really update our computers now or is it just another push for sales by the computer industry and particularly manufacturers, are they really trying to help themselves or us.

Making and building computers is a business after all, it is only to be expected that these companies will use whatever tactics to improve their sales and to feed the hunger for money of their investors.

Well, from my point of view first of all, if you really are environmentally conscious then to part with a machine that still has a great deal of service left in it is a totally foolish move.

Clearly the longer you use an item and the more service you gain from a piece of equipment then the more you reduce that piece of equipments carbon footprint, and that of your own too because if you replace your machine then you increase your personal carbon output.

Let us look at computers in a different light from the buyer, look from the point of view of the manufacturer.

They produce machines with specific tasks in mind yet they also have to produce those machines that cover a wide range of user needs, this clearly is about building one type or a small range of machines that the majority of users will find sufficient for their needs.

By keeping down the quantity of different models this helps to reduce some of the complications at the assembly stage, it also helps to keep pricing more standardised and reduce the need for too many different stock components.

Many components are bought in at a price range that makes them suitable to be fitted in most current models, all that needs to be done then is to adjust some of the mixture of other items used at any one time and that will give you a price based upon the model based upon it's price within the present range.

When looking at a computer specification, as the range price increases then so do things like machine content, memory, bigger hard drives and other components gain more and more user functionality speed and capacity.

Time now to begin looking at your own machine and what you use it for.

If you feel that your machine is actually giving you reasonable service then why move it on, although maybe that machine could do with just a little attention then it may just feel a little more responsive.

One major factor mentioned previously is the spec of a machine and how components are juggled around to give a range of machines; one very important item that is often cut is RAM Random Access

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