The world of computers can be very complicated and intimidating for the average user. Especially when it comes to trying to make changes to your existing setup. With all the different brands and parts, there’s a lot to chew on. In this article, I’ll go over some of the steps one should take when they’re not getting what they want out of their system.

Deciding Your Needs

We’re all different, and as a result, we’ve all got different needs. Are you a person who loves to game? What about someone who just needs a system to get notes down during class with the occasional PowerPoint presentation here and there? Assuming both of these people have a desire to be smart with their money, these two users would likely want drastically different systems. Sure they could both go spend thousands of dollars on the same, new, top of the line computer and get what they want, but is that necessary?

Deciding your needs is the easy part; most people know what they want to get out of a system or device. For most, the big struggle can be found in trying to figure out how to meet those needs.

Meeting Your Needs

When it comes to most computers, 4 main components will affect the performance of the system:

RAM – The working memory your system has.

Hard Drive – The memory your system has for storage.

CPU – Processes tasks/commands/code.

GPU – Renders images, animations, and video for the computer’s screen.

When assessing your needs with your current system, you will likely find that whatever problem you’re having is a result of having one or more of these components underperforming and causing something called a bottleneck. A bottleneck works exactly as you would think; tasks get backed up at the slowest part of the process causing slowdowns in the result. This can manifest itself in many ways. Things like freezes crashes and general sluggishness are some of the most common.

The goal of upgrading would be to reduce the bottleneck by purchasing and installing new parts.

This will almost always be cheaper than buying an entirely new system whilst still solving the same problem as spending tons on a whole new system.

Where is my bottleneck?

Because of the way these parts work, not just independently, but also together, determining exactly what component or components are causing your performance issues can be very challenging. For example, it can tough for a regular user to see slow load times in highly memory-intensive programs and decide whether or not it’s a problem with the hard drive or the RAM or even something different like a corrupted file in their windows installation. The average person can go sort through dozens of different forums posts across the internet on less than trustworthy websites and pray that someone else has had the same problem, but that’s just simply not necessary.

At Positive Technology, we can analyze your system either over the phone or in-person to decide what your needs are and how to address them.

All you have to do is hit that contact button at the top of the page there and give us a call or send us an email and we’ll walk you through it.

And the best part is, it’s free!

When to Buy

Once you’ve decided on what you’re looking for, you need to look at what you have. Chances are, if you’re reading this article, you may already have a system that you use daily. Another sticking point for the average person here can be known if their system is even upgradable. A lot of older systems and smaller form factor cases cannot accommodate newer parts at all. Not to mention the waters get even muddier when you take into account the fact that even some parts that will physically fit into a machine, may not be compatible with other parts in the system. This can become a nightmare for the regular person who just needs to get their system back up to speed.

Thankfully, once again, we’re here to help. We can have a technician come out to your home or place of business and run a more comprehensive analysis of your computer to see exactly what it can and can’t handle. And not only that, we can help you find the best component for the best price and install it for you!

More often than not a system will be upgradable saving you money. However, on that off chance that it isn’t, we can even help you source a new machine and make recommendations based on whatever your needs may be without overselling.

That’s a win-win situation!

We are here in Houston and already helped hundreds of individuals and small businesses with similar problems.

Slow computer? Give us a call.