There comes a time in every computers life where things just don't seem to go its way. We have all known the frustration and stress of using a computer that’s just a little bit too old and takes forever to do, well, anything. Usually this is only because the programs your running on it are designed for faster computers, but hey you have a computer so who cares if it's a little slow right? After a few years of this and updating your software it gets a little bit much to handle. It results in a computer with a cursor that you can barely move until you have waited half an hour after you pushed that ON button.

When you choose to upgrade you computer, it really is a stress relieving process. But how do you know what to get? Do u only need an upgrade or should you get a brand new computer? Just the one part or multiple, and what mix should you have all power or good price?

Upgrading is good for the typical computer user, when you want to run the same programs as you were, the same operating system, but want it faster. If your looking to run high demand programs, then a new computer would be the way to go. Usually you will need to upgrade at least three parts for a major upgrade. Motherboard, CPU and ram. Realistically you only need to upgrade the CPU to get better performance from your computer (the majority of the time), but because of advancement in technology it's hard to find the same socket CPU as you could get four or five years ago, and if you can it's most likely outdated or obsolete stock that’s not supported anymore. I’d suggest it’s not going to be a wise decision to buy it. So now you need to buy the CPU and the thing to put it in, the motherboard. Every upgrade should contain more ram. No matter how long ago you bought your computer, you could probably use more RAM (random access memory).

RAM is temporary storage the computer uses to do calculations and processes within programs. You will most likely relate best when I describe the computer as getting chunky, when the mouse seems to take forever to move, and the programs just aren’t loading. This is when the RAM is full, or getting close to full. Getting more of it just means that the computer will take longer to get to that point.

So what should you buy, good value or the best performance. If the technology is going to be outdated in 5 years, why get the best performance? If you buy the best value right now, you could have to upgrade sooner, like two or three years down the track. When you upgrade, its best to go for a midway point. A lot of the best hardware 6 months from now will be half the price it is today, some of the best value will be off the market. As a general rule of thumb you can tell how good the hardware is by how much it costs, this is not perfect but it's a good generalization.

The most costly CPU will, in most cases, be the best performance. You want to get a little over the mid-range to get a good mix between value and performance. If the most expensive CPU is $1000 you would want maybe a $600 one. This CPU will still be very good in performance, but it will last a fairly long time in doing the things you normally do.

If you wanted to upgrade your computer for another reason, for instance to make the computer work well for CAD work or to a gaming computer. It would probably be best to upgrade your graphics card as well. The graphics card plays a major part in the performance of your computer when anything visual is involved.

The motherboard and ram are still important, but there’s a different rule of thumb. If it's a general use computer then I would imagine that your not looking at small percentage increases in performance, any motherboard with the right socket will pretty much do fine. The higher priced motherboards do have a lot of extra features and marginal performance increases. I would not recommend getting the bottom of the line, but unless your upgrading to a gaming computer there’s no need for the extra features.

The RAM rule of thumb is this. Anything with a lifetime warranty. All no-name brand ram I’ve seen (the ones with a 1 year or 3 year warranty) have had drastic performance drops even for home use. All decent brands offer a lifetime warranty and aren’t usually that much more expensive, maybe $10-$20 extra.

Upgrading is best done within about 3 to 4 years of when you bought the computer. This way you won’t have a massive upgrade bill, and you won’t have old unreliable parts. If your computer is more than six years old I’d recommend buying a new computer instead of upgrading.

Tony Schirmer is the owner of the computer news reviews and How-To's site, http://www.tekfix.com.au/ Tekfix is one of the fastest growing computing sites online, striving to share articles covering every aspect of the computer and technology era.