Repairing and Upgrading Your PC

Popular Upgrades

The most popular upgrades fall into one or more of the following categories:

• Feature upgrades add capabilities to your PC, such as DVD burning, video capture, or wireless networking.

• Reliability upgrades are targeted at reducing the likelihood, frequency, and severity of hardware failures.

• Performance upgrades speed up your system.

• Quiet upgrades reduce the noise level of your system.

• Convenience upgrades make it easier to do things you want to do.

• Data safety upgrades reduce the likelihood that your bdata will be corrupted or lost.

Table 1-1 lists the 20 most popular PC upgrades by type, cost, and difficulty, ordered from least to most expensive. The actual cost of an upgrade obviously varies by the specific component you choose, but we've provided approximate ranges, as follows:

Table 1-1. 

$:	$0 to $50
$$:	$50 to $125
$$$:	$125 to $250
$$$$:	$250+

Table 1-2. The top 20 upgrades

Action	Feature	Reliability	Performance	Quiet	Convenience	Data safety	Cost	Difficulty	Chapter
Install case fans or ducting		•		•			$	Medium	15
Install card reader	•						$	Medium	9
Replace keyboard/mouse	•	•			•		$—$$	Easy	13
Add/replace memory			•				$—$$	Medium	6
Upgrade CPU heatsink/fan		•		•			$—$$	Medium	5
Replace the audio adapter	•		•		•		$—$$$	Easy	12
Add USB flash drive	•					•	$—$$$$	Easy	9
Install power protection		•				•	$—$$$$	Easy	16
Replace the speakers	•				•		$—$$$$	Easy	12
Replace video adapter	•		•		•		$—$$$$	Medium	10
Install external hard drive	•						$$—$$$	Easy	9
Install DVD writer	•					•	$$	Medium	8
Replace power supply		•		•			$$	Medium	16
Add/replace hard drive		•	•	•			$$—$$$	Medium	7
Install RAID		•	•			•	$$–$$$	Medium	7
Install secure wireless networking	•				•		$$–$$$	Difficult	14
Install a video capture card	•				•		$$$$$	Difficult	10
Replace motherboard	•	•	•				$$$$$	Difficult	4
Upgrade processor			•				$$–$$$$	Difficult	5
Replace the display	•		•		•		$$$–$$$$	Easy	11