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Far more likely than damaging the computer is the risk that the upgrade won't work, and you'll be out some money and time. You may be unable to install any more memory on your particular motherboard, a new adapter could be incompatible, or you could run into a BIOS or operating system limit that requires obscure software patching to overcome. Before you upgrade your PC hardware it's best to search all options and ask for advice. Only after this you can go and buy a new component. It's also useful to check if you really need an upgrade. Do not upgrade your very old PC because it would cost a lot of money. It's cheaper to buy a new computer in such cases because they are easier to upgrade later.
Upgrading the hard drive:
The majority of people do not really need to upgrade their hard disk, unless they use it for playing a lot of music, movies, and games. A 20 GB hard drive is sufficient to keep new office and internet applications, and all your files and data.
A medium sized hard drive would be around 40 GB and the maximum would be around 60 ? 80 GB.
Before upgrading your hard disk it's best to do a complete disk checkup including disk scan, defragmentation , etc. If you happen to be an average user and need more storage you can add an additional drive to the existing one. Before an upgrade, be sure to back up your files.
Upgrading the RAM:
RAM or Random Access Memory is the short-term memory of the PC. It keeps data that is being worked on now and may or may not be transferred to the hard drive that represents the long-term memory of the computer.
Current processors can perform an enormous number of operations per second. The hard drive, on the other hand, is significantly slower to handle so much information. This is where a high-speed RAM memory comes in. RAM needs a power supply to keep data. Once the power is turned off the data is lost.
A memory upgrade is one of the simplest and most cost effective ways to improve your computer's performance, providing that's where the bottleneck is. If you're running with less than 64MB, it's almost definitely going to have a major impact if you upgrade to 256MB. If you're running 128MB, you may see some improvement, particularly if you're running Windows XP . If you already have 256MB or more, I would only upgrade if you have a specific program that is demanding the extra capacity, like speech recognition.
CPU upgrade:
If you choose this upgrade, you will have faster execution of instructions but it leaves the RAM and hard drive capacity unchanged.
This sis the most cost effective upgrade and can increase the efficiency of your computer considerably. Seek a professional help before you take a decision.
Motherboard:
Upgrading motherboard is not such a good proposition unless you replace the CPU and the RAM as well to achieve greater performance levels. You upgrade the motherboard either because the current one doesn't support a faster CPU or the CPU requires a different socket. It could be very expensive. Think about buying a new PC.
Ports:
Ports are sockets at the back of your computer where you plug in external devices. Older PCs work on "parallel" ports. If you need to work a lot on peripherals such as digital cameras, digital camcorders, CD burners, and scanners then you need to upgrade to USB and Firewire ports if you are not using them already.
Both tend to be cheaper than the "parallel" and SCSI devices they replace. Always make sure that there are no compatibility problems with other devices in your PC when you plan to upgrade any hardware on your machine.
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