Hardware

Posted on 3 Sep 2008 at 10:37

£60, by buying a cheaper all-in-one instead of individual machines.

Wipe your PC and reinstall Windows to boost performance

Before you buy, think how clogged up your existing PC has become from years of constant use. A simple defrag and disk-cleanup session can reorganise everything on the hard disk and make it far simpler - and quicker - to access, giving your PC an instant performance boost.

A more drastic measure is to re-install Windows. Make sure you've backed up important files to an external hard disk or memory stick, then give your PC a fresh start. Without the extraneous software, long-forgotten documents and pointless Registry entries, even Windows Vista will feel zippy.
£120, by using the Windows disc that came with your system to reinstall the OS instead of splashing out on a new dual-core CPU, or spending even more on buying a new PC.

Sell old kit

Just upgraded your PC? Don't let your old components go to waste - stick them on Ebay. If you've just upgraded to a quad-core processor, for instance, your old Core 2 Duo could still fetch a decent price online: a couple of examples we found on the popular auction site were going for £115 and £150, with several hours still left to bid.

Other components are equally capable of generating cash. GeForce 8800 GT graphics cards fetch more than £100, and the burgeoning market for motherboards, hard disks and other components means you can profit on every part of your old rig.
£300, if you sell your processor, GPU, motherboard and hard disk.

Keep your old monitor

These days, monitors aren't changing much with each iteration. We'd hazard a guess that your three-year-old TFT has a resolution of 1,280 x 1,024 or more, and a display that's perfectly up to the task of editing in Word or browsing the net. So when you upgrade your PC, don't waste money on a new screen - keep your existing one.
£100 on a 19in TFT that could be excluded from your new PC.

Repurpose old hardware

Hold your horses before buying a hardware firewall or a new network-attached storage (NAS) drive. For both these devices, you probably already have the hardware available in the form of an old PC in the cupboard.

All it takes is some free, easily installed software to turn your old, general purpose PC into a dedicated computing appliance. Pop over to www.smoothwall.org to download a special Linux distribution that will turn your PC into a seriously good firewall, or visit www.freenas.org for an easy-to-install operating system that will produce a working NAS appliance with little fuss. Keep an eye on the power consumption to make sure it won't be a false economy in the long run, but for zero setup costs you're home and dry.
Between £100 and £500, compared with buying new, dedicated appliances.