SECRETS OF A PC REPAIR MAN
67 upgrade tips that make your PC run faster AND save cash
The cusp of the biggest recession the world has ever seen might not strike you as the perfect time to splash out on a new
PC. The good news is repairing or revamping the one you’ve already got isn’t as difficult as you may fear.
If you want to boost the performance of a beloved PC, this guide will help navigate you around the infinite permutations. We’ll show how to extend the life of existing kit without stressing the credit card, alongside tips and tricks to ensure you make the right decisions.
If you’ve always fancied taking a screwdriver to your machine, or it’s been a while since you last tinkered, upgrades are the perfect starting place. Most are simple and, if you follow our advice on research and purchasing, they won’t cost the earth.
THE BASICS
Your upgrade must achieve a purpose such as increasing storage capacity, adding gaming punch or slashing rendering times. Clarity about your goal simplifies shovelling your budget into the right areas.
I’ve lost count of the number of occasions that a box of incompatible parts has been plonked on my counter by a frustrated upgrader who didn’t do their homework. Obtaining an inventory of your PC’s components is your first step. Piriform’s Speccy
( cleaner.com/speccy) and Belarc Advisor ( belarc.com/Programs/ advisorinstaller.exe) will rummage through your system. Run both and save the reports, which will be packed with model numbers, license keys and software inventories.
This information doesn’t tell the whole story so grab a screwdriver, open your PC’s case and examine the components you’ll be working with. How many free RAM slots are there? Does your power supply have a spare SATA connection for another drive? Will the new graphics card clear the southbridge heatsink? Eyeball the hardware before opening your wallet.
Once you have a target, think about budget. Research your vendors and aim for ones with good reviews and transparent returns polic policies. As manufacturers introduce n new products, discounts appear for the previous generation, so you should price alerts on
pricespy.co.uk and be ready to pounce on a bargain.
IDENTIF YING THE BEST COMPONENT TO UPGRADE
Sometimes identifying what to upgrade is straightforward – choosing quieter fans, for example – and sometimes it isn’t so obvious. Consider a sluggish desktop that Photoshop brings to a halt. Adobe’s recommended specification for Photoshop reveals that the machine requires twice the amount of RAM and a more powerful graphics card than the components inside your PC. That’s two items onto the shopping list. rch the hardware ements of your software, uding games. In many cases, machine with the minimum specification will work but one with the recommended specification will give a much better experience. There isn’t the space to cover every upgrade in detail here, but as I take you hrough the main choices, l flag “upgrade ripples”, the
Lee Grant repairs and upgrades PCs for a living. Here he reveals the secrets of the repair shop – 67 in total – to help you eke more out of your current system
budget-sapping phenomenon of modifying one component that precipitates upgrading others. Awareness of ripples is advantageous before, rather than after, purchases are made.
THE KEY COMPONENTS HARD DRIVE
SSD drives are the most common way of boosting speed, but finding the right one is critical. A SATA SSD is the solid-state version of a traditional SATA motorised drive and, as they utilise the same connectors, they also use the SATA data bus. M.2 SSDs come in various lengths and key types and connect onto the motherboard, but incorrect choices are made because M.2 can utilise the SATA data bus (M.2 SATA SSD) or the faster PCIe data bus (M.2 NVMe SSD). M.2 describes the socket that the SSD will connect to and has nothing to do with drive technology.
Kingston has a useful infographic ( pcpro. link/312kings) explaining hard drive technology, and motherboard manufacturers publish lists of compatible SSDs on their sites.
A like-for-like upgrade is simplest, but see if you can jump onto a different bus. It may be possible to move from, for example, exam a 3.5in 500GB SATA to a 500GB M.2 NVMe, which will give you a hu huge performance increase.
RAM
Adding more RAM is rarely a wasted upgrade, and many budget machines desperately need the extra memory. Although Microsoft claims that Windows 10 64-bit runs on 2GB or 4GB systems, you’ll soon realise that 8GB or more is preferable. Again, if you want to run specific programs, check the recommended requirements.
DDR is graded into different speed brackets, which generally get more expensive as speeds rise. Research what your CPU requires because, for instance, an Intel Core i5-10400T prefers DDR4 2,666MHz, whereas an AMD Ryzen 7 3800X likes DDR4 3,200MHz. If you’re not intending to overclock your kit, don’t spend money on faster RAM.
Most consumer CPUs and motherboards use dual-channel memory so buying quad-channel DIMMs may not be advantageous. Crucial has a tool ( uk.crucial.com/ store/systemscanner) that will interrogate your machine and display its upgrade options.
MOTHERBOARD
Motherboard replacements have traps that can ruin your day so begin with visual checks. Check the size, or form factor, to avoid attempting to squeeze an ATX board into a micro-ATX case, and ensure that there are enough ports and connectors to couple with the rest of your system. Highperformance motherboards sport heavy-duty heat shielding so consider if your aftermarket CPU cooler will still fit. To be certain that your CPU is compatible, visit its maker’s site.
The chipset of a motherboard restricts features – overclocking or RAID, for example – but spotting overlaps between chipsets can facilitate future upgrades. Take an A320 chipset motherboard sporting an AMD A6-9500E Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), for example. Upgrading to certain X470 motherboards allow us to retain the low-powered A6, but when the budget allows, swap it for a topdraw D Ryzen 9 3950x.
CPU
Upgrading a CPU is simple as motherboards only accept certain models. You may need to upgrade the BIOS before a more powerful CPU is attached, though.
Visit CPU Benchmarks
( cpubenchmark.net) or read last month’s Labs ( see issue 311, p74) to compare CPU performance and pay attention to the thermal design power (TDP). This indicates how much heat the processor generates, so make sure your cooler is adequate.
PSU
It’s tempting to save money by buying a cheap PSU. Compare two 650W PSUs, priced at £25 and £65. Differences are invisible on a basic machine so let’s throw an Nvidia RTX 2080 GPU onto our upgrade pile.
This graphics card draws up to 285W and the £25 PSU only draws 30A on its 12V line, giving an output
of 360W (Ohm’s law is W = V x A).
This leaves around 75W on the 12V line, but our CPU uses more than 100W whilst in full-flight gaming mode. The £25 PSU will be easily overloaded. The £65 PSU delivers 648W on the 12V line (12V x 54A), giving a much larger clearance of 363W. This information can be found on the PSU and product webpages. Note that headline PSU wattage has no relevance to how the manufacturer has decided to distribute it.
An online power consumption calculator ( pcpro.link/312calc) will analyse your components and make a recommendation. Pricier PSUs have “80 Plus” energy efficiency ( pcpro.
link/31280plus), modular connections and near-silent operation. PSU selection is critical if you’re upgrading to multiple GPUs.
CASES & COOLING
A new case can give an upgrade the wow factor and allow a slimline tower to become a workstation monster. It’s imperative that your system fits inside, so check the dimensions and mounting points for drives and be aware that many cases no longer have apertures for optical drives or card readers. Review the case’s external dimensions as I’ve met many surprised upgraders with a case the size of a small filing cabinet.
Water-cooling makers normally recommend compatible cases to guarantee that the radiator will fit. Good quality fans will reduce the temperature inside the case without generating extra noise, yet consider the air’s transit. Aim to create an intake on one end (normally the front) to an output on the opposite side. Most fans feature an arrow indicating the direction of the airflow. Your motherboard might have spare fan headers (3-pin or a 4-pin pulse-width modulation, or PMW) but external fan controllers ( quietpc.com/na-fc1) can be purchased. If you use lots of fans, the excellent Speedfan ( almico.com/
speedfan.php) is a free tool that monitors temperatures.
GPU
It’s possible to spend a fortune on graphics, so think about what you actually need from a card. If you’re into games, look at the recommended cards for the titles you’re playing. Repeat this method for other applications such as video editing or photography and purchase as advised. Go bigger if the price doesn’t frighten you. Modern cards utilise PCIe 4 but will work at slower speeds if lugged into a motherboard with CIe 3. Most graphic cards sport digital outputs –HDMI, DVI-D, isplayPort – so if your monitor as VGA or DVI-I, buy adapters pcpro.link/312adapter cpro.link/312adapter) or throw new monitor in the shopping sket. Long graphics cards can use problems by blocking therboard connectors rticularly SATA ports), so get a ler inside the case to measure. The final item on your checklist is to ensure that there are enough PCIe connectors on your PSU.
If you’re considering a multiple GPU upgrade, research carefully. The potency of SLI and Crossfire have reduced within certain applications compared to the latest generation of graphics cards. Two heads may not be better than one.
INSTALL ATION
Before you reach for the screwdrivers, let’s go over the basics. PC Pro readers always have a data backup, but as I’ve given last rites to upgrades that have contained more burnt-out components than you’d expect, do another to stop me from nagging! If you’re upgrading the motherboard, uninstall its drivers to maximise the chances of
Windows booting without complaint. Finally, create a Windows 10 boot USB ( microsoft.com/en-gb/
software-download/windows10) just in case your OS requires resuscitation.
Take the machine outside and use a can of compressed air (such as
pcpro.link/312air) to give it a thorough de-fluffing and refresh the CPU thermal compound (such as
pcpro.link/312thermal) if the PC is a few years old. Find a large area, a kitchen table is ideal, so that you can keep your tools and components within easy reach.
Use the original components as a visual reference to aid the upgrade process and seek out the tutorials produced by manufacturers on how to install their products. Here’s an excellent one from
Gigabyte on how to install a motherboard: pcpro.link/312gig.
Remove unused brass spacers from the case to avoid electrical shorts before you mount the motherboard. Note the orientation references on CPUs – notches on Intels and a triangle on AMD –
to prevent bent pins and sobbing. Look for the airflow direction indicators on the fans and route the cables carefully around the case to maximise cooling. Take your time and try to enjoy the process.
When you switch the machine on, hopefully there will be much back patting, but don’t panic if the machine doesn’t start. Be methodical and check wiring connections, component seating and the one that most people overlook: the little rocker isolator on the PSU’s rear. If the PC still isn’t working, you may need to seek help
( see “Your rights when things go wrong” boxout boxout).
If Windows does decide to start, install the new drivers and
controller software to get the most out of your purchases.
TESTING
Brand-new components can be faulty, meaning a little bit of testing is required. Superposition ( benchmark. unigine.com/superposition) will give your machine a mini stress test, whilst MemTest86 ( memtest86.com) will trap RAM faults. CrystalDiskInfo
( crystalmark.info/en/software/
crystaldiskinfo) highlights obvious problems with your hard drive.
For fans and coolers, take a sheet of tissue paper and place it against the intake and output of the case. The paper will be pulled or repelled depending on airflow so it’s a great way to visualise if your fans are correctly orientated.
If your machine passes quality control, it’s time to congratulate yourself by spending a fraction of the money saved on a cold beer.