I don’t know about you, but I tend to get attached to my possessions, especially the ones I really like. For example, I had an IBM A31p laptop that I got in 2001. I used it until August of 2010 because it still worked great and I just couldn’t bear to scrap it. I found a young man who wanted a laptop that had a working part I needed for my car, so we traded. My old laptop got a good home and I got something I needed. (By the way, the car is another one of those things I don’t want to replace until necessary.)

Like I was saying, it isn’t always easy to decide whether to upgrade or replace your PC. Trading my laptop forced me to replace it. So, how can you decide whether to upgrade or replace?

Here are a few suggestions:

Replacement Parts

Replacement parts are getting hard to find or have become more expensive then the same part for a newer PC. In this case, replacing the old machine is probably the wisest choice. After all, you will most likely get a much more powerful machine for less than you paid for the one you are replacing.

Hardware Drivers

If it is getting harder and harder to find drivers that will work with the newer operating systems for your hardware, it is probably time to replace your PC. But, do keep in mind that there is a lag time between the introduction of a new operating system and new hardware drivers being released. It can take up to a year before drivers are available for some of the older hardware.

Cost Considerations

If an upgrade costs as much as or more than buying a new computer, buy the new computer. But make sure you are getting similar quality and not replacing a high end, reliable machine with a bargain basement one.

Processing Power

I do web design which means I frequently have the entire adobe graphics suite open on my computer when I am designing a website. I replaced my desktop last year because the old one could not run the programs fast enough and it had all the fast memory the machine could handle. The only option was to replace the motherboard and memory which was almost as expensive as replacing the computer. It made more sense to replace the computer

32 versus 64 Bit

Eventually we will all have to move from the 32-bit platform to a 64-bit platform just like we had to move from a 16-bit to a 32-bit platform approximately 10 years ago. Will you need to do this soon? Probably not but it does need to be considered when deciding whether to upgrade or replace.