Do you own a desktop? The original form of personal computer, desktops have remained relevant due to their excellent value for money. Out of all the different types of PC you can get these days, you won’t get better specs and performance than a desktop.
A desktop PC is great for a range of purposes. They are incredibly reliable for office work; if you’re in any of the creative industries – such as video post-production, graphic design, architecture, etc. – then you’ll likely do most of your work on a desktop, due to the performance demands. Gaming is another great reason to have a desktop PC over a laptop or a tablet, for example, because the hardware requirements for gaming tends to be quite high – you need a high-end CPU and a good graphics card to support high-end games.
Most IT support companies will recommend the user of desktop PCs for work. For instance, TechQuarters, who provide IT support North London businesses have been relying on for many years, generally recommend desktops due to the fact that they can be upgraded relatively easily.
Desktop Upgradability
Tablets and laptops, which have been steadily growing in popularity compared with desktops, are all-in-one units which usually have soldered parts and sealed enclosures, meaning they are difficult – and often impossible – to upgrade.
On the other hand, if you have a desktop, there’s a high probability that most components will be upgradable. So, which components of a desktop PC can you upgrade, and which should you upgrade?
- Hard Drive
Every desktop – and indeed, every PC – has an internal storage drive. The hard drive is the place where the operating system of your PC, as well as all the applications and programs, files such as documents, photos, and music, and any games you might have installed on your PC. In order to run or bring up any of these things, your PC has to load it up from the hard drive – this involves your CPU reading your hard drive. How long it takes your PC to open up a program or file is called the load time; and this applies to your operating system, which means when you turn on your PC, your operating system will take some time to load up.
The better your hard drive is, the quicker it will load programs and times, and the shorter your load times will be. So, if you replace your hard disk drive (HDD) with a solid state drive (SSD), your PC will be able to read and write data quicker (owing to the fact that SSDs are much faster), which means it will load up programs and files quicker, making your PC faster.
- RAM
As mentioned above, computers rely on being able to read and write data in order to execute the various processes. For instance, to load up an application, your PC needs to read the hard drive, and for that app to operate, the app needs to be able to write, store, and access data; but in this case, it doesn’t do this on the hard drive, it does this on the Random Access Memory (RAM).
The more RAM there is on a PC, the more data can be stored on it, which means the more processes can be executed simultaneously. The great thing is that RAM can be easily upgraded. RAM units are chips that simply slot into the motherboard – so all you need to be is unclip it, remove from the motherboard, and slot in a larger RAM unit.
- CPU
Your Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the core of your PC – it is the computer within your computer that executes all the functions that your PC needs to operate. Upgrading your CPU is a surefire way of boosting the overall power of your desktop; however, you need to make sure that the new CPU is compatible with the motherboard of your PC.
As the CPU is responsible for executing every single process on your PC, a more powerful CPU can execute more tasks simultaneously, meaning you can perform more heavy duty activity on your PC, such as intense gaming, graphic design and 3D modelling, and editing large video files (such as 4K footage).
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