First, before you make your purchase(s), you need to know what type of components your motherboard supports. If you still have the original box, it makes checking much easier. However, if you do not have it, you can still check the model and make of the motherboard.
Here is a check list of what to look out for before you purchase your upgrades.
Case
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Your case would influence the type of power supply you should get. Also, the bigger the case, the more components you can install (more hard disks, more optical drives etc.). Make sure you can actually fit more had disks into the case before you actually purchase components. |
Motherboard
The most important component of all. Your motherboard dictates what you can upgrade you can make. You may want a dual-core processor, but if your motherboard is an Intel socket 775, that dual-core processor is out of reach.
If you are upgrading your RAM (well, you should anyway), look for the type of RAM socket your motherboard supports. Does it support DDR or DDR2 RAM? Or does it only support the fast disappearing SDRAM?
Check if your how many PCI (Peripheral Component Interface) and AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) slots your motherboard has, if any. These slots are where you will install your graphic and sound cards.
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Power Supply
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Your power supply not only regulates the power to the components in your computer, it also helps cool your system.
If you plan to introduce a lot of hardware into your system, you may need to buy a power supply with a higher voltage. |
The general rule is that the higher the voltage rating of your power supply, your computer runs better. More power means that the internal fans run faster, enabling better cooling inside of you PC case.
These are the main things you need to watch out for. In the future, I may write about the relationship between some components and how they affect your purchases.
