5 PC Upgrades the High Street Doesn’t Want You to Know About

Investing in hardware can keep your PC running smoothly for years to come. Don’t fret when you start to notice a dip in performance. PCs are a digital/mechanical interface. This means the data is digital but relies on a series of working components that function together to perform a job. In short: do a little bit of maintenance and upgrading and your PC will run like new.

Buy a Can of Air

You’ve cleaned up your computer’s disk space, installed new updates and backed up all of your files and your computer is still running like a sloth. Start with this unbelievably simple trick. Canned air is cheap and at the press of a button, it delivers a blast of pressurised air into the nooks and crannies of your PC.

Since it was first turned on, your computer has sucked up dust and debris which blocks exhaust ports and cooling fans. Once the computer detects that it’s overheating, performance is immediately stripped back. Solve the overheating issue and you’ll notice results immediately.

Upgrade HDD To SSD

If your computer still uses a hard disk drive (HDD) to boot up and store information, then an obvious place to start is replacing the unit with a solid state drive (SSD). An SSD will improve boot times, file transfers and system responsiveness. Samsung SSDs can be had from £60 on Amazon. Lesser brands (or no names) will cost even less, though expect reliability issues or poorer customer service, should you require it.

Hybrid Drives

If your budget is tight or you require more than 500GB of space, the good news is traditional hard drives are getting cheaper by the day. You can also buy a hybrid drive that pairs a HDD with a small SSD caches. These drives work by monitoring the frequently used files and storing them on the caches, ready to boot at a moment’s notice. All other files are stored on the capacious HDD. A Western Digital 1TB HDD will set you back £36 on Amazon. 1TB Hybrid drives from brands such as Seagate start at £55.

Further Improve Cooling

If your PC is still running hot after blowing out all the dust, check the thermal paste around your CPU or GPU. It might be dried out, flaky and ineffective, especially if the PC is several years old. First, install some free software to check that the internal temperature is what’s causing trouble. Then, buy some thermal paste and follow the instruction for installing a new CPU.

Further to that, install a case fan. They’re roughly £8 for a reliable model and can be installed in a few minutes. This will provide your internal with a much-needed breeze to cool things down when things heat up!

Upgrade the Peripherals

Your main interactions with a computer are with its input and output devices. If the comp is running fine and you’re just feeling behind with the times, upgrade to a 1080p monitor, an ergonomic mouse and sleek keyboard and it will feel like a new PC. To complete an already pretty picture, invest in some aural bliss with new speakers and headphones. You won’t regret it.

Indos Computer Services have kept SMEs in business since the dawn of the PC. We’re a company that likes to keep things simple when it comes to backup services, email setup and support, networks and accounting software. Our team are experts in their field but will always explain our services in layman’s terms and without jargon, so you know exactly what you’re getting. For the finest, IT support team in St Albans, Watford, Hemel Hempstead and the surrounding areas, contact us today.