Mid-life upgrade

There was a time when increasing the RAM of a Windows XP computer from 512Mb to 1Gb gave a real noticeable performance improvement. Similarly adding an extra 1GB to a sluggish Windows Vista PC resulted in a performance boost. Now, adding extra memory to a Windows 7 system which is already has 2, 3 or 4Gb doesn't generally give a truly amazing responsive improvement.

I'm finding that adding an SSD gives the desired mid-life upgrade the WOW factor. Prices have continued to drop with 120Gb SSDs costing well under £40 plus 250Gb capacity for under £70. Performance and reliability of these devices have improved with newer motherboards having SATA3 (6Gb/s) ports as well. The majority of my customers do not have huge photo collections or music or film libraries and the PCs are used for email, Facebook, web surfing and document creation. Hence substituting the old HDD with a low capacity SSD is not an issue. And cloning the HDD does not take long. For a desktop system leave the HDD in place as a backup device is also a good practice.

The reboot of the upgraded system is a perfect way to show off the overall performance increase and give you a happy and satisfied customer.