If you ask most people who own computers to swap out their memory or add a hard drive or even replace their power supply, you can literally watch their eyes glaze over and the blood drain from their faces. I think, about that time, they would rather go to the dentist or get audited by the IRS. Believe it or not, doing any of these tasks is in no way as hard as most people believe. In fact when I show people how I do any these upgrades or replacements while they watch, you see this look of amazement at how easy it really is.

It used to be that just running out and buying a new computer was the 1st and only choice to the majority of people, but in today's economic and ecological climate, that is quickly falling to a back burner status. Now, most people will just hang on their systems and wait until they actually stop working before they do anything about it.

But, today you can push at least a year or two out of your existing computer with a minimal monetary layout. There are several options that will either keep your system running or beef it up to do more than you originally could with it.

As an example, I upgraded my son's computer to a top of the line gaming system for less than $1,600. Some people may say that's a lot of money, but a new gaming system that rivals what I built for him would cost over $4,000. He was amazed that with a little planning, searching, and timing, you could save quite a bit of money and still keep up with the future. I have been building computers since the early 80's, and I've spent a lot of time watching , learning and teaching small tricks on how to get the most out of your dollars when dealing with your computer. Today, it is even more critical to keep your computer going because it so intertwined with our culture.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to lay out some upgrade options that will, for all intentions, be like having bought a new computer at the fraction of the cost.

There are five main areas on your computer that everyone can upgrade. The reason I say this is that on most big name computer systems like Dell, HP, IBM, or the like, you do have more limited upgrading options because of the propietary nature of their equipment. They have gotten much better over the years, but it is still not as open as buying from smaller vendors who use more generic and open hardware. The five areas are:

PC Memory DDR2 PC2-6400 (800 Mhz)