Christmas time is probably one of the most difficult times for making a decision on what to do about your aging computer. With new power hungry software and constant updates most computers feel out of date before you’ve even walked out the shop. Furthermore the credit crunch, euro crisis and the never ending Christmas shopping list makes it ever harder to decide what’s best. So where do you start and how do you decide? Difficult question but generally this is how I personally would tackle it.

First question is how old is the PC and was it new when you purchased it? If the PC is under three years old and it was new, then your best option is to maybe upgrading it or just simply having it fully reinstalled. Often PCs slow down because of all the programs that have been installed and not removed, the windows registry becomes overloaded, the files are fragmented and no simple clean up will help as much as a full re-installation from scratch. It will feel the equivalent of you having put a new engine in your car. In this process changing the hard disk and upgrading the memory is often cheap and very effective in speeding up your PC. Expect to spend around €150 to €250 for a good job, that includes backing up of all your existing data, replacing the hard drive with a new one, installing windows and all the programs you had, copying your data back into your PC and also giving it a good physical clean, in particular the fans and the power supply. This should easily give you a good PC to use for another 2 to 3 years, increasing your PC life upto 5 or 6 years.

If your PC is older than 4 or even 5 years, you really need to start looking at a new or even a refurbished machine that’s no older than 1 or 2 years. When deciding on a new machine consider the following: If space is an issue, you may want to consider All In One machines. These are PCs like the iMACs where everything is in the monitor and you get a wireless keyboard and mouse. They are usually touch screen and power full machines that come with a lot of extra costing around 1000 euro. Then you have the standard desktops, which are a bit bulkier, take up more space, but on the other hand they tend to be cheaper, more easily repairable and will set you back around 500 to 600 euros. Finally you’ve got the laptops which are forever dropping in price. The downside to laptops are upgrading and repairs are always considerably more expensive and the screen size is often 15.6” which you need to keep in mind if keyboard and monitor size are an issue.

So, a few simple considerations and hopefully you should be able to make the right decision.