The relative guide to upgrading
We benchmark five, three and one-year old PCs and then apply various upgrades to see what makes the most difference
STANDING THE HEAT
If you’re planning to upgrade your processor, you’ll need to make sure your PC’s cooling equipment can deal with the extra heat. Faster processors tend to run hotter, although this is countered by ever-decreasing manufacturing processes (expressed in microns), which help to keep power consumption (and heat) down.
It’s still important to keep your new kit cool, though, even if you’re only upgrading the memory. Most PC cases have mountings for two or more fans, and unless your PC already has the maximum number fitted, adding an extra one is an inexpensive way to boost your computer’s cooling effectiveness. Many motherboards have spare three-pin fan headers, but it’s worth checking yours to see if there are fans plugged into every single one. If that’s the case, buy a fan with a four-pin Molex adapter that can connect to a spare plug on your power supply, or in-line with a hard disk or optical drive power connector if there are no free plugs.
The advantage of plugging a fan into your motherboard is that its speed can be controlled by the BIOS according to temperature. This way, they remain quiet when the PC is cool. If you’re playing a game or running other demanding applications, heat quickly builds up and the fan speeds can be increased accordingly.
Upgrading your PC might require you add an extra fan to the case
Some fans come with an in-line resistor or a three-way switch that reduces the voltage from the Molex plug. This is a rudimentary way to kill noise, but there’s no easy way to step up the voltage when you want a higher spin speed. A better option is a fan controller, such as Akasa’s Fan Control Pro (around £30), which slots into a free 5 1/4in bay on the front of your PC and lets you control the speed of four fans.
The most common fan size is 80mm, and prices start from around £3. The Zalman ZM-F1 Plus is a good choice, being both quiet and efficient at moving air. Similarly, the Zalman ZM-F3 LED is great value if you want a 120mm fan, as it costs as little as £4.
UPGRADING YOUR BIOS
Your computer’s BIOS is responsible for managing and controlling all the hardware in your computer. Manufacturers occasionally release new BIOS versions to fix bugs in older revisions, make your computer more stable, or add new features, such as support for newer processors and faster memory. These updates aren’t hard to install (or ‘flash’ as the upgrade process is commonly known).
There are three ways to update the BIOS: a built-in tool, using Windows, and a DOS boot disk. The first requires you to press a key during the boot process to access the update utility. You then plug in your storage device (a floppy disk or maybe USB flash drive) which contains the new BIOS file, and then select the file to perform the update.
Windows is perhaps the easiest method as you can use a graphical interface (potentially even an automatic one) to install the new BIOS. This is also the most dangerous, as if something goes wrong, you could be left with a corrupt BIOS which renders your PC useless. Finally, you could create a bootable disk or drive which loads a basic version of DOS. You can then use the traditional command prompt to run a flash utility to perform the update.
A BIOS update is needed for many CPU upgrades
Before you start, you need to download the latest BIOS for your motherboard from the manufacturer’s website, preferably its UK site. Make sure you know the exact model (even the revision number) of your motherboard to ensure you get the correct BIOS file. Typically the file (with a .bin extension) will be in a Zip file along with a .exe flash utility. You’ll have to extract the contents to a folder on your hard disk, or directly to a boot disk.
Most upgrade utilities allow you to backup the current BIOS file, and you should do this just in case you need to restore it. After the upgrade, you should remove any disks or USB drives and reboot. Normally you’ll see an error message that says the BIOS settings have been reset. Press F1 or the key as directed to enter the BIOS and make sure the settings are correct. Many BIOSes allow you to back up the settings, so you should do this before upgrading, and then you can load your old settings quickly from the backup.
