When talking about upgrading there are two possibilities. One is a software upgrade, and two a hardware upgrade.
If you upgrade the programs on your computer then its a software upgrade. For example; updating antivirus, adware programs even upgrading from Windows XP to Windows Vista .
Its usually recommended to constantly upgrade your software, but I can tell you from experience that newer doesn't always mean better.
I have a P2-266mhz system with 64 MB RAM, and updating WinXP from SP1 (Service Pack 1- just a collected bunch of updates and patches for WinXP) to SP2 (another bunch of updates and patches), it really bogs down my system. Thus, I still have WinXP SP1 on my system.
Trying to run WinXP, MSN Messenger, and a web cam on my second computer, turned into a real nightmare. Eventually, got fed up with it and Downgraded the system to Win98SE.
Newer software usually requires more power and resources to run. Another recent example. Recently tried to give the newest version of Ad-Aware 2007 http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html a try. So I downloaded the 17MB file. Installed it and at first it would not run. So I decided to restart the system. Did it and after it seem to start OK. Managed to update the database. Although the update window wouldn't go away. Then I tried to run the scanner.
The scanner would not run. error5001 or something like that. To top it all off, it wouldn't even unistall properly. I had to use another program called Your Uninstaller 2006 Pro - http://www.ursoftware.com/ and even then I still had to manually disable a background service it left behind.
I went to the Control Panel looking for the Administrative Services icon - double-click on it. I found the service listed. It was the first on the list, Ad-Aware 2007 Service. I then right-clicked on it and then clicked on properties. On the first tab or general, in the center, you would see Startup Type, it might read either Automatic or Manual - clicking on it should give you all options. I chose Disabled. Then Apply and/or OK
Then there is the Hardware side. That is your hard drive, memory, CDROM, etc.. Its been years since I've been able to upgrade my hardware on the other hand my software has been through a number of changes.
I'm the guy everyone calls to fix their computer. I don't have a business or anything nor do I have any set rates. If they decide its worth something, then so be it. If not, then that's OK to. Some pay some don't.
One guy gave me a box of computer parts has payment. He had two old computers and decided to take them apart. He unfortunately threw away the cases. I say that because one of the parts is a ASUS P4S333 SIS 961 motherboard. It seems to be a Pentium 4 motherboard (P4). Unfortunately, I don't have a proper case to set it up to test it out.
When he took the computer apart, he also ruined the CPU which may have been a 2GHZ chip.
info on chip:
There was a old 4X CDROM and a Yamaha CD burner - unfortunately it, the Yamaha, scratched up the first CD I put in and couldn't read my CDRW disks.
It did seem to loosen up after using it a bit. But it wouldn't read my CDRW even though it says its a rewritable CD burner. I download things off the internet and burn them of on a rewritable CD (CDRW) first, then when full, I copy everything to my hard drive and then burn of on a CDR (write once and only once CDs). Formatting the CDRW comes next and I'm ready to start all over again.
I want to continue this practice so I had to remove the Yamaha and put back my old LG CD-RW-CED-8080B. I was going to put them both in only my computer case will not support it.
There was a Video card. The name on it was nVidia. I searched on the internet for whatever info I could find based on the info on the chips on the card. Micro Star model: MS-8878 apparently. From what info I could find I believe it may be also known has G4 MX440SE-T. I'm currently using the built-in S3 video with only 4MB of video RAM.
Tried to put it in my computer but unfortunately it would not fit into my stone-aged IBM 300PL computer. The card was to long to fit into an ordinary PCI slot. There is a AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) port but unfortunately IBM in this case didn't put to much thought in its design. I had to wrestle with the piece of metal on the back to get it off, the screw was worn, only to discover only a small square hole. Not a proper slot to fit the card in.
There where two memory chips, not compatible with my system. Over 500MB DDR. Shame!
The only thing so far I managed to use was the hard drive. It was a 40GB drive. Compared to my 4GB. So I took out my 4 put in the 40. Formatted it only to discover it had a few bad spots. Decided to set it up anyway and give it a workout. Took out my 2GB second drive (did I mention I had two hard drives??) replaced it with the original 4GB drive.
I then used a backup of my hard dive from using Norton Ghost http://www.symantec.com/themes/ghost/index.jsp . And so far so good. Only my system has slowed down slightly, same as when I installed SP1. I wonder if reinstalling from scratch would make a difference. I have no plans to do it in any hurry.