The end of another year is upon us, and you are probably trying to figure out what to do with that irritating leftover cash you budgeted for computer improvements, money you didn't spend because the cost of computing has fallen once again. Of course, many companies don't budget this way anymore. So why is year end a popular time for upgrading your system? Smaller businesses may have unused Section 179 expense options to fund the upgrade, and business both large and small can find upgrade deals that offer the most bang for the buck.
Since a computer is, in fact, a system, its performance can never be better than the performance of its weakest link. Moreover, the system's weakest link is determined primarily by the demands your mix of work places on the system. Those of you doing image editing on large files in Photoshop probably need RAM more than anything else. Straight database users benefit more from fast hard drives than any other single factor, followed immediately by cache utilities and RAM. And those of you whose systems are more than a year old may find that you should replace the entire system rather than invest heavily in any one part of the system.
One quick way to find the bottleneck in your system is to watch the hard disk activity indicator whenever you are waiting for the computer. If you get the hourglass icon on screen, but no disk activity, the CPU or video speed is the weak link. If there is no hourglass and no disk activity, the video display card is a prime suspect. If there is frantic disk activity with no disk operation (opening or saving a file) taking place, the culprit is probably a lack of memory (RAM), and the operating system is using virtual memory.
Computer performance with a video accelerator is measured through benchmark tests. Benchmarking is a tricky business. For example, there was a bit of a flap earlier this year when it was discovered that at least one video accelerator chip had been designed to speed up many operations, but was actually optimized for blazing speed only with a couple Windows benchmark utilities rather than actual programs! Athough there are a number of benchmark tests available (BIX, CompuServe, local bulletin boards or user groups will all have at least a handful), I don't often bother with them. They can only test an idealized set of tasks, and if the programs you actually spend time with don't match that ideal standard, the benchmark is meaningless.
Time and again I have seen users struggling to solve various computer problems, mostly printing to laser printers from Windows graphics programs. The solution was to revert to standard Windows VGA for their display, essentially disabling all the special features of their video cards. Most software manufacturers update their drivers frequently to solve such problems, but many I've worked with have clearly spent more time resolving problems and downloading new video drivers than is practical. If your work absolutely requires 1024 x 768 resolution with full 24-bit color, the price of your complete video system is going to be far more than the list price of the monitor alone.
A fast video card can make a difference in many programs, and most systems are shipping with far faster video than was common even a year ago. But, except in special circumstances, this is not an area to invest in heavily.
However, the system approach to analyzing computer performance tells us that an all-out upgrade of any single area of your system may give disappointing results. What's worse, unless your computer is predominantly used for a single task, maximizing one program's performance can actually hurt another. For example, setting up big RAM caches to improve disk speed accelerates database performance, but confuses programs like Photoshop.
Regardless of the bragging rights you get with the raw speed improvement from accelerated video or other hardware modifications, learning the shortcuts of your software and eliminating the bottlenecks in your operating habits are far more productive. When I train computer users, it's frustrating to see how many will go to the File menu and select Open instead of hitting Control+0 (Command+0 on the Macintosh) on the keyboard. Most programs have dozens of similar commands that will eliminate "mousing around" and allow you to get the work done faster. The only expense is bothering to watch for those shortcuts on the menus or looking for them in the manuals.
But if your own experience and experimentation with software, and possibly advice from technical support wizards, convinces you that upgrading will help, proceed cautiously. Don't spend more than it would take to upgrade the entire system. If you plan to buy new hardware locally, insist on seeing what it does with your programs and typical files before you pay. And remember, what costs $400 today will probably be considered minimum standard equipment in a year and will only cost a fraction of its current price.
Well, friends, it has been three years we've spent together on these pages. The first installment of Computer Connections appeared in January of 1992, and I've been here ever since (except for the month when I spent deadline week in intensive care!) I've enjoyed your comments, your questions, your good wishes, and even a criticism or two. I wish you all the blessings of the holidays this month, and a peaceful and productive new year.