Do you ever feel like your computers need to be upgraded?

If I was to ask you why your computers needed an upgrade, could you give a good reason for it?

The truth is that you may not need an upgrade at all! Too often, I have found that most computer upgrades or new computer purchases are not necessary. These are just a few reasons that people upgrade unnecessarily:

• My computer runs slowly, and a new computer will be faster!
  
  
• There is so much junk on the computer that makes it act funny, a new one will fix that!
  
  
• My computer can't run Windows Vista, so I have to get upgrade because I have to run Windows Vista!
  
  
• My computer is just so old, and new computers are so cheap, I might as well get a new one!
  
  

None of these are good reasons for a computer upgrade. First of all, if your computer is very slow or has a large amount of software or unwanted items on it, you can take care of all of that with a proper computer clean-up and unwanted software removal session. Windows XP is not a good reason to upgrade unless you are explicitly buying a software package that requires Windows XP and cannot run on anything else. Remember that if you have been using versions of Windows prior to XP, you will have to learn the quirks in Windows XP all over again. While Windows XP is more stable than Windows 95, 98, and Millennium Edition (Me), a properly configured Windows 9x/Me system will not experience problems often enough to justify upgrading to XP. I have personally cleaned many Windows 98 installations up and the users of the newly cleaned installations had practically zero issues after that. As far as "I have to get a new one because mine is X number of years old" goes, if it worked fine for what you wanted X years ago, why on earth do you suddenly have to replace it? Did you know that a machine built in 1998 (which is eight years ago at the time of this writing) can run a full-blown office package, read E-mail, browse the Internet, play MP3s and DVDs, edit Web pages, edit pictures and graphics, and even play older computer games? Did you know that computers as old as 1992 machines can be made useful again with Linux instead of Windows?

To be quite honest, the only reasons you should need to buy a new computer are to play modern 3D computer games, do video and audio processing, or to use something that absolutely requires something you can't get on an old one. I have sold so many Pentium II systems running as slow as 266 MHz with a measly 64MB of RAM, yet the owners of these systems are able to type up reports, manage finances, play card games, get online, print pictures, and more.

One more aspect of upgrading is not often covered by any other information sources, but I wish to cover it here. If you end up purchasing a new computer to replace your old one, you will face some issues that you may not have expected in your excitement over having a new machine. How will you get your documents to the new system? What about configuring your new system to meet your needs, and installing programs that do what you want? Did you know that almost EVERY new computer comes with nothing but 30-day trial packages of office suites, money management software, and others? Did you know that a new Microsoft Office 2003 license could end up costing you a whopping $400?! There are many hidden expenses after you get the new computer in your hands, and you need to consult an expert instead of making that jump blindly. Tritech will do data migration from one computer to another, but it costs the same as computer clean-up and spyware removal, and if we can help you save money by pointing you in the right direction, we want to do that.

The upgrade trend is a very unnecessary one, and you don't have to lose money to it. We can usually provide a service to you instead of an upgrade that will achieve the results you want without a new computer. Assuming you wanted a cheap, low-end $400 computer, you can potentially save as much as $350 by having an on-site computer clean-up session instead! Contact Tritech today and we will discuss your needs and your current equipment before you make a potentially costly leap to upgrade.