Making the decision to breathe new life into an old computer not only saves your pocket but also the planet.
Electronic waste production, also known as e-waste, reached 334,000 metric tons in 2021 compared to 278,000 metric tons in 2015, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Environment in Colombia. Colombia is currently one of the largest producers of electronic waste in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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Therefore, considering home economics and ecological awareness, upgrading the components of the old computer can cost you an average of 350,000 pesos, Compared to at least 1 million pesos of the cost of a basic new computer.
“The best time to talk upgrade (improvements),” said Francisco Silva, industry manager at tech company Kingston, excitedly. “Not just those looking to upgrade their equipment, but those who bought essential equipment during the quarantine period. Many bought what they found or what their budgets allowed them to buy.
But over time, the manager adds, these people realized that these teams were not ideal and that it took a long time to do their job: “That’s when it’s good to consider adding new components to improve their performance.”
Hugo Durney, director of the Center for Technological Connectivity and Transfer at the Metropolitan University of Technology (Utem), Chile, says: The first thing to look at is whether the team has accepted the part replacement. Desktops often allow this, but not all laptopsbecause some have no inputs and their components are soldered to the motherboard.
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“Computers we call ‘clones’ sometimes come with soldered parts and won’t let you replace parts,” says Henry Becerra, business consultant for Uno A, an accessories and technology store in the Monterrey mall in Medellín.
Becerra says there are four ways to know if equipment can be improved: remove the memory and check directly; search for the user manual; check the specific web pages if the device can be enhanced with new components and finally if the computer can read a solid state disk (SSD), ie if it is compatible with this technology.
“There are four fundamental pillars on which the performance of a computer depends,” says Silva. These are processor, RAM, storage and graphics processing. All working in balance. “If you have 4GB of RAM, you don’t get much from having a superprocessor,” he adds.
expert says You should consider memory and storage changes as it is not that easy to upgrade the processor and graphics card and their price is higher. “It’s unbelievable how much performance a computer can get by replacing a disk with an SSD. The speed of accessing information increases significantly and with it the full performance of the computer,” says Benjamín Díaz, Cloud manager, Microsoft Chile.
SSDs use electronic circuitry to store information, unlike a regular drive, which consists of a rapidly spinning platter and a read head on it. “SSD provides performance, speed and efficiency in battery usage”, Durney adds. Silva says they’re four times faster than a hard drive. In Colombia, SSDs are available from 150,000 pesos for 128 GB to 175,000 pesos for 240 GB.
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Some companies have included videos on their websites on how to replace parts. This is the case with Lenovo which has tutorials for replacing components. “Furthermore, if someone replaces the memory or hard drive, we keep the warranty for the remaining components,” says Ignacio Carmach, Lenovo’s relational segment brand manager.
“Regarding RAM memory, 8 GB is acceptable today. Every open application consumes memory, and you can tell when 10 Chrome windows are open and the computer is starting to slow down,” says Silva.
A laptop or one computer has one to four memory slots, for example you can buy two 4GB modules to have an 8GB PC. An 8GB module costs around 160,000 pesos on average in Colombia. A 4GB module costs between 100,000 and 120,000 pesos.
Experts say the cleanliness of the fans is very important for a team to perform well. Carmach says dirt blocks airflow and affects performance by increasing the temperature of the equipment. “The same thing happens when someone uses the device. laptop does not have a flat surface on the bed and closes the bedspread and ventilation”. He says it’s equipment with technology that prevents the build-up of static electricity that repels and attracts dust and lint.
Another part of the computer optimization process goes through the following stages: softwareand. “If you have a hard drive, you can improve performance by defragmenting it. What it does is collect all the scattered data on the disk for faster access,” says Díaz.
Another trick of Windows is to optimize the computer by preferring performance over appearance. To do this, type ‘Performance’ in the Windows search engine and select ‘Adjust appearance and performance’. Next, check ‘Adjust for best performance’ and leave the ‘Smooth edges for screen fonts’ option selected in the boxes below.
Díaz adds that it’s also crucial to limit the number of programs and applications that start at Windows startup and stay open all the time, because what they’re doing is consuming RAM memory.
Computer manufacturers include cleaning and optimization applications. software have. There are also third-party solutions like AVG TuneUP or Norton Utilities that improve performance.
ALEXIS IBARRA O. – EL MERCURIO (CHILE) – SEE
On Twitter: @ElMecurio.cl
Source: Exame
