Key things to upgrade in PC for a better experience during working from home

Most companies presently are out of options and are urging their employees to work from home. I have already talked about the different ways the employees can boost their productivity while working from home and on the flip side, there are also certain challenges or problems of working from home. Keeping all those apart, let me now emphasize the most important element of working from home. Yes, I am talking about the computer. The computer is your weapon, and the more powerful it is, the better your work from home experience will be. I have already discussed the importance of a desktop for working from home, and thus, not diving into deep.

But, what exactly is a powerful computer! I will talk about some of the cool ways you can upgrade your computing setup so that you can skyrocket your productivity, and possibly become the next employee of the month. So, if you have some extra cash after all your monthly expenses, you can use that extra cash to upgrade your computer or to be more precise, the whole computing setup. Even if you need to work from home just for a few months until this pandemic situation gets better, a good computing setup will be worth every penny, if you need to do some other work on your computer, like gaming, watching shows, and everything else in the list.

So, without any further delay, let’s get started with the different ways you can upgrade your computing setup for a better experience to work from home, and for other requirements.

Get an SSD

If it takes a lot of time for the initial startup of your computer, the programs take a long time to respond, even after having a good amount of RAM, the problem might be within the magnetic spinning hard drive. So, at this point in time, you could add an SSD to your computer, and migrate your operating system, and other programs from the hard drive to the SSD. As SSDs are times faster than magnetic spinning hard drives, your computer will boot faster, and the programs will also load faster, making the overall experience of computing, a lot better than earlier. 

SSDs are relatively costlier compared to that of regular hard drives, but getting an SSD is undoubtedly going to offer you a performance boost, which is hardly possible with a single upgrade or replacement of other components in your system. If you want a quick upgrade, you can go for a 120 GB SATA SSD, or if you have a higher budget, you can go for more storage, like 240 GB or so. Additionally, if you are looking for even better performance, you can even go for NVMe SSDs, which are again costlier than regular SATA SSDs.

Upgrade your RAM

If you already have an SSD, or you think the problem is not with the magnetic hard drive it is the time that you should upgrade your RAM. Before upgrading your RAM, you should ensure, you actually need more RAM to make a computer run faster. For example, if you cannot open multiple tabs on Google Chrome, and you find out that it is really becoming a pain to multitask on your computer, it might be because your computer is running out of physical memory and that is when you should upgrade your RAM.

For example, if you are having 4 GB of RAM, you can add one more 4 or 8 GB RAM stick, and that Should remove all the problems that are associated with low RAM on your system. 

But before you update your RAM, make sure your computer is capable of handling more RAM. The most modern computers should at least allow 16 or 32 GB of RAM, however, if you are using a really old system, the maximum RAM capacity can also be capped to just 8 GB. To find out, how much RAM your motherboard support, you can read the user manual that came with your motherboard or you can also go online to find out how much RAM your motherboard model supports. However, if your work is a bit more complex and you need to edit and render photos and videos, upgrading just the RAM is not going to do any significant changes. 

Get an overall better monitor

If you are having an ordinary computer monitor it is the time that you should replace it with something better. When it comes to replacing the monitor, there are numerous things that you should keep in mind and the first thing is the screen size and the display resolution.  With a monitor having higher display resolution, there will be more pixels that can display images with better clarity compared to that of a monitor with a lower display resolution.

However, at the same time, you should also choose a monitor that has a big screen size as a monitor with big screen size and a decent display resolution, will have more pixels per inch that we eventually help you read text with more clarity and the output will also be far better. At the same time, you should also try to get a monitor with a higher refresh rate.  

Most monitors have a display refresh rate of 60 Hz, which means, the screen updates 60 times in a second. Most gaming monitors can come with a  refresh rate of 90 Hz, and it can go as high as 240 Hz. A monitor having a higher refresh rate might not give you a better experience while reading text and displaying images, but it will definitely make the display respond faster and it will also be smoother at the same time.

If you deal with photo and video editing, you should also try getting a monitor that has better viewing angles and the colour reproduction is also satisfactory. However, if your work is limited just to regular office work, like dealing with documents and all, a  big monitor with a higher display resolution along with relativity better refresh rates can be enough for you.

Go for a mechanical keyboard

Most Gamers and serious computer users prefer mechanical keyboards over regular keyboard not only because the mechanical keyboard deliver tactile feedback, but mechanical keyboards are sturdier and offer a number of additional advantages and convenience over regular keyboards. In the case of a regular keyboard, there is a membrane underneath the keys, whereas, in the case of mechanical keyboards, there are individual switches for every key that eventually offers a better experience of typing.

Mechanical keyboards are manufactured with more precision and with better quality tests compared to that of regular membrane keyboards and you can also replace the keycaps if they get damaged. So, if one key gets damaged you don’t have to replace the whole keyboard. Thus, mechanical keyboards more durable. 

As you can get tactile feedback while using mechanical keyboards, the typing experience is also skyrocketed. When it comes to choosing a mechanical keyboard, you can choose one of the linear or tactile switches. In the case of linear switches, you have to press the keys all the way to the bottom. and the tactile switches need to be placed half in order to register the keystrokes. If you can get a mechanical keyboard with a backlit, it is going to be a cherry on the pie.

Most mechanical keyboards are full-size keyboards, however, you should have a look at the physical layout of the keys, as many new companies are sprouting that a manufacturing mechanical keyboards which might not be full-sized.  As full-size keyboards are better for most users, you should not even compromise on that.

Get a gaming mouse

Gaming computer mice offers more precision in the case of shooting games and at the same time, those gaming mice also offer you a bleeding edge when you are doing regular tasks on your computer.

If your mouse can register the slightest movement you can mark the areas on the screen with more precision and the gaming mice also come with the additional benefits that are not available in normal mice. Most gaming mice have variable adjustable DPI levels so that you can calibrate the movement of the mouse with the movement of the mouse pointer on the screen. 

The additional buttons which can range from just back and forward buttons to programmable buttons can be used for several other tasks apart from gaming. The extra buttons and wheels deliver the necessary productivity boost and make your work easier than what it would be, using regular computer mice that do not have any extra button and wheels.

For example, you can program a button to select all the items on a page so that you can carry out the subsequent task with the selected items and do much more. If you deal with photos and videos, and you need to make minor, or pixel-level changes to the photos and videos, a gaming mouse with very high precision can also be a great pick to carry on with your work without facing any troubles.

Get a proper computer chair and a desk

In the office, where you are spending the complete duration sitting in front of a computer,  the office might have already made necessary arrangements so that you do not face any kind of short-term or long-term problems due to incorrect posture. However, nobody thought they will have to spend hours sitting in front of their computer to work from home and most people do not pay enough attention to the chair and the desk on which the computer monitor, keyboard and mouse is placed. But, when you are spending hours sitting in front of your home computer, it is very important that you have a proper posture so that you do not face any kind of short-term and long-term problem that is potentially associated with sitting in an incorrect posture. 

That said, you can get gaming chairs from both online and local furniture stores. Those chairs are designed by keeping the gamers in mind, who spend hours sitting in front of the computer playing games. While you are working on a computer for hours, going for a gaming chair isn’t going to be a bad decision.

Additionally, if you are using a laptop or the computer monitor is not placed at a proper height, you should also invest on an ergonomic computer desk so that you can at least maintain the proper posture to use the keyboard and mouse, and keep the computer monitor in front of your eyes without bending your body. A proper computer chair and desk is something really important if you want to save yourself from the short-term and long-term physical problems that you might face for not maintaining a proper posture.

Upgrade your GPU and CPU

Additionally, if possible, you should also upgrade or connect a new GPU and that is not going to help only the gamers. A better GPU can help you get the most out of your computer and if you do some specialized tasks on your computer, which is mostly associated with graphics, a dedicated graphics card is really going to help you. Additionally, if it is possible and you are ready to invest, it is also the right time to upgrade your CPU, if you think it has gone really old. A new CPU will give a new life to your computer, as it is the heart of your system. However, upgrading the GPU and CPU at this time might seem like a cosmetic upgrade, and thus, you can postpone these upgrades. But, as an up-gradation of the GPU and CPU will give you a performance boost I considered keeping it in this story.

If your computer is not functioning properly, the experience of working from home might be worse than hell. You will be unable to complete assignments on time and at the same time, you will not have a good mood and that will eventually affect your productivity and your physical and mental health in the long run. If your computer functions buttery-smooth it will definitely give you a competitive edge when everybody is busy completing their assignments and pleasing their boss. It is not necessary that you make all the updates that I have mentioned here, but it is you who should make the decision of which elements need an upgrade and that’s how you should proceed further with the process of upgrading your system.

So, those were the few ways you can upgrade your computer at this point in time to work from home with more potential and level up your experience of the same. Do you know any other way to upgrade your computer and get a computing boost for working from home? Feel free to comment on the same below.

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