Do you need to get a brand new computer? Well, this video title might be a little bit clickbait-y
because I don't exactly mean that you absolutely have to get a new computer or else the current
one is going to break. Because generally, for the most part, it's actually very rare that
individual [parts] or the whole computer will physically fail, except maybe for the hard drive,
that's an exception. Rather what I mean, is it probably makes sense to get an entire new
computer, or at least to the point where you won't feel guilty about getting one.
Or maybe you could tell your company, "Hey, I think I need
a new computer" and be able to justify it. But again, it's not like it's 100% urgent,
you have to get a new computer now. It's more like when you get the chance and when prices
don't cost you half your net worth. Besides upgrading your computer though, if you want
to upgrade your Wi-Fi connection and speed with the latest technology, upgrading your router
is your best bet. Which is where today's sponsor comes in, Linksys and their newest Wi-Fi routers,
which actually recently added a major new feature I'm especially excited about,
so stick around for that. Quick fun fact though. Linksys actually just refreshed their logo with a
new one, so I'll use some super realistic special effects to add that in. Ah, perfect. This router
model here by Linksys is the " Hydra Pro 6E" tri-band router. The 6E means it also supports
the brand new and huge Wi-Fi band of 6 GHz, which allows way more radio bandwidth that supported
devices can use and therefore way less potential interference from neighbors Wi-Fi, for example.
So with the Hydra Pro 6E, you'll get superfast speeds and low latency up to 6.6 gigabits per
second and great coverage up to 2700 square feet and 55+ devices for maximum reliability. There's
also the Hydra Pro 6, which still uses the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard, just excluding the 6 GHz band.
But like the Hydra Pro 6E, can use multiple data streams simultaneously with different devices.
So you can handle more devices while maintaining superfast speed. But I
think my favorite feature for both of these, which I mentioned before,
is what Linksys is calls "intelligent mesh" technology. Which makes it possible
to later expand your Wi-Fi network, but not like a typical Wi-Fi extender,
it's way better. Basically, you can connect multiple Intelligent Mesh Linksys routers,
even mixing and matching different ones,
including the Velop AX4200, another Wi-Fi 6 router by Linksys. By connecting them together,
they'll effectively act as one massive access point with extra coverage.
Meaning for example, that devices like your phone will automatically just connect to the
closest one and switch between them as needed. Unlike a regular extender where it's a totally
separate access point, you need to switch to manually. That also future proofs you by the way,
because if you ever decide to upgrade again in the future, the router won't go to waste,
you can still use it to have extra mesh coverage. So if you want to level-up to Linksys,
check out the link in the description for more info about the routers I mentioned
and follow @Linksys on social media sites to keep up to date on their
latest cool new products. And with all that being said, let's continue.
All right so first off, equally as important as signs that you do need to get an entire
new computer, are signs that you probably don't. So that's what I'll talk about first,
signs where it could go either way. You probably don't need to upgrade, but
there are exceptions and situations where actually there's a flip side and you might need to.
So these are kind of like hybrid points. All right so the first thing is if the problem appears to be
software related. So, for example, you're having problems with one
specific program and not much else seems to have any issues. So for example, if you
have one program that keeps crashing and that's all, then it's probably not a hardware issue.
I mean, theoretically it could be, but you're probably better off just
trying to reinstall that program individually, or uninstalling it and then reinstalling it.
Or worst case scenario, you could do a complete fresh install of Windows. That's usually the best
bet to test out if the problem is with hardware or software, is to just wipe everything clean.
Now, one thing that might influence your decision on whether to do that is how long you've been
using the computer, how many programs you have set up that would be such a pain to
copy all the settings over or re-setup again. And how close you were to buying
a new computer anyway. Again, I don't think that you should go out and spend thousands of
dollars on a computer just because you don't feel like reinstalling windows,
absolutely not. My point is it might influence when you get the new computer. But going back
to the main point where you are having some kind of software issue, another thing you could try is
finding an older version of the program. Maybe the program just recently started having an
issue. You could try going back to a previous version and then if that actually solves it,
you might feel like you want to submit a bug report to let the developer know.
Another thing you could actually try,
see if the program has a beta version. Sometimes there are fixes in a beta version of a program,
although do remember that, you know, the beta might actually be worse, but it's something
to try. And yet another thing you could do before even doing a fresh install of Windows,
is watch my video where I talked about how to fix pretty much all Windows corruption.
There's a lot of different techniques in there, even one that I call the nuclear option,
which basically reinstalls Windows in place, but keeps all your settings in installation and
stuff like that. So I'll put that up here and at the end of the video so you can watch that.
All right the next major point about when you might not need to get a new computer,
is if an individual component upgrade will do.
If you just are running out of RAM, then you could probably just buy more RAM, and then that doesn't
need to get a whole new computer. However, the flip side might be if you have to upgrade multiple
components. Then if it's going to be a large percentage of the price of a new computer anyway,
and the current computer is several years old, then maybe just go with the new one.
But you do have to be realistic with yourself on this one. Say for example,
all you need is a bigger SSD for a hundred bucks, they're pretty cheap these days.
Then don't go and say, "Oh, well I'm going to save this hundred dollars by going and
spending $1,000 on a new computer." Don't trick yourself with that.
Be realistic. If you're going to be using this computer for at least a few more years.
Just spend 100 bucks and get way more bang for your buck out of it. On the flip side
of all this though, is maybe you can't actually access any components you want to upgrade like on
certain laptops, sometimes the SSD or flash memory is actually soldered onto the motherboard.
You can't upgrade it, there's no actual upgrade slot, but you want to have that internal memory
upgraded. Your only option might be to get a new computer. And then really, I mean,
yeah you can justify getting a new one if you need that extra space. Though you
could potentially use an external drive, but that might not suit your purposes.
All right so now we can get to the points where it probably is a sign
that you could use a new computer. And the first being that your computer can't run
at least a supported version of Windows. So this is going to be more relevant
in a few years when support for Windows 10 drops off from Microsoft.
If you can't run Windows 11 with its increased
hardware requirements, then you might actually just have to get a new computer if you want to
fully be supported by that operating system. Now at the moment, you can still run Windows
11 on unsupported hardware, although it's not ideal, you'll get a warning and stuff.
But if you do want to have like the highest security and stuff,
then really the only way is to get a new computer. Another sign, which might seem like common sense,
is that your computer is incapable of doing what you want to use it for. So say you buy
a new camera and you want to do some editing on it, and it's just laggy when you go to do
it and you can't even really benefit from the new camera you got, whether it's a video camera
or stills camera. Then you might be able to justify just getting a new computer. Or if
again, you could theoretically maybe upgrade the graphics card depending on the usage.
But also you would have to assume that your software supports hardware acceleration,
which it might not. So again, it's like if your computer pretty much can't at all
do something that you still want to be able to use it for, but it can't. Now,
this next point is sort of related to that, but a little bit different, which I would say
if you're using the computer for something critical like work related, and even if the
computer can do what you want it to do, but maybe it is just subpar at it, or not ideal and you'd
actually really benefit from a new computer. Then I would say in that case, it probably is a sign
that you can justify getting a whole new computer. Because it's something that really is critical,
you use it literally every day for, it's important. Then yeah, it probably is beneficial
to have the best performance possible. One example might be if you just start a developer coding job
and they let you use your current personal computer and work from home. Now actually coding,
from my understanding, doesn't really take that much computing power above a certain level,
and it's mostly just like editing text files at the end of the day.
However maybe while you can do coding fine, maybe when you go to compile the programs,
it takes a really long time. So the coding itself isn't a problem
and you can compile the programs to finish them up, but it just takes really long,
it's kind of a waste. Then I would probably personally think it's justifiable to upgrade.
And again, that's another thing where that is probably a CPU-bound task
and you're not going to be able to upgrade any individual component to improve that. All
right now this next sign is again, just a sign, it's going to be a little bit more subjective,
and that is that your computer and a lot of different software starts to develop
a pattern of just weird, unexpected behavior, like buggy behavior.
And it's not just one program, it's like several programs just start acting weird.
Maybe they're glitchy, they crash all the time, and this happens across multiple programs. And
even reinstalling the programs or even reinstalling the operating system itself
doesn't seem to fix any of this. Now yes, they could theoretically be bugs in all the programs.
That's why I said that it's kind of like a pattern. It's not just one program,
you tried some things to fix it, it still keeps happening, and it's not exactly
specific what the issue might be. Then that could be a sign, not a guarantee, but a sign
that perhaps the new software just doesn't really support your older hardware as well.
And maybe the developers have stopped testing on older hardware as old as
what you're using. And so they don't even know that these bugs are happening
on your aged hardware. Because over time software does get more complex.
I mean your email program from today is probably a lot more complicated than one from 20 years ago.
And also believe it or not, inside a CPU, there are actually "features"
which are basically instruction sets where Intel, for example might put in
instruction sets or just optimize the CPU, for different types of tasks that might be,
for example, used more frequently now than they were previously. And if your computer or CPU is
older, then it might have to emulate those tasks, which means that it kind
of has to do them manually and not use these specialized features inside a modern CPU.
So it'll be able to do a lot slower. So it'll maybe still be able to do some things, but just
way slower than a modern CPU. Though admittedly that's more of a high level type thing to
consider. It's not like you're really going to know whether or not this program is acting slower
based on what features your CPU has, unless you really know what you're looking for.
But again, I'll just reiterate the main point, which is that there's just a pattern of pretty
much most programs or a lot of programs just don't seem like they're acting like they should,
and you've tried several things that really should fix it. Especially if you end up
reinstalling Windows and it still happens, that might be a sign that it's hardware.
All right now the final point is probably more common sense, but that's that
a hardware accessory you want to use might not be supported by your older hardware. Now,
one example could be Thunderbolt 4, it's not a great example because that is backwards
compatible. But say you have some device that you want to work at absolute top speed
and Thunderbolt 4 is what you need, and your current computer doesn't support it.
Well, you're probably going to have to just get a new motherboard that supports Thunderbolt 4
or a dedicated PCI card that, if you're on a laptop, that's not going to work.
Though most hardware manufacturers do try to provide as much compatibility as possible. So
that's going to be less common but still a possibility.
In any case though, now you probably have a better idea about whether you can justify getting a whole
new computer if you've been thinking about it. So thanks again to Linksys for sponsoring this video.
Again, check out the links in the description if you want to upgrade
your current Wi-Fi setup with the latest and greatest from Linksys.
If you guys enjoyed this video, let me know down in the comments and thumbs it up.
And also if I missed any points, definitely tell me. If you want to keep watching,
I'd recommend that video I mentioned before about how to fix almost any type
of Windows corruption if you're having problems right now, it might be fixable.
And if you want to subscribe, also be sure to click the bell next to the subscribe button to
enable notifications, I post about twice a week you don't want those getting lost in the rest of
your subscriptions. So thanks so much for watching everyone, and I'll see you in the next one.