Time to Upgrade? Chapter 1 excerpted from Macworld® Mac® Upgrade and Repair Bible, 2nd Edition by Todd Stauffer Featuring: l Thinking about your Mac as an investment l Understanding the 75/25 rule l Examining why different people need l Deciding whether you should upgrade l Resolving whether the problem is a hardware issue or a software issue l Speeding up your Mac l Improving your productivity l Doing more things with your Mac Should you upgrade? That’s not the easiest question in the world to answer. If you’re like me -- scared to death of missing out on cutting edge technology -- then it’s a question you’ll ask yourself all the time. If you’re like some other Mac owners I know, the question almost never comes up -- your Mac works and that’s that. And, I’ve got an even better way to ask the question. Instead of "Should I upgrade?" ask this: "Is my current Mac driving me crazy?" Even if your Mac is driving you just a little crazy, you’ve probably identified the potential for an upgrade. If there’s anything you want to do but can’t -- or if everything is just too slow for you to bother -- then you’re a candidate for an upgrade. Whether you’re interested in speed, new capabilities, or better response times from hardware and software you already have, you can probably enhance your existing Mac at a reasonable cost. All it takes is a little know-how and a logical approach. First and foremost, you need to follow the scientific method one learns in grade school: Identify the problem. Determining Whether Your Current Mac Meets Your Needs You probably spent a considerable amount of money on your Macintosh when it first came out, and back then it probably met every one of your needs. Thousands of dollars were dropped in a store or sent in the mail, and a shiny new system ended up in the trunk of your car, on your doorstep, or otherwise on your desk. For quite some time, everything hummed along nicely. As time went by, though, updates to the system software appeared, new versions of programs came out, and cool, new applications (such as those for Web browsing, 3D rendering, and high-end graphics) started popping up. Then one day you realized you were drinking a lot of coffee or nervously swiveling in your chair every time you launched a program, saved a file, or started to print. When this happens to many computer users, they just grin and bear it, assuming that upgrades or a new system would be an expense best left for next year or somewhere down the road. Waiting to upgrade is not necessarily a good idea, however. Thinking about your Mac as an investment I encourage you to think seriously about your computer as an important investment. I know you spent quite a bit of money up front, but you may have used up those investment dollars already, especially if it’s been a few years. What’s your time worth to you now? If you’re doing basic tasks such as entering your finances and storing a household inventory, maybe you don’t desperately need to spend much money on upgrading. But if you sit in front of your computer for hours and hours per day -- as I do -- you need to think carefully about the worth of your time and how much of it your computer is chewing up. Tip: Here’s a suggestion: Check your calendar for an upcoming day during which you will use your computer for a lengthy stretch of time. While you work that day, keep a pen and paper handy. Make note of every time it takes your computer a few extra seconds to "think" about something: printing, copying, loading a program, signing on to the network. Decide how much an hour of your time is worth, and then multiply the dollar amount by the number of hours you were waiting on your Mac. Say your computer wastes $20 of your time per day. If $20 represents time wasted on an average business day, the computer is wasting about $5,000 of your time per year. $20 * 250 working days per year = $5,000 That may seem like an extreme example, and it tends to assume you’re not wasting much time on your own. In addition, you need to understand that not all upgrades are going to completely do away with wasted time. Even the fastest Macs force you to wait a few seconds for this and that. Nevertheless, it’s still a useful number for gauging how beneficial it might be to upgrade for better productivity. Next, take into account all the other issues you might have with your current computer setup, such as l Anything that just drives you crazy. Is there something in your setup (printer, modem, keyboard) that you want to replace now? Whether it’s buggy, outdated, or just slow, it’s a prime target for an upgrade. l Anything that could be harming you. Is your monitor fuzzy? Is your mouse cramping your wrist? You should consider these sorts of upgrades whenever using your computer isn’t comfortable or pleasing to you. Remember, you probably work on your Mac for hours at a time. It should be a physically comfortable experience. l Any upgrade that could significantly increase productivity. I used to have an inkjet printer that I swore by -- I claimed that anyone who owned a laser printer was just asking for trouble and wasting money. But I’m also well-known for pushing deadlines. Every few weeks, during a book project, I’d need to print 75 to 100 pages of text and images to send to a publisher. I would usually start that process at about four o’clock in the afternoon to make the 7 p.m. FedEx drop-off time. I often missed it. Some days, with a laser printer, I can print 50 pages in about five minutes. The printer cost a bit up front, but I feel much more productive on deadline days. And -- surprise! -- each page printed using the laser printer’s toner is cheaper than a page printed using an inkjet’s ink. l Anything you think might be really cool. Might as well toss this one in. Would you like to upgrade for video conferencing? How about adding a digital camera or a scanner to help post images on the Web or place them in your newsletters? Whatever you want, include it in your list -- especially if you think you deserve it. By now you must have at least $7,000 worth of justification for a new system. (If you’ve got a corporate-based Mac, jump out of your cubicle, storm into the boss’s office, and demand a new computer right now.) Even if you can’t come up with that much money immediately, you now know it’s probably worthwhile to perform some choice upgrades right away. The question is, which upgrades should you perform? Understanding the 75/25 rule I made this rule up, and over the years more than a few of my computer-book-writing colleagues have disagreed with me. But I still think it stands, and I offer it here for your perusal. It’s the 75/25 rule. Basically, the rule goes like this: If you’re on a limited budget for computing, you should make sure your equipment works very well for at least 75 percent of the tasks you do. The other 25 percent is where you can scrimp, if necessary. Let me elaborate, using my own setup as an example. As a technology writer, I spend a lot of time looking at a computer screen. So, I have a nice, high-quality 17" Sony Trinitron CRT monitor that I use on a daily basis. And I’m coveting a flat-panel display, just as soon as the budget allows. Flat panel displays are more expensive than traditional CRT monitors but provide an image that’s crisp, colorful, and completely without the flicker that most CRTs exhibit. I’m also a freelance writer, so I spend a lot of time using the Internet for e-mail and accessing the World Wide Web for research. For this reason I have a fast Internet connection (using Digital Subscriber Line, also called DSL, technology) that enables me to download files, Web pages, and e-mail much more quickly than a typical modem would. I work with graphics and building Web sites, so I have a nice flatbed scanner. And, as should nearly everyone who works with important data and stores large files, I have a removable media drive (an Iomega Zip drive, currently) and a CD-R drive, which enables me to create my own CDs for data storage and for song collections. I’ve also spent a little extra money for a comfortable, well-designed keyboard that promotes decent hand posture and doesn’t annoy me with funny clicking sounds or oddly placed keys. What don’t I have? I’m not a serious gamer, so I don’t have a 3D-enhancing video card, an ultra-fast processor, or a major joystick or flight controller. (Actually, I did sample all three of these while writing this book, because a couple of different companies sent me their evaluation units. They may yet turn me into a gamer.) I’m also not a high-end artist, so I don’t need an expensive video card capable of extremely high resolution and acceleration; likewise, I don’t have a high-end graphics tablet for drawing on-screen.