Father Time catches up to everybody and everything, including your IT system hardware. If your workstations and servers have lost a step or two, you may need to decide between making incremental upgrades or buying shiny new gear. Which move makes the most sense for your particular situation? Here are some questions that can lead you toward the right decision, courtesy of your Austin business tech support experts at Gravity Systems.

How big is the problem? Obviously, a couple of workstations with malfunctioning fans or DVD drives present a whole different scale of problem than an entire fleet of obsolete computers. If you simply swap out a failing part or add a memory module here and there to boost performance, upgrading is the clear choice.

How do the costs compare? Depending on the types and numbers of issues you need to correct, you might come out ahead financially either by upgrading that hardware or by replacing it. Most of the time, swapping out a few parts at a time can prove much cheaper than buying all-new computers. However, the current global chip shortage could inflate the prices of those parts to an unreasonable level for the foreseeable future. Buying lots of parts at once may not make as much sense as buying new computers fully equipped with new innards.

How much time and effort can you invest? Time is money, and so is effort in the world of IT. Some upgrades can be performed quickly and easily, but if you have to repeat that process with a roomful of computers, you could run into serious productivity issues. New computer installations require your attention to, but at least you’re not putting the pieces together from scratch.

Whether you need upgrades or new computers, Gravity Systems can supply the parts, labor, and expertise. Contact us today!