Hands on: Upgrade products round-up

Hardware enthusiasts regularly upgrade components to get best performance, and with the festive period approaching, many of us will either be dropping hints to loved ones or simply treating ourselves to new kit.

In this article, I’ll share the products that have impressed me this year; handy and relatively affordable accessories that have proven invaluable in keeping my systems running quickly and smoothly.

Fast connections
The one thing that’s made the biggest difference to my systems this year is Gigabit networking. It may not be 10 times faster than 100Mbit, but by delivering around four times the speed on my own networks, it has made a big impact when transferring large files, streaming HD and backing up data.

Most of us own PCs with Gigabit adapters and those with wired networks most likely have at least Cat 5e cabling, so the only thing left is a Gigabit switch. I use an eight-port Netgear GS108, available from around £55 ­ – see Netgear.

Stay cool
I love high-performance gear, but can’t stand the sound of loud fans, so keeping a hot processor cool without making a racket takes something special. I’ve long been a fan (no pun intended) of Zalman coolers and use its latest CNPS9700-NT Super Aero Flower, which has a 110mm fan and four-pin header. Costing £45, there are cheaper coolers available, but few will work as well or look as good. See Quiet PC, and while you’re at it, order a tube of Arctic Silver for £5.99 ­ – one of the best thermal pastes around.

I’ve got the power
When building a new PC, I normally always buy a new power supply, matched to its requirements, but rarely upgrade one in an existing system. This could be a mistake if you’ve upgraded or added a few hungry components over an extended period, as your existing supply could now be operating less efficiently, costing you money while also generating more heat and noise.

As documented in Hands on: Save power and save money, I recently upgraded my existing 350W PSU for a Corsair HX 520W model and found my power consumption dropped by over 10 per cent. For the maximum efficiency, buy a quality power supply with a total rating that’s roughly double what your PC typically consumes. The Corsair model I have costs around £65.