Most people have an old PC sitting around the house. You might be wondering if there is anything that you can with your machine since you already own it and most of it is probably working just fine. Below we will discuss a few things that you can do that will help you breathe life back into your old PC fairly simply.

First of all, your computer might have broken because of just one part. The hard drive, for example, might have crashed and other than that everything is great. Since your computer is more than a few years old, it is very easy to purchase that part for it online cheaply. Many components are offered on auction sites for a fraction of the original price which makes this fix very inexpensive.

Another thing you can do is adding more memory to your computer. Computer RAM is so cheap these days that you can buy this and make your old machine much faster than you remember. Get this online at an auction site or find a store with old RAM at much reduced prices. Make sure any RAM you buy will be compatible to the motherboard of your computer. If in doubt, check the memory manufacture’s web site. They usually have a tool to help you find all compatible memory for your particular motherboard. This should make a considerable difference in your computer. For the most part do not go over 3 gigabytes of RAM as your operating system is likely to be a 32 bit machine and not 64 bit. It will not be able to use anything beyond 3 gigabytes.

Add a new operating system to your computer. There are two options here. For quite awhile people would use Linux on their machine as it is free and will work on older hardware fine. Some people today are using Windows 7 as the resources it uses are very minimal. It is your choice and up to whatever you are willing to pay.

Find a new purpose for your machine at home. You might turn it into your family's extra computer for surfing the internet or doing homework. You could turn it into a media computer playing music and videos.

Network it with the other computers in your house. This will give you some extra storage space on the hard drive. You can also call up documents on any computer you are using from any other machine. This helps you get work done regardless what computer you happen to be on at the moment.

Julie has been writing articles online for nearly 4 years now. She also publishes reviews of various consumer products. Come visit her latest websites that review Micro Niche Profit Automation by Mick Moore http://www.micronicheprofitautomationreview.com/.