The place I work with is a post graduate institute and our office is the IT hub of our institution. I work with the IS (Information System) unit, but we have a division called helpdesk. Helpdesk is responsible for the first line of support for users – students, staff and faculty. Normally, an office buys a new set of computer as a replacement of the old ones, but when the institute announced some cost cutting measures everything has changed. Right now, helpdesk caters on upgrading old personal computers from the different offices it supports. There are occasional requests for office computers to be upgraded especially when there are new staff coming.

I could remember our office having a list of the things needed to be upgraded like hard disk drives, computer RAM (Random Access Memory), and CPU (Central Processing Unit). It’s more cheaper to upgrade this computer component than buying a whole new set of computer. The components are specially selected by some hardware experts from our unit to be the best replacement components. Sometime if a new set is required a barebones computer can be easily assembled using PC Kits available online. The easy to assemble PC kits will have normally savings from $400 to $1000 depending on the component used. The assembled PC’s have the same performance as those the ones bought computer sets out right from the box. Well, the technicians assigned for assembling this computer sets also test the machine and install the operating system required. When it rolls out to the user they won’t have a clue that it’s an assembled computer set from our unit because it looks just the same as those from the computer shops.

The upgrades for the computer make the users happy as there is an increase in performance. The only complain they have is that they are tired of their old CPU look or their bulky display monitor. We haven’t got a policy yet on purchasing LCD monitors. Our office has a lot of junk PC’s and monitor lying around. What does our office do with those old not upgradable PC’s? Have a buyer come every other year and sell those old computers. Still the institute gets a little from those junk.