Increasing PC performance – Upgrading Hardware The modern internet and modern software can sometimes drain the resources of the older PC, even dual core machines. Sometimes software tweaks and general housekeeping can improve performance, but if you want to really make improvements, budget permitting, physical upgrades are always going to be your best option. The first place to start with your desktop PC is the power supply. This often gets forgotten about, because most people want to make a laptop run faster rather than a desktop, but a desktop power supply is changeable. If your machine is, for example, a vista oem machine with a 250watt power supply, that unit has to power the motherboard, graphics card and all of the hdd and optical drives. Feeding power to the equipment in the machine can be a drain on the system, so by replacing it with a 500watt or even a 900watt will increase power delivery and will give you the extra power if needed.