Cheap and Easy Upgrades

Here's a quick tip on pricing upgrades. Check Price Watch, http://www.pricewatch.com, for the lowest prices available. Even if you don't want to mail or phone order, this will give you a good way to compare deals available locally. If you do mail, phone, or Web order, you won't pay local sales tax. Odds are next-day shipping is less than sales tax. Don't expect much in the way of service or tech support, though.

• Evergreen 486 to Pentium Upgrade, $80 to $100
• Diamond Monster 3D graphics accelerator, under $100
• New speakers, $10 to $200, depending on brand and options
• Memory, generally under $1 per meg of RAM
• DVD drive, starting at $100
• CD ROM drive (24x or faster), from $20
• Windows 98, about $90
• Ergonomic keyboard, from $29
• New mouse, from $10
• Top quality game joystick, about $60
• Surge protector, from $5
• Backup power supply, from $50

-- J.A.