Upgrade your PC

Of course, you don't have to sell, recycle or give your old electrical items away: you could upgrade them and give them a new lease of life.

Computers
Upgrading a computer can be very rewarding, but it will involve some tinkering and isn't always a straightforward job. It's usually not worth investing much money in an old machine, but there are some relatively cheap components worth thinking about upgrading.

If your old machine runs on Windows, before you upgrade anything, try running the defragmentation and error-checking tool, and an antivirus and spyware program. Some of the performance-boosting downloads in our Speed Pack could be of use, too. Before you even take the case off your PC, however, buy a guide or find one online so you know what you're doing.

RAM
Adding more RAM can significantly improve your computer's performance. But before you go and buy any old RAM, check how much your computer already has, what type it supports and how much RAM your motherboard can fully support. You can check this using Crucial's system scanner, which is free and easy to use.

Hard drive
If your old hard drive is full of stuff you don't want to delete, you could install a secondary hard drive or invest in an external one.

If you're adding a new internal drive, make sure there's a free bay and if possible leave a gap between the two drives for ventilation.

Graphics card
Modern 3D games and media-centric applications require capable graphics cards, so upgrading your old graphics card can unleash a whole lot of fun. Certain motherboards only accept certain graphics cards, so you need to find out what kind of motherboard you have.

There are several third-party applications that you can download to find out what motherboard you have, including Sandra and Belarc Advisor.

Beyond a graphics card you're looking at upgrading your processor and possibly even your motherboard, which can work out more costly than buying a brand-new computer. So before you go that far, make sure you're not better off recycling or giving your old computer to charity.