Buying New vs. Fixing

I don’t consider myself a handyman by any means, but if there’s one thing I do know, it’s electronics. I love tinkering with computers and I’m not afraid to take things apart if that’s what it takes to fix them.

Last year I decided to crack open M’s digital camera because if wasn’t working. I managed to fix it for free instead of shelling out another couple hundred bucks for a replacement. I also mentioned fixing the camera in a post about asking questions, because if it wasn’t for the information I found online, I never would’ve been able to do it.

It’s tempting to buy something new instead of putting the time and energy into fixing what you have. I just re-learned this lesson lately with my search for a new computer.

I’m in the market for a new PC, and I’ve been saving like a maniac for it. Initially, I was going to buy a laptop to replace the machine I use every day. But then I remembered how I felt five years ago when I bought my current laptop: I told myself to buy a desktop the next time around because laptops aren’t as upgradeable. And as someone who likes to tinker and open up the machine to do different things, it makes sense.

So I changed my mind and decided to buy a desktop. The one we have now is M’s old boyfriend’s computer. Which tells you how old it is (around nine years). So then I would just use the new desktop and chuck the laptop.

And then I got greedy.

I thought to myself, “Why don’t I upgrade both the desktop and the laptop?” And for about a week or so that was the plan—until I had some sense knocked into me.

All I use my laptop for is writing, email, an occasional Photoshop project, and internet browsing. And the laptop I have now, while slow at times and kind of annoying, still does the job.

So I changed strategies and decided to “pimp out” my current laptop.

Here’s what I did:

Maxed out the RAM ($70): For the nontechnical out there, it’s like buying a bigger desk so you can do more work at once without having to put things away and later take them back out because they don’t fit on your desk.
Cleaned up the hard drive: I ran a full scan with Avira Antivirus (free), Spybot Search and Destroy (free).
Cleaned out my registry with CCleaner (free)
Defragged my hard drive with Smart Defrag (free)
Cleaned out the cooling fan too (free)

That’s pretty much the most I can do to the computer without backing everything up, wiping the hard drive clean, and reinstalling Windows. Which I may still do.

Either way, the computer runs about 25–30% faster right now and I’m excited because I get to do my work in a more efficient environment.

And I get to buy the computer of my dreams…probably at the end of the month.

So instead of throwing this old laptop in the scrap heap and replacing it with a fancier version that would’ve cost me around $400, I spend $70 and got a “new” laptop that’s around 30% better than the “old” one.

Can’t ask for a better deal than that…