Old Computer - Fix it or Ditch It?

The most frequent question I am asked is, "Is my 8-10 year old computer worth saving?" I like to make the most out of everything so for me the answer is usually "Yes!," but realistically the answer depends on a few factors, regardless of whether it is an Apple or a Windows computer. I have decided to explain these factors in my first blog post here on the Smithtown Patch.

1) "What are you going to use it for?"

This is the most important question to ask when considering having an old computer cleaned up. Common answers to this question are: "I'm going to give it to my young children to play with," "I just want to have a backup computer to surf the internet," and "I'd like to get a few more years out of it rather than buy a new one." These are fine answers and great reasons to have an old computer cleaned up. However, cleaning up a computer doesn't mean it will be able to do everything you might want to do with a computer.

If the computer is to be used for newer programs like Adobe Photoshop (photo editing), music editing, video production or newer video games, you may be very disappointed with an old computer's performance. Many newer programs require an all-around faster computer that you can't just speed up by cleaning out junk programs or upgrading components.  

2) Old Computers vs The Internet

Newer computers are easily 10 times faster than computers made 8-10 years ago, and software and website developers design their products expecting your computer to be up to speed to handle it.  While your computer has sat in your house growing older year after year, the Internet has become dramatically faster and many websites require a bit more horsepower to load properly. Websites like YouTube and Netflix weren't around eight years ago, and you may be disappointed with your old computer's performance using these sites, even if you have a fast internet connection.

3. Upgrading Old Computers

Upgrading an old computer is a great way to go if you don't plan to use the computer too heavily. There are three important attributes of a computer to discuss when talking about upgrading. Memory, hard-disk drive, and processor.

- Memory (RAM)

Adding memory to your computer can definitely make your programs run faster. However, while newer memory is much faster than it used to be, memory is not "backwards-compatible," which means newer memory cannot work with your older computer. The physical memory slots are shaped differently so you cannot put newer memory into the computer at all. Older computers might not understand how to use modern memory even if the slots fit properly anyway. So your options here are usually limited to increasing your total memory, but you can only use the slower memory that was made around the time your computer was made, and this isn't always a very appealing bang for your buck.

- Hard Disk Drive

A computer's hard disk drive (or "hard drive") is your computer's total storage space. The bigger the hard drive, the more photos, music, files and programs you can keep on your computer. Think of it as a big warehouse where you put everything you want to keep. The bigger, the better!  Over the past 8-10 years, hard drives haven't gotten much faster, but they have gotten dramatically bigger for the same price. An 80GB hard drive probably would have cost $70.00 8-10 years ago. Today, that same $70.00 buys you a 1,000GB drive!  For most people, 80GB drives are filling up quickly with iTunes music, photos from digital cameras and software that are much bigger than they used to be, while newer 1,000GB drives seem like an endless amount of storage.  If an average 5-minute iTunes song is 10MB, these newer drives can hold roughly 100,000 songs compared to an 80GB drive which could hold roughly 8,000 songs.

Some computers allow you to simply add another hard drive to it, making expanding your storage space a snap! However, some computers were designed to prevent you from upgrading them, forcing you to buy a new computer when your old one faded. Ask someone with computer knowledge to look inside your old computer to see what your options are before buying any new parts. Many of the parts you can buy at a local retail computer store won't work in older computers, so I recommend you have a professional check it out first.

- Processor (CPU)

The processor is the central part of the computer and usually I don't recommend upgrading these. The reason is that a processor and motherboard each have separate speed limitations, so replacing one or the other doesn't usually result in a faster computer. Replacing both of these at the same time is best, but if you're looking at replacing a processor and a motherboard, you'll also have to buy new memory as well. At this point you're financially much better off  simply buying a new computer as the motherboard, processor and memory are 75% of the total cost of a computer today.

4. Cost Comparison - Old versus New

Like many people in 2003 I bought a brand new Dell Dimension desktop. It was an excellent purchase at the time for $1,300.00. Today a new Windows computer doesn't cost half that price and functions around five times faster, with enormous hard drive space, 4-8 times the (faster) memory and a dual-core processor (2 processors in one chip).

Apple computers are excellent investments as well. They may cost much more than a typical Windows couterpart, you do get what you pay for: an easy-to-use, high quality product with a small fraction of the maintenance issues of a Windows computer.

Personally, I love to fix and upgrade computers for people, but I always ask these questions before doing so. It's important for you to decide if spending $100-200 dollars to upgrade and clean up an old computer is better than spending $500 for an incredibly faster computer with a full warranty, new monitor, keyboard, mouse and all the bells and whistles.

I hope you found this article interesting and I'd love to read your comments below. Thank you!