This is one of the oldest conundrums of personal finance: to spend a small amount of money on a bandaid solution NOW, or save up for a long-term solution later. We wrote about the dilemma here:
It’s More Expensive to Be Poor Than to Be Rich
Personally, if you can get by using the computers at school, then I would save up another few hundred dollars to buy the higher quality computer that will last longer. It’ll be cheaper in the long term, and you’ll rest easy knowing that you won’t have to deal with another computer combustion any time soon. Good luck!
Yo, everyone should learn how to take care of their computers. Each of my laptops have lasted 5+ years and none have cost more than like $300. (Sidenote, buying a 1200 macbook is a fucking scam and there’s basically nothing you’ll need to do for most classes that will exceed the capabilities of a $200 computer.) That being said, you will generally get a faster processing speed, more storage, and if you need it, a more durable casing on a more expensive laptop. (If you need something durable I can’t recommend Lenovo enough btw).
If you can swing it, get an external hard drive for all your super important non-internet stored stuff; if you can’t, a USB will work okay for the necessities. Learn how to factory resent your computer every six months/year. You accumulate SO MUCH crap on your computer that drags the whole system down. If you don’t like the newer Windows OS then make a bootstick of your favorite OS (mine’s Windows 7, if anyone was curious) this helps if you ever truly and majorly fuck up your system. You can completely wipe the hard drive and reinstall your OS.
If you get physical disks with your new computer!!! Keep Them!!! Don’t let them get scratched up I can’t stress this enough one day you will need those disks and you will be VERY sad when you can’t find them/they can’t be read.
So many issues ppl just toss computers away for can be googled & fixed (assuming you have a phone/other way to access the internet + some time to let systems run which admittedly not everyone does). I myself just pulled out a laptop I thought was donezo and has been sitting for a full year. Plugged it in, charged her up, let the system figure its shit out, googled the problem & had it fixed and running fine in a day.
One the hardware side of things, use a lap board for your laptop. I know how easy and comfortable it is to use your laptop sitting on your chest lying in bed. Your laptop hates this and can’t cool itself down, and is sucking up all kinds of bad crap. Try not to eat or drink shit too close or right over it. (I once watched a friend’s cat dump a full glass of soda all over her 1200 macbook keyboard, RIP) and besides, you get crumbs and shit under your keys. Try to make sure your charger cord is straight in its port, as well as usb/hdmi/ethernet cables, this will save both your cables and your ports. Be gentle with them, try not to pick them up by the screens, throw them around, or let them get too beat up in your backpack. Please Don’t wrap cords tightly around things you will break the wires inside and need to buy a new cord. Sometimes it’s worth looking into buying a new part and installing yourself, sometimes parts are hellishly expensive and you’re honestly better off getting a new pc/sending it in for repair. Ask if you don’t know, so many people are excited to talk shop about pcs & will help you online.
This isn’t a callout at you specifically OP, more like a general list of Things you can do to get the most bang for your buck with electronics. It sounds like you kept your pc alive for a nice respectable amount of time! Just like anything, they can last a long time if cared for properly. Pcs get junked for all kinds of things that are totally fixable! If you want or need a better/faster computer than just the basics absolutely go for it, but it’s totally possible to keep a $200 pc alive through and after college if you truly can’t afford anything more. (also, it’s worth mentioning, if you have people in your life who can afford to meet you halfway on a more expensive purchase like a $500 pc, its worth bringing up as a a one big gift replacement for lots of little gifts at birthdays or major holidays)
Sorry this is sort of all over the place and super rushed, but it’s relatively low cost/low effort to perform maintenance on a pc and it really does make a difference!! BGR are giving solid and fabulous advice as always but this is something I feel strongly that everyone who owns a pc should know!
This is fucking GOLD. Thank you so much!!!
Hey y’all! I wanted your opinion on something. My laptop for the past five years has died, it’s dead and gone. And I was wondering would it be best for me to just get some cheapo $200 computer and hope for the best or save up for like a $400 $500 computer that’ll last me for longer and treat me better? By the way I am like a first year college student who has access to computers on campus. And I already went to a computer technician who is backing it for like $50, so my files are not lost.
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