When to fix and when to buy a new oneUsing criteria other than age, here's a couple guidelines to know when you should just replace your computer instead of repairing it. When your computer crashes or otherwise won't turn on any longer, your normal course of action might be to take it to a local repair shop, and on average you might pay between $150 and $300 to fix a desktop and upwards of $600 to fix a laptop. The majority of these costs are charges for broken parts. Imagine for instance if your motherboard had died and the unit was a bit older. They get you a new motherboard, but now the CPU needs to be changed as well, and so does the RAM. And then Windows has to be reinstalled, another labor charge usually. And did your data get backed up before Windows was loaded? No? Now you got charged again. A brand new computer from Dell will average you about $550-$750 depending on the model and your needs. For me personally, once a repair breaks the $250 mark I save the data and toss the computer...although by tossing it I mean I take all the good parts out and sell them on ebay :-) My reasoning behind this is that at a repair shop you will pay more for parts than if you simply bought them yourself, my local shop here sells a 250GB HD for $179, which I might add is $65 if you buy it yourself from a normal retailer. And labor charges can be all over the place and have little to no "value". Is it really worth $120 to you for someone to load the Windows CD? This is generally all they do. You still have to install all your own software, update everything and then customize it back to the way you prefer the unit to be. Is the 25 minutes it takes to load Windows really worth that cost? If you happen to know which part of your computer is broken, check out NewEgg.com or ZipZoomFly to see what the part actually costs and then factor in a little of your time with a screwdriver to see whether you want to go out and buy a new one. Sometimes I look at it this way, what harm can I do, it is already broken. Almost every component comes with instructions clear enough that even a first timer could successfully load some new hardware into their computer. If you find this activity is not for you, you can bring the part to the repair shop and have them install it, this way you don't pay their outrageous markups on parts, or worst case, send it back to the online retailer for a refund. All Articles |
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