Fix the Old or Buy New?

A While back the hard drive in my computer had been acting up, so I bought a new one and replaced it. Of late, Susan's computer's hard drive had been acting up too, and my whole computer was just about shot; so we decided to leave mine and both switch to Susan's.

Well, I replaced the hard drive upped the memory and bought the latest version of the Mac OS operating system, OS X.4, otherwise known as Tiger. And I am impressed. The stability of the computer is vastly improved as it is speed. Susan tells me that it is a better computer now than it was when she first got it over three years ago.

Here's a photo of the innards of the Apple PowerBook:

Fixing old things is certainly not glamorous in our society. But I'm pleased I took the time to research how to make these repairs. The hard drive, more memory and the new operating system cost about $250, but a new computer is at least 4 times that amount. My computer went 5 years without any changes. This computer is now 3 years old and I'm sure that with these new updates it is capable of 5 years, too.

Computers are generally poor investments, but they can be very useful tools. Especially for Susan and I living so far away from family, it is a great way to keep in touch. Susan just loves the video chats with her mom. (Now if only rural Nova Scotia would get broadband, we could do the same with my folks!)

So, now that our computer troubles are over, perhaps we'll be able to post more regularly...

By they way... I still have 9 screws left from putting the computer back together... hmmm... it still works, though!