GTFan
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
This is a prime example of frugalality vs. technology "valuation" to me.
If you add up the number of hours you spend in front of your computer (especially if you are still using it for w*rk), and amortize the cost over that, spending $1000 every 2-3 years is PEANUTS compared to the efficiency, security, and reduced aggravation that it can provide.
Except that the hardware vs. software equation has mostly leveled off to the point that a 5-6 year old laptop with 4GB of RAM will run Win10 just fine. Which is my laptop, to be exact, since all I'm doing on it is surfing and playing a few non graphic-intensive games. I have a desktop PC with a beefy graphics card to handle FPS and RP games, but that's a whole 'nother animal.
I use a 17" because I want the bigger screen and see little reason to upgrade from a perfectly fine i3 to the latest i5 or whatever. It's just not that CPU constrained to matter, especially if you're using an SSD as your OS drive and have enough RAM.
I think a lot of people end up with new computers because they are careless on the web and have to replace malware-infested boxes, or don't bother to notice that when they install all those programs they get a lot of junk that takes up CPU and memory every time they boot. A little maintenance goes a long way with a PC nowadays but most folks don't know what to do. I've fixed so many perfectly fine PCs for family and friends I've lost count.
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