You don’t need a new computer! Tech is so focused on consuming the latest and greatest. This fills the landfill with e-waste and puts demand on our natural resources. Why? Growth? Capitalism seems to thrive on us consuming and corporate growing. Media promises a better life and more productivity should we upgrade and we very often relent, building up our own supply of e-waste and still not feeling satisfied with our lives!
For years I’ve had a fascination with old tech and seeing what I can do with it in modern times. For example, I was able to use an Amiga 500+ from the 80s to write documents, create spreadsheets, organise tasks, and even email and surf the web (within reason).
It had clear limitations but still allowed me to produce. I could be productive with tech, nearly as old as me in modern times. The friction it introduced was minimal compared to the output I was creating in a more distraction-free environment. I also learned so much more about tech and software than I would have, had I ignored the urge to investigate.
My point is not to use 80s tech, but instead not to upgrade! We don’t need the latest Mac “M series” chip. A 6th gen i7 can still handle most of the everyday tasks we may have to throw at it. Pop in a second-hand CPU and you’d barely notice the difference between current and past gen performance when editing word, spreadsheets or binge-watching a series!!
Upgrades are only really needed for edge cases. Perhaps you need a chip for virtualisation or working with AI… Then yes, you might need to get something new. In most cases however, the average consumer can operate perfectly fine on 10-year-old hardware!!
Yes! 10-year-old…10-year PLUS! For example, my office machine is clocking in at i5-6400, 6th gen. It’s 11 years old saved from a charity shop selling an old Fujitsu for £40! I had a spare NVIDIA GPU. So a power supply + case later, had a perfectly powerful i7 machine with 8GB GPU! With Linux, this machine handles all my everyday tasks without breaking a sweat and given old tech, new life. I’m extracting value over 10 years later from tech that capitalism wants you to throw in the bin!!
I’m extracting value over 10 years later from tech that capitalism wants you to throw in the bin!!
Lee Matthew Jackson
I can’t realistically play AAA current games on highest settings but I can screen record, stream, play many games and importantly for me, be productive developing software and writing content.
My point being your existing computer might yet have life in it. You may not need to upgrade! Here are the sorts of changes I’d make if I wanted to get life out of something.
SSD/NVMe
Your machine can be held back by the hard drive. Mechanical drives can feel very slow and sluggish. A second hand SSD or NVMe drive can transform your experience with older hardware with superfast read/write performance compared to spinning platters and read heads.
RAM
Low RAM can easily be a bottleneck to performance. Low-cost replacement is possible even in the current “RAM crisis” where prices are going through the roof! Second hand DDR4 and others still appear on places like eBay for great prices. I recently snagged 32GB for £45 for my Fujitsu build! Replacing the existing 8GB! CRAZY!!
GPU
Don’t make the mistake I made years ago. I had a low profile case and bought a beast of a GPU that would not fit. Then tried to put it into a computer with too low power supply! Other than that a GPU can transform a machine from a mid-tier productivity office machine to a gaming/media powerhouse!
CPU
Depending on the slot + motherboard support you may be able to upgrade the CPU. For example, in my recent office build I have an i5 6th gen. I can easily upgrade to an i7 for £30 sometimes less on ebay. I have an i7-6700 on its way as I write this which should give me 25% performance gain and I can repurpose this i5 into a server build I am working on!
OS
For some this might be the only option if using a laptop with minimal upgrade paths out of all this is basically magic!! Changing to a lightweight OS can make even underpowered hardware feel snappy! Recommended OS? Anything Linux-based of course!! Now this is an entire blog of its own so for today I am using NixOS, with Niri window manager and my system flies!
Where am I going with all this?
I have pretty much made the point that you don’t need to buy a new machine in most cases. You can eek the value from what you have with small, low cost or free charge.
The result? You save money, reduce e-waste, enjoy feeling superior (Jokes) and learn things along the way you may never have discovered!
What’s your oldest productive device? Let me know in the comments :).
No AI was used to write this post. Just me, and my messy handwriting!
Featured image by Norbert Levajsics on Unsplash