Frugal (sort of) computing

Don turned on his computer the other morning ... and it didn't start. Muttering, he poked and prodded and fidgeted and finally concluded that his six-year-old computer had finally bitten the dust.

Fortunately he had foreseen this very event, and had an identical model (he uses a desktop) wrapped and in storage. It took a few hours to get it set up and running, files transferred, etc., but now his new computer is working perfectly. I should specify that we both purchased backup computers (I use a laptop) a couple years ago. They were inexpensive because we purchased refurbished Windows 7 machines. (Cue the wails as techno-savvy readers point out Windows 7 is no longer supported. Yeah, we know.)

Interestingly, Older Daughter's five-year-old computer also started to go on the fritz. It didn't completely die all at once, but it was dying, so she knew she needed to get another unit before it bit the dust. Unlike us, Older Daughter is more technologically savvy. She uses Windows 10 and has gaming components. Rather than purchasing a new unit that would cost a whole lot of money, she decided to build her own, which would cost about half of what a comparable pre-built unit would cost.

What followed was a lot of research, including asking questions of computer geeks in online forums as well as watching loads of how-to YouTube videos. She ordered the various components she needed, and a couple days ago she took over the kitchen table and got to work building her new computer.

I can't even begin to express how impressed I was by this undertaking. I cannot fathom doing anything similar.

Throughout the building process, she wore a grounding bracelet clipped to the metal frame. Apparently even the tiniest spark of static electricity can short out a component, so she wasn't taking any chances.

She spent hours on this task. Apparently it's highly recommended to build the working components outside the frame (which makes sense) to make sure everything works. It if does, it's disassembled and reassembled inside the frame.

When she tested the system outside the frame, she was delighted to find it worked.

Then came the task of building the unit inside the frame.

She finished this step fairly late in the evening, so she took her newly built computer into her room and plugged it in. And ... it worked! Over the next day, she put it through its paces and it functioned perfectly. Then she was able to transfer her files, her games, her photos, and other data. (Both Don and Older Daughter routinely back up their files, by the way. My nagging in that regard has been effective.)

Here's her fully-assembled new computer:

And here's her dolled-up computer area, with her original monitor:

Frugal (sort of) computing.