[X4U] Good Reading

[Stroller]

On Jul 18, 2005, at 5:54 pm, Michael Winter wrote:
> On Jul 18, 2005, at 11:24 AM, SW wrote:
>>
>> What is going to cost you less.... losing a day or a day and a half 
>> wiping and reinstalling things, or the the money for a new computer 
>> already (partially) set up?
>>
>> This may lead to a different conclusion if  you are paid a lot of 
>> money for your time.
>
> The only time saved is the time it takes to erase the drive and 
> install the OS. I'd estimate less than an hour to get to "factory" 
> condition. Compare this with the time to select, purchase and set up 
> new hardware. Either way you have to re-install all apps etc. I don't 
> see any time saved by buying a new computer.

About half of my work is fixing PCs for home users - the other half 
being fixing them for small businesses. What you're not accounting for 
is that the average home user simply isn't comfortable reinstalling 
Windows - many don't even know how to back up their photos to CD!

Installing Windows XP can easily take a couple of hours, especially on 
systems a year or two old - many PCs are _still_ sold with 256meg or 
less of RAM - and that's not counting Office, Service Pack 2, internet 
setup, accounts for the kids &c &c.  If I can take the computer home & 
leave it running - I back-up the whole hard-drive and install any 
additional software in addition to the above - I tend to charge the 
full job out at a fixed price of 3 hours work or £114.

There are so many factors that come into this, it hard to surmise, but 
for machines of more than 2 years old replacement may not be a bad 
upgrade. In the last year, since I've been doing this, I've discovered 
that I absolutely hate working on anything without Windows XP and 
almost anything less than a Pentium 4 - it bugs me when people spend 
money on fixing hardware that is worth less than my time.

Stroller.