Deciding whether to hire an upgrade

[Craig234]

8 year old PC badly needs an upgrade and maintenance (within 5 minutes running an MMO the temp of the CPU gets to 117c before a poweroff).

I don't really care for doing this sort of things. What's needed is a dusting, and an upgrade of the SSD and hard drive with data transfers of each, and a new thermal paste on the CPU.

I got an offer to do this for $70 (initial offer was $110 before I indicated that's too high). Hm.

 

[RLGL]

It's out of date ,either DIY or replace it.

 

[Crescendo]

$70 to do all of that is not a bad price but on an 8 year old PC it wouldn't be worth it. But honestly it's good practice/training for future PC's, to do this sort of thing on older ones.

 

[Craig234]

$70 to do all of that is not a bad price but on an 8 year old PC it wouldn't be worth it. But honestly it's good practice/training for future PC's, to do this sort of thing on older ones.

Not sure how it wouldn't be worth it when it's a perfectly usable PC otherwise - despite the fact I also have the parts for a much more powerful newer PC to put together. $70 for what should be years of use...

Little basic things like, can I use a screwdriver with a magnetic tip or will that risk the data on the drive? Never been comfortable with how much/how thin to do thermal paste (which I'd have to buy anyway). Or even the best way to dust/clean the parts. I bought a cheapo $10 USB fan that isn't even strong enough to remove dust.

 

[Nashemon]

I'll disagree the both responses so far. Is that price with hardware? Thermal paste, an SSD, an HDD, labor to do all three, physically clean it out, and a data transfer for $70?

Cheapest SSD I've seen, even used is about $20. Hard drives usually go as low as about $40 retail. Most places charge at least $80 minimum for data transfer, and more depending on how much data. For two hard drives, it's doubled. Thermal paste is cheap, but the labor to remove the fan/heatsink, processer, clean and reapply paste, and reinstall both?

I think $70 is a steal no matter what SSD/HDD they put in. Hell $110 was a steal.

Also, the grief given to a computer just because it's "old" is short-sighted. An 8 year old computer is still capable of having an i7, which even the 1st gen ones are capable of modern day processing. I run one myself and have only very recently even considered upgrading. Computer specs tell more than the age. Hell, if you're computer was brand new, I might tell you to replace it if it was some Black Friday bargain priced at $200.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'll disagree the both responses so far. Is that price with hardware? Thermal paste, an SSD, an HDD, labor to do all three, physically clean it out, and a data transfer for $70?

Cheapest SSD I've seen, even used is about $20. Hard drives usually go as low as about $40 retail. Most places charge at least $80 minimum for data transfer, and more depending on how much data. For two hard drives, it's doubled. Thermal paste is cheap, but the labor to remove the fan/heatsink, processer, clean and reapply paste, and reinstall both?

I think $70 is a steal no matter what SSD/HDD they put in. Hell $110 was a steal.

This! OEM heatsinks are sometimes held on by screws, and while I've never taken apart one of those to work on re-pasting the CPU, I can imagine that it might have a bracket on the other side, necessitating removing the mobo.

I would have to look up my pricing cheat-sheet, but I charge either $60 or $80 for a HDD clone / data-transfer, including installing the new HDD or SSD in its place. X2 for two drives.

So, yeah, $110 for everything was cheap. I doubt that included the price of a upgraded SSD and HDD though, for me, that would be extra for parts.

I'm thinking more like $200, for everything included.

Edit: That said - I mean, eight years old? C'mon, just replace the whole thing. Give us the specs on the rig, to see if it's worth keeping around. If it's an i7 or something, then possibly a little fix-er-upper would be worth it. If it's some bottom-of-the-barrel Pentium / Celeron / AMD dual-core rig, then it's probably not worth it.

 

[Craig234]

I'll disagree the both responses so far. Is that price with hardware? Thermal paste, an SSD, an HDD, labor to do all three, physically clean it out, and a data transfer for $70?

Cheapest SSD I've seen, even used is about $20. Hard drives usually go as low as about $40 retail. Most places charge at least $80 minimum for data transfer, and more depending on how much data. For two hard drives, it's doubled. Thermal paste is cheap, but the labor to remove the fan/heatsink, processer, clean and reapply paste, and reinstall both?

I think $70 is a steal no matter what SSD/HDD they put in. Hell $110 was a steal.

Also, the grief given to a computer just because it's "old" is short-sighted. An 8 year old computer is still capable of having an i7, which even the 1st gen ones are capable of modern day processing. I run one myself and have only very recently even considered upgrading. Computer specs tell more than the age. Hell, if you're computer was brand new, I might tell you to replace it if it was some Black Friday bargain priced at $200.

No, no, my hardware (but his thermal paste). It's an AMD 965 II with a 4870 which still runs things fine - though as I said I have parts for a new build to do also for more demanding things.

 

[Craig234]

Edit: That said - I mean, eight years old? C'mon, just replace the whole thing. Give us the specs on the rig, to see if it's worth keeping around. If it's an i7 or something, then possibly a little fix-er-upper would be worth it. If it's some bottom-of-the-barrel Pentium / Celeron / AMD dual-core rig, then it's probably not worth it.

AMD 965 II, 4870, 4GB RAM - the upgraded SSD and HD are I think 256GB and 3TB (already purchased) IIRC. $70 for a system that's fine for years to come? Why not?

The new system is an i7-7700k I think, with an R9 390 8GB (bought Nov 2015, not yet installed, ya I should have waited for Pascal), 16GB, 5TB, 512GB SSD I think.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Have you thought about cloning to the new hardware? Meaning, trying to build the new rig, and attempting to transfer the Windows' install. That can sometimes (often) work, although you'll have to re-activate Windows, most likely, which could involve a phone call.

 

[Craig234]

Have you thought about cloning to the new hardware? Meaning, trying to build the new rig, and attempting to transfer the Windows' install. That can sometimes (often) work, although you'll have to re-activate Windows, most likely, which could involve a phone call.

I'm planning to clone to the upgrade parts, not the new system.

The new system I have the key for another purchased copy of Windows 10 and it'll be a new system.

 

[RLGL]

Go ahead and waste your money , Try to save a nickel and spend $50. I have seen it many times over the years

 

[Crescendo]

I personally think it's worth it... for the price they are charging and for that PC since it still has SOME use. But personally I'd do it myself just for the knowledge. Reseating a CPU is incredibly easy and so are the rest of the things you need to do, only thing I can see that might not be worth it for you is Data Transfer and that's only if you dont have a HDD to swap the Data to.

 

[Craig234]

Well, there are just lots of little things. Like.

- Needing three hands - one to hold a drive in place to be installed, one to turn a screwdriver, one to hold the screw. Making a magnetic screwdriver useful - but could it damage data?

- Will transferring a Windows 10 boot SSD to another make the new one bootable, no problem? What software to use to do that? (Use the same for the HDD presumably).

- Don't really have a good vacuum for cleaning the dust, and the decent ones seem like $40 or $50 for a one-time use

- How the hell do you extract the already-attacked CPU well without damaging anything, how do you clean it, and I've never seen a better guide for new paste than 'a drop and spread it'.

Plus whatever unknowns. Sounding like it's getting to be worth $70?