Recently, I made the decision to upgrade, rather than replace, my X61 laptop. A trusted friend for the last 3 1/2 years, it’s been with me on 12 trips around the world, and only needed a fan replacement and a new charger. Over the years, the battery life has dwindled from close to 6 hours to less than an hour, the hard drive feels slower (despite an annual factory OS restore to keep things tidy and optimized), and it’s got a few cracks here and there in the casing. No problems with the screen or any other critical component.
The IBM X61 was an expensive laptop in the day – I think I paid somewhere near $1500 for it. So many laptops are available for $500-$800 these days that I was dreading the “upgrade”. Yes, the new one would be heavier, slightly faster, have a wide-screen display instead of the good old 4:3
Sometimes all you need is a refurb.
For under $300, I’ve got my old laptop back again, likely faster than most new “bargain” laptops. $200 for a 120GB SSD. $70 for 4GB RAM (anyone want my 2x1gb sticks?), and $15 for an external USB drive enclosure (to move files). A family member was nice enough to buy the battery for me as a birthday present, and I had a remaining copy of Windows 7 from a family pack upgrade done earlier.
I’m a gear slut like most guys – always drooling about the latest and greatest. But my laptop is perfect for me, and for under $300, I’m going to get another few years out of it. At least, I hope so – anything more than 10 months (based on current costs to keep this laptop running) and I’m ahead.