A price offered!

[kajarainbow]

My parents used this Blue Book thingy to look up the current value of my car, determined it to be at $1100, or $1600 with the mileage it originally had before their use, and then offered me $2000 at a rate of $500 a month for 4 months. Fair enough, I think, given the age of the car.

So, that opens up a lot more options. I can replace the laptop, or just replace the hard drive and use the rest of the money as a savings for my move to Boston. Replacing the laptop would dodge the issue of having to worry about eventually replacing the battery and who knows what other as well as giving me a computer actually under a warranty. However, right now the laptop's mostly serviceable for my needs, just a little slow. And it's served me well, other than the parts breakdowns.

I'm asking the opinions of those of you more experienced in practical technical matters.

Comments

[pink-miniskirt.livejournal.com]

figure out how much a new harddrive would be, and how much a new battery would be and anything else you'd have to replace in the next 2 years, then look at the price of a new laptop, i'd say if the new one would only cost $100-200 more than the parts go for that, otherwise do it piecework, also when figureing the cost of the new one make sure to get a proper quote with it exactly as you'd want it otherwise there might be addons that'd raise the price
good luck!
*hugs*

[kajarainbow.livejournal.com]

Thank you a lot for that advice! Some research already suggests I'd be better off just getting a new hard drive (and apparently I can get a better one than I currently have, even) and a new battery and then using this computer for a while yet longer. The prices're far, far lower than $100-200 less than a replacement laptop.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

laptop HD: $50-150 depending on size. (at Newegg I'm seeing prices of $50-$60 for 60G; $120-$150 for 160G.)
powerbook battery: $129 direct from Apple. About the same price for a third-party one with slightly better capacity and claims of slower capacity drain.

so for $270 you could get your machine working again, get a bit of a speed boost from what would undoubtedly be a faster and bigger drive, and get a new battery. Plus a few bucks more, maybe, for an external case to throw your old drive in for salvage attempts, and any tools you might need. Though I'm sure Un has the tools lying around.

How much computer could you get for $300?

[kajarainbow.livejournal.com]

Not much computer, especially not much Apple computer (and if I had to, I would just use a cheap thing with Linux on it, I just like OS X better). It's definitely looking more and more like I'll just be patching up this computer and going on with it for maybe another year or two. That's fine, while a faster computer would be nice, I don't really need one at all.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Work picking up for me is tempting me to think about a new machine - but the one I have now easily has another year or three of use in it, and I feel like those years could easily bring stuff like solid-state mass storage and lower-power displays. Better for me to sink $400 or so into a new drive, new battery, and maxing out the RAM than to get a first- or second-generation Intel notebook!

[kajarainbow.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's a good point, technological advances and all! Plus I could use the rest on helping the move go smoother, or on transition-related stuff, and so on.

[odessafalena.livejournal.com]

When are you moving to Boston?