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Whatever Happens to Old
Computers? You have just got a new computer and you are delighted with it. It is doing everything you wanted your new computer to do. But what are you going to do with your old computer? Have you ever wondered what other people do with their old computers? In the past they have often paid high prices for their old computers, but how much do you think these computers are worth now? Few people want to buy a computer that has become out of date or has been replaced by a newer model. Unfortunately, the only thing you can do with a computer that you have had for five or six years is to throw it away with your other garbage! What do many people do when they try to sell their old computers? Foolishly, they take into account its original cost and then reduce the price according to the age of the computer rather like a second-hand car. They are wrong. They forget that new computers are becoming cheaper every day, making old computers almost worthless. In 1985, for example, a good computer cost over US $ 4,000. Ten years later its owner would be lucky to get $ 400. Although old computers are still more useful than old typewriters, you must be careful about buying a second-hand computer. The microchips in a computer may last a long time, but the hard disk will not. It will probably cost more to replace the hard disk with a new one than the computer itself is worth. Moreover, replacing the old processor in a computer is simply not worth the trouble as it will probably be incapable of running newer software. Ultimately, saving and repairing an old computer is like building a car from spare parts. It is far cheaper to buy a new car. One well-known computer magazine recently compiled a list of ten things to do with an old computer. One suggestion was to donate it to charity or give it as one of the small prizes in a competition. The final suggestion was to store it in a safe place and hope that it would become a collector's item in fifteen or twenty years though the article in the magazine admitted that in fifteen or twenty years there may be so many old computers that they will all be worthless. Whatever you decide to do with an old computer will not alter the fact that it will be useless as a piece of technology in several years. The world of computers is quickly changing and eventually all computers will not only be integrated with video telephone and run CD-ROM disks, but will also be able to perform a countless number of tasks which as yet we cannot even imagine. All these uses will require much more advanced and powerful machines that will automatically condemn even the most advanced computer today to the garbage can of the twentieth century. |