You don't need a new computer.
Hey there! Hope you're having a nice day so far! Today I wanted to talk about how you don't really need a new computer; you may have guessed that from the title of the article, but I just wanted to point out the obvious.
Old computers! I love them, you love them, everybody loves them... Right? Well, that's not true all the time. Sometimes, the new computer you got a few years ago gets old (pun intended) very quickly. Or even worse, it becomes e-waste.
My story
I've had many computers in my life, from laptops to full-blown desktop computers, some of them fast and some of them extremely slow. My current setup is curious nonetheless. Originally I had purchased a Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 3 for university. It had an 11th gen i7 processor, integrated graphics, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD (I bought it right before the AI boom, so I got it for a reasonable price, considering I got it brand new). I used it for around 2 years and then I gifted it to my wife since we wanted to resume our university studies together; she's been making good use of that laptop since then. Now, I was left with 3 computers: an ASUS Chromebook that I had collecting dust inside a drawer, a DELL Optiplex mini desktop PC I got for very cheap (with keyboard, mouse and a monitor included), and a big, chunky and old DELL Inspiron laptop, model 5558. I used the desktop PC for a while, but then I had to sell it to pay some unexpected bills... So I was left with two computers: the DELL laptop and the ASUS Chromebook.
Since I needed something that could get me going with my university classes, I picked up the ASUS Chromebook and used it with ChromeOS for a while; it was almost decent. The Celeron processor was very slow, the 4GB of soldered RAM barely handled virtual classes, and doing any coding on it was out of the equation due to the limited environment ChromeOS offers. I even tried the Linux mode they ship that lets you open a Linux terminal inside your Chromebook, although the experience is not great.
I tolerated the Chromebook for a good while, until I saw a video by Veronica Explains in which she explored something called "Chrultrabooks." My mind was blown when I realized you could install another operating system in the little nugget. So I started working: first, I did some deep research to make sure my device was supported. Thankfully, my machine has the codename BABYMEGA and is proven to work well with the Chrultrabook project, so I gave it a shot! I followed the guide and installed Coreboot, which involved getting into the developer mode of the Chromebook and running some custom scripts; it was a lot of fun! After that I just had to pick the right Linux distribution, so the distro-hopping adventure started.
The first Linux distribution I tried was PuppyLinux; at first glance it worked great out of the box, but the trackpad was weird, as it was not reacting to my movements as I expected; it felt slow, but using an external mouse worked just fine. I tried to move forward with PuppyLinux, but then I noticed I also lacked audio output; my tiny laptop was muted! Turns out Linux support for the specific model of speakers in that laptop is very finicky. After a few days of troubleshooting, I finally figured out that I needed a more up-to-date distribution, so I did the only logical thing... I switched to ArchLinux (btw). I did a basic installation with minimal packages, installed PipeWire, and ran the post-install audio fix script from the Chrultrabook website; finally, I had audio. I installed a minimal X11 window manager (IceWM) and started using that Chromebook again, as Linux made it usable again. Doing virtual classes was possible again; I was compiling software in that little machine with no problems (I did have to wait a few minutes for it to finish compiling, but it was a good incentive for a coffee break), and I was generating documents for my classes with no problems at all. It was great! I could even game on it; with things like RetroArch I was able to play up to PS1 games, and I was also able to compile GZDoom on it and optimized it for the limited hardware on that machine, so now it is also a retro gaming portable device; I love it!
Then something expected happened: I needed more processing power. I started looking at other computers online, trying to seek something more powerful, but the prices of modern computers are above the skies nowadays, and the prices of PC components (thanks to AI) are also bubbling up like soda pop. So I was stranded... Or that's what I thought, since I then remembered I had a second computer collecting dust all this time. I picked up the DELL Inspiron laptop and started working on it. First I disassembled it, cleaned it, and installed ArchLinux (btw) on it. It was great! It has 8GB of RAM, a 1TB HDD, integrated Haswell graphics, and the icing on the cake, a 4th gen i3 processor... I know, it's not great, but it was a huge upgrade from my former laptop. I started tinkering with that computer until I had a setup I was comfortable with. Then, I started doing my university work on that laptop and everything was buttery smooth: no lag, not having to wait 2 hours for a program to compile, and I could even edit videos (Kdenlive and proxy clips are my friends); I felt powerful. But then something happened... I wanted to game.
Gaming
I already mentioned I use my small Chromebook laptop for retro gaming with RetroArch and GZDoom, so I wanted to use my "big boy" laptop for more "intense" gaming. I installed Steam, then started testing some of the games I used to play on the Samsung laptop; some of them did not even start. And the ones that did start were awfully slow. I felt defeated until I noticed, due to the battery being dead, my system was limiting itself. The CPU was working at half its capacity, which made all the games feel sluggish. After taking care of that, I was able to get the CPU to work at 1.9GHz, which may not be the best but it's more bearable. Suddenly I could play games at 720p, so I got gaming. Some great games I've been playing on this computer are:
- Need For Speed: Carbon
- Area 51 (from Midway)
- Moonlighter
- Hollow Knight
- Half-Life
- Mark of the Ninja: Remastered
- Crypt of the NecroDancer
- And the list goes on and on...
While it's true that not all the games in my library work on my machine (titles like Spore, Toram Online, and CarX Drifting Online don't work at all), I am able to play many amazing games, and I'm finding retro gaming a cozy home.
Final thoughts
I say "You don't really need a new computer" because I'm surviving with a Celeron Chromebook that I turned into an ArchLinux machine and an old DELL laptop that barely runs any graphics, yet I am achieving everything I need regarding my university work, video editing needs, and even gaming. If you can afford a new computer and you really want one, or if your work requires you to have a beefy computer, go for it—feel free to get the beefiest PC ever, that's alright. But don't feel bad for not having the latest chip in your motherboard, or for not being able to play the most demanding AAA games on your machine; there are many great games that you can even play on a calculator (I'm not exaggerating). Computer manufacturers will always, year by year, release a new CPU, a GPU with more VRAM, and a more efficient SSD, so trying to stay on top of it all will definitely make a hole in your wallet.