Upgrade Pc Or Just Upgrade Components

Hello:

At my work, I was doing inventory, and we got a few machines who will have their 3 year warranty expire this Spring/Summer. These are HP business class desktops, and so far, no issues with hardware/software. My employer typically likes us to refresh PC's once the warranty expires, and while I agree with that line of thought, there are a couple of things to consider.

1. The entity I'm dealing with is a city government.
2. The PC's themselves, again, show no signs at all of wearing down at this stage.
3. Elsewhere in the city, I am literally going to have to replace 30 machines in one department, literally spending thousands of dollars.

Therefore, I am thinking that rather than refresh the entire PC, perhaps just upgrade the HDD from a SATA to an SSD? They already have 8 GB of RAM in them, and with an SSD, that's literally like getting a speed boost. This would be far cheaper as well, only spending right at $100 per PC, versus, spending $700 or more per machine.


Thoughts?

 

I'm sure you know about warranties. As soon as they expire, something catastrophic happens. Because the warranty has expired, responsibility for repairs/replacement will then fall on the city.

Despite the fact that new machines may be $700 each, if anything fails, responsibility for repairs/replacement will fall on the manufacturer during warranty coverage (which could save the city thousands of dollars).

If the funds were already approved for new machines, get them. There may not be enough funds allotted for repairs of the current systems if they should fail after the current warranty expires.

 

Computers can easily last 5 years or longer. I say, if they are still doing their intended tasks, why waste tax payer money?

I agree that SSDs can offer significant speed boosts - but that really is only during disk access tasks. If these computers are all networked and running most tasks off a server, the SSD is not going to offer much in the way of improvement, except when booting up first thing in the morning. The network bandwidth is going to be the bigger bottleneck, not drive access.

Then your labor to swap out each drive will add up considerably. It will not just be a matter of swapping drives. You will have to install the OS or image onto each new drive. That takes time (downtime and lost productivity) and does not always go smoothly either.

Plus you will then need to properly dispose of the old hard drives to include wiping (or physically destroying) each drive to ensure no sensitive data is left behind. Keep in mind, these are perfectly good drives still doing their jobs.

Warranty costs are a factor, but when it comes to productivity in business (including government work) lost productivity due to computer down time can mount up too. You might have to wait a day or two for the warranty tech to show up, then more time for the necessary parts to arrive, then more time for him/her to return to install it. This is all time you might have saved if you did the troubleshooting and repair from the start because certainly, you will being doing that anyway (in case there's a quick simple fix) before deciding if warranty repair will be needed.

I think it is important to note that when it comes to electronics, as a general rules, parts typically fail within the first few hours of use, or they last for many years. There is no reason to suspect these computers, which are only 3 years old, are going to start dying just because the warranty is running out.

I say you need to visit all these computers and (1) make sure they are free of heat trapping dust. If you have not cleaned them out in the last 3 years, it is unlikely any of the users have either. "Heat is the bane of all electronics!" The best thing any of us can do to make sure our electronics last is to keep them properly cooled. Then (2) make sure you have current backups. Make sure all cables are in good condition and properly connected. All fans are spinning freely without showing signs (sounds) of bearing wear. Then get going on your planning to replace those 30 machines.

I was a government employee for more than 24 years while in the Air Force. Then as a consultant, I supported several state and federal contracts for 10 more years before retiring a second time to start my own business. It is not just the bosses who have a "fiduciary responsibility" to spend tax payers money wisely. Replacing computers that are still serving their intended purpose just because they are 3 years old and no longer under warranty is not a wise use of tax payers' money.

I know in government and even regular business, there is an unspoken policy/philosophy of "use it or lose it". This is particularly true of budgets. Managers are scared if they don't spend their budgets this year, they will get a smaller budget next year. So instead of replacing these perfectly good computers, look into maybe new networked printers, faster and more secure wifi, malware and computer security refresher training. Or maybe some new monitors - especially if there are still some older, smaller energy hogs out there.