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Comment by hnthrow12345 | Hacker News Reader

I don't know, without an SSD, I think it's going to be quite a pain. I don't think upgrading 10 year old models makes sense economically.

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What’s the alternative your company is considering to upgrading 10 year-old hardware?

Having students take a computing class without a computer? Having them do the course at a public library? Asking them to buy a Chromebook?

If a 10-year old computer works, it’s probably fine for the purpose.

My non-work PC and two computers my kids use for Minecraft are running i7-4770s, a mid-2013 chip in an 8 year-old Dell chassis. Mine’s a couple years of my use [bought used]; based on that experience, I bought and deployed theirs during COVID; they drive twin 4K monitors [albeit at 30Hz] and it’s not like I couldn’t buy 3 new PCs if I wanted; it’s just not needed. I didn’t think twice about throwing $50 of used RAM, $100 of new SSD, and over $1000 of displays at a $125 PC. In December 2020, I replaced the battery on my wife’s 2011 MacBook Air (her preference). It continues to work well for her.

In this case, tossing a cheap $40 SSD at a donated laptop seems positively tame by comparison. Or you can wait for someone to donate some 4-5 year old laptops.

I think the alternative is buying proper laptops for about 1000$. Let's say they're good for about 4 years, that's $250 per participant (it's a yearly course).

Definitely in the budget. It's just that my boss thinks it's not necessary.

> Definitely in the budget.

I'm not sure I understand. Do you know that money was allocated in the budget for this purpose and then someone came along and donated these laptops and now that budget item is being called into question?

I really don't believe that is the best alternative. If $1000 is really enough to get enough laptops for whatever number of participants there, then you're better off using half or less of that to upgrade with SSDs and RAM. Elitebooks are HP's business class laptops, so they have great amount of ports and upgradability alongside with being built like tanks. Very repairable as well. What proper laptops do you think you'll be able to get with only $1000? At best they would be chromebooks or flimsy consumer grade laptops. Or did you mean $1000 per laptop for each participant? That seems like a poor use of resources tbh. I don't think there's a need to use that much money on beginners learning to code. Not all of them will even stay and finish the course anyway. In fact, it'd probably be a real nice experience to order the ram and ssds and then instruct them how to upgrade the laptops themselves.

Just my opinion though, it's not up to me so I have no skin in the game so take it for what it is.

Adding a bit of extra memory and an average SSD drive will be more than enough, and an ok compromise with your manager.

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