We do PC repair for a living, so you might expect us to always say "repair it." We don't. Sometimes the most helpful thing we can do is tell you that your machine isn't worth fixing and point you somewhere better.
Repair it if:
- The machine is less than 4–5 years old and the problem is isolated — a failed drive, a virus, a broken screen. These are fixable problems on a machine that still has years of useful life.
- The repair costs less than a third of what a replacement would cost. If a new machine would run you $800 and the repair is $150, the math usually works in repair's favor — especially if the machine is otherwise fast and reliable.
- The data matters more than the machine. A drive recovery or data migration is almost always worth doing regardless of the machine's age.
- It's a slow computer, not a broken one. Slow machines are almost always fixable — malware, a dying HDD, too little RAM, or a choked-up Windows install. A $24.99 diagnostic usually reveals the actual culprit.
Replace it if:
- It's 6+ years old and has multiple issues. Old machines don't just have one problem — they have many. Fix the drive today and the GPU fails next month. At some point you're funding a losing battle.
- The repair cost exceeds half the replacement cost and the machine isn't particularly fast or capable to begin with.
- The motherboard or CPU has failed. These are the chassis of the machine. Replacing them often means replacing everything else to match, and at that point you're building a new computer anyway.
- It can't run what you need it to run. If you're trying to game on a machine with an integrated graphics card from 2016, no repair will fix that. You need hardware, not a fix.
The honest answer
Bring it in or call us. We'll tell you exactly what's going on and what we'd honestly recommend — repair, replace, or something in between. The diagnostic is $24.99 and it's credited toward the repair if you proceed. If we think a repair isn't worth it, we'll tell you that too.
(706) 203-2563 — or schedule a repair online.