Spend only as much on a new computer as you need

As often happens I’ve done something that I tell my readers not to do.

I bought a computer that is way too powerful for what I do. I won’t end up using half of the power that it has, nor will I even come close to filling either of the two hard disks. I’ve always told you to avoid doing that — don’t pay for power you don’t need. Most of us could get by just fine with the least expensive computer on the retail shelf.

My overspending may be a waste for me except that I’m having great fun with my new toy. But there is value in it for you. I learned some things that can help you.

Besides, I don’t feel guilty about buying it. So let’s start with that as lesson No. 1. Let’s refine my old opinion not to spend more than you must on a computer. I’ll argue with myself here.

If spending extra bucks on some gadget that you want but don’t need doesn’t cramp your budget then I give it my blessing. (Now, when it comes to getting a blessing from my wife for my new purchase, well that’s harder to come by but that’s a story for another day).

Here’s the deal. I’m human — as I am sure many of you are — and sometimes I do things just for the fun of it. And maybe that’s the lesson here or part of one anyway. Computing ought to be fun and if there are things you can do, gadgets or computers you can comfortably buy that give you pleasure, then that seems like a pretty good use of your money. Now if you’re just scrimping by — heck yes, buying an overpowered computer is dumb.

But if it isn’t a sacrifice, then go for it if you wish. I drive a two-seat sports car that isn’t really practical, I’d be better off — especially at my advanced age — with a four-door sedan. But the sports car makes driving more fun — even a trip to the grocery with the top down is a mini-adventure.

My new computer fits into that same category. Plus it has some features that I wanted to check out anyway. I’ll tell you about a couple of them and maybe you’ll see something of value for yourself.

It has two hard disks – that’s sort of cool in itself. Not novel, it’s been old hat for a long time, but not for me. One of them is a solid state disk. Windows is installed on that fast disk. That makes starting up the computer and its programs blazing fast. I’ll explain why. A regular hard disk is a hybrid — part mechanical and part electronic. It has a motor that spins magnetic disks. That’s how data are recorded, played back and stored.

But since it is mechanical the speed at which it can do that is limited. But with the solid-state disk there is no motor to turn, no moving parts. That lets it record and play back data almost instantly and, by doing that, it speeds up almost everything I do.

I use the second disk — with a much higher capacity than the solid state one — as a storehouse for data that really isn’t speed sensitive. It’s huge — a couple of terabytes, compared with hundreds of gigabytes for the solid state disk.

Don’t get hung up worrying about visualizing terabytes and gigabytes — the easy way to think of it is that hundreds of gigabytes is a lot of space and a couple of terabytes is a huge amount of space — like the difference in size between Texas and the entire United States.

It’s nice to have plenty of space and the second hard disk gives me that. That’s something you can do yourself without overspending on some fancy computer. It’s relatively easy to add a second, larger disk, to the computer you own — something within the reach of most home users. Or you can pay to have it done for you. That’s not a bad notion if you are running low on space.

Here’s something else I learned that may help you. For years I’ve been asked by readers to explain how to transfer a program from one computer to another. I’ve told you that it’s not as easy as it sounds and that you’ll need to spend about as much on the transfer program as it would cost to buy a new copy of the program.

But I ended up using a program you can find here: https://www.easeus.com/ free-pc-transfer-software/ to do the job for me. The free version I used did a fine job. It’s limited to three programs and is rather slow. But it worked great. I’ve added it to my recommended list.

The good news just doesn’t stop for me. I have my fancy toy and — now that I’ve written about it in the column — it’s tax deductible for me. Sweet.