After some serious scrimping, I managed to save enough money to buy the parts to repair and improve my dual-core Athlon PC. With a little more saving, I might be able to put together a second dual-core machine, which I will then use as a development machine that I'll keep permanently off the network (the ultimate security in this hacktastic internet age is a non-networked computer.)

While I was pricing up the parts, I re-discovered something I'd forgotten. Today, mainstream computer manufacturers such as Dell or HP are producing computers that are almost cheaper than I can build them from new parts. That's a bit odd, and it wasn't always this way. The trend does seem to peter out at the mid-range-to-expensive end of the market, though.

Anyway, it would have cost much more to replace my broken computer with a new or reconditioned model, because so many of the parts in the old machine were re-usable. In the end, I'd guess my repairs cost about a quarter of the cost of buying a complete new replacement, and I have the additional bonus that I'll be able to create a second PC from leftover parts for only a little extra.

So despite whatever pricing shenanigans are going on with the major PC manufacturers, in the long run it's still much cheaper and more rewarding to build your own.

Happily, with my 'new' dual-core, dual-boot Windows/Linux PC I can once again watch iPlayer, Youtube and TV, so I've been catching up with what I've been missing. As an unexpected benefit, a game I bought on Steam months ago that didn't work on my old PC now works perfectly on the new rig, so that'll give me something to do when I'm bored. Since I finished the repairs I've been spending more time gaming in Linux than Windows, for some reason.