How long do you keep your ThinkPad?

I have a Lenovo T430 with Intel graphics that I bought in early 2013 or late 2012 (don't really remember).

It is still fast enough for my needs (why in the world is it faster than my wife's T480 even though we both have wiped the hard drive and done clean installs of Windows 10?).

Lost something major (motherboard, processor, GPU?) in 2017 and I just bought a used motherboard with processor and GPU and replaced mine with the used one and have used it until today.

Today I find that it won't boot again.

If I buy another used motherboard I'll have to:

1. Install it
2. Wipe the OS partition and re-install Windows and all of my software

Not really looking forward to that. Then I'll still have a used board that is more likely to give up tomorrow than a new one.

On the other hand, if I buy a new computer I'll have to:

1. Research things to death like I usually do, especially to make sure that it can handle two or more big external monitors through a docking station
2. Spend way more money
3. Possibly upgrade the RAM (if buying with lower amounts of RAM seems like a better deal)
4. Wait for availability these days
5. Wipe the harddrive and re-partition and install Windows again to get rid of bloatware and set my organization structure the way I want

Both options sound sucky. But I also need it for my occupation within the next few weeks so it's pretty much mandatory that I'll need to go through one of these two courses of action.

Any suggestions?

 

My experience is that I normally get 8 good years out of my Thinkpads.

 

My w530/t420/t430 are still on original MB with excessive usage. Mind you i am quite anal about thermals.

 

also my t480 was a complete lemon. Lasted 3 years too long.

 

why do you need to reinstall windows and etc, you can clone old boot drive or just transplant it and just reinstall the drivers and the license. It's simple task.

 

I was going to say the same but, just MOVE the drive to the new board. No need to reinstall anything.

If you've replaced the board before it's a simpler task than buying something new. Though buying something new might get you away from replacing the board every few years.

Cloning is a time saving option though a fresh install is what I would prefer for optimized drive access. If you do a fresh install, drivers/updates, apps. Make an image of it so when/if you need a fresh copy you can just copy it over to a new drive. Take your pick of cloning software and if you're cheap use clonezilla (linux based) or any other free software. When I'm messing around with drive images though I use Paragon HD Manager (windows) or there's tons of linux options to pick from besides the built in tools.

 

Just bear in mind that some of the newer laptops have everything soldered to the motherboard. No ability to upgrade RAM, CPU or hard drive later. Also cannot just transplant hard drive (or SSD) to new laptop if it has everything soldered.