Every small business owner eventually faces the question: is it worth fixing this computer, or should we just buy a new one? The answer comes down to three factors: the age of the machine, the cost of the repair relative to a replacement, and how much the downtime and performance issues are costing your business in lost productivity. This guide gives you a clear framework for making that call so you stop guessing and start making decisions based on numbers.
The Age Rule of Thumb
Age is the single most reliable indicator of whether a repair makes financial sense. Here's a straightforward breakdown.
0 to 3 years old. A computer in this range is almost always worth repairing unless the damage is catastrophic, like liquid damage that shorted the motherboard or a severe drop that cracked the chassis and display at the same time. A screen replacement, a new battery, or a keyboard swap on a 2-year-old laptop is a smart investment. The machine has years of useful life left, and the repair cost is a fraction of a replacement.
3 to 4 years old. This is the gray zone. Repair the machine if the cost is under 50 percent of what a comparable new computer would cost. A $300 repair on a 3-year-old laptop that would cost $1,000 to replace makes sense. A $600 repair on that same machine doesn't, because you're paying more than half the price of a brand-new computer and still walking away with aging hardware.
4 to 5 years old. Strongly consider replacement, especially if the computer is already showing signs of slowing down: long boot times, laggy applications, frequent freezes. At this age, even a successful repair doesn't buy you much runway. You're likely to face another issue within 6 to 12 months.
5+ years old. Replace it. The repair cost, the lost productivity during the repair, and the security risk of running aging hardware almost always exceed the cost of a new machine. Computers older than 5 years often can't run the latest operating system or security software, which creates real vulnerability in your environment.
The Cost Comparison
Before deciding, get an actual repair estimate. Don't guess. Then compare the repair cost to the price of a comparable new computer, not the original purchase price you paid years ago.
A decent business laptop costs $800 to $1,200 today. A business desktop runs $600 to $1,000. These are the numbers you're comparing against.
If the repair is more than 50 percent of the replacement cost on a machine over 3 years old, replace it. If the repair is under 50 percent on a machine under 3 years old, repair it.
Don't forget to factor in the labor cost of the repair (your IT provider's time to diagnose, order parts, and complete the work) and the employee's downtime during the process. If a repair takes 3 days and the employee is working from a loaner or not working at all, that lost productivity has a real dollar value. A planned replacement with a pre-configured machine can have the employee back to full speed in under an hour.
Hidden Costs of Keeping Old Computers
The sticker price of a repair isn't the full picture. Old computers carry hidden costs that add up quietly.
Productivity loss. A slow computer costs you employee time every single day. Even 15 minutes of daily waiting, for applications to load, for files to save, for the machine to wake from sleep, adds up to over 60 hours per year per employee. At a $30/hour fully loaded employee cost, that's $1,800 per year in wasted time from a single slow machine.
Security risk. Computers that can't run the latest operating system or security software are vulnerable to attacks that modern systems handle automatically. Windows 10 reached end of support in October 2025, meaning machines stuck on it no longer receive security patches from Microsoft. If your endpoint protection requires a current OS to function properly, an outdated machine becomes a gap in your security perimeter.
Compatibility issues. Older hardware may not support new software versions, current video conferencing requirements (Teams and Zoom are resource-hungry), or newer peripherals like USB-C docking stations. Your team ends up working around limitations instead of working productively.
Increasing failure rate. Hardware failure rates climb significantly after year 4. The cost of an unplanned failure, including emergency replacement, potential data recovery, and extended employee downtime, is much higher than a planned replacement where the new machine is configured and ready before the old one is retired.
Support costs. Older machines generate more help desk tickets. More crashes, more driver issues, more "it's running slow" calls. Each ticket costs your IT provider time and costs your employee productivity.
Signs It's Time to Replace (Regardless of Age)
Sometimes a computer tells you it's done before the calendar does. Replace the machine if any of the following are true.
The computer takes more than 2 minutes to boot and be ready to work. Applications freeze or crash regularly during normal use. The computer can't run required software updates or the current operating system. The hard drive is failing, evidenced by clicking sounds, frequent errors, or painfully slow file access, and the machine still runs a spinning hard drive instead of an SSD. The laptop battery holds less than 2 hours of charge, and a battery replacement costs more than a third of the machine's current value.
The computer can't handle current video conferencing requirements. If Teams or Zoom calls consistently cause the machine to lag, overheat, or drop audio, the hardware is not meeting the basic demands of modern work. The machine has needed multiple repairs in the past 12 months, which signals that failures are cascading and more are coming.
When Repair Makes Sense
Repair is the right call in several specific situations.
The computer is under 3 years old and the repair is straightforward. Screen replacements, battery swaps, and keyboard replacements on newer machines are cost-effective and give you years of additional use.
Upgrading to an SSD can extend the useful life of a 2 to 4 year old machine significantly. If the computer has a traditional spinning hard drive, swapping it for an SSD is often the single best upgrade you can make. Boot times drop from minutes to seconds, applications open faster, and the machine feels new again, all for $100 to $200 in parts plus labor.
Adding RAM is cheap and effective if the machine is currently under-provisioned. If a computer shipped with 8 GB of RAM and regularly hits 90 percent memory usage, adding another 8 GB can resolve slowness for under $100.
The repair is covered under warranty or an extended service plan. If you're not paying for the repair, there's no reason not to take advantage of it.
Planning for Computer Replacements
The best way to avoid the repair-or-replace dilemma is to plan for replacements before they become urgent.
Set a standard lifecycle: 4 years for laptops, 5 years for desktops. Track the purchase date and warranty expiration for every machine in your environment. A 20-person office with 4-year laptop cycles replaces about 5 machines per year, which is a predictable, budgetable expense.
Stagger your replacements so you're not buying all new hardware in the same year. If you bought 20 laptops at once when you started the business, you'll face a painful $16,000 to $24,000 replacement bill in year 4 unless you start rotating a few machines each year before then.
Keep one or two spare machines configured and ready for emergency swaps. If your business uses Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Intune and Autopilot, provisioning a spare is straightforward. Register the laptop's hardware ID with your Microsoft tenant, and when an employee powers it on and signs in with their credentials, all company policies, apps, and security settings deploy automatically. There's no need for an IT technician to manually configure each machine. This is how Athencia provisions devices for its managed IT clients.
What to Do with Old Computers
Once you've replaced a machine, don't just toss it in a closet or, worse, the trash.
Wipe the hard drive securely before disposing of or donating the computer. A factory reset is not enough; it leaves recoverable data on the drive. Use DBAN or a similar tool for traditional hard drives, and use the manufacturer's secure erase utility for SSDs. If the machine was managed through Intune, you can initiate a remote wipe from the admin console before decommissioning it.
Remove any asset tags and update your inventory records. Donate the machine to a local nonprofit if it still has useful life, or recycle it through a certified e-waste recycler. Never throw computers in the regular trash. It's both an environmental hazard and a data security risk.
Need Help?
If you're trying to figure out whether to repair or replace a machine and want a professional opinion, get in touch with Athencia. We'll assess the situation and give you a straight answer.
