Guides
Second lives for perfectly good computers
This site started with one argument: a working computer isn't finished just because somebody's support calendar says so. These guides are that argument, applied — upgrades that earn their keep, revivals, and clever second lives for the machines gathering dust in your cupboard. Same rules as everything here: sourced facts, the free option first, and a plain warning about who each idea is wrong for.
The broken-screen laptop? Put it under the TV.
A cracked screen doesn't kill the computer — and a TV is a screen. Build a living-room media machine for £0–20, with the two honest catches nobody mentions: your TV remote can't control it, and the streaming services won't play nicely.
Cost £0–20 · an afternoon
The SSD upgrade: still magic, no longer £40.
The best thing you can do to a hard-drive PC just got expensive — a memory-chip shortage doubled prices and most guides online haven't noticed. Current real prices, the free cloning tools that still exist in 2026, and the honest worth-it verdict.
Cost £85–135 · an evening
Coming next
The queue, in roughly this order: reviving a slow laptop with Linux, start to finish (the companion to our hardware checker); an old desktop as the family backup machine; and how to buy a used PC without getting burned — written for trust, not commissions, which is why no refurb-seller links will ever appear in it. If there's a machine in your cupboard you're not sure what to do with, the FAQ covers the common cases — and the newsletter below is where new guides get announced.
One short email when a new guide lands or something we've published stops being true. Nothing else, ever.
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