To buy to build or the upgrade?

With the econmony in the crisis that it's in, not many people are looking to buy anything new and this can included, cars, houses or computers. Some folks are looking to buy gently used products that they can make into their own. I'm finding that fixer-uppers are becoming my first option, I could buy a completely new product or try to build one it myself, but I say why buy when I can fix the old and upgrade as needed.

I recently encountered some problems with some of my computers: My husbands desktop computer stopped responding, he laptops motherboard burnt out and then my dad broke my screws off in my Panasonic toughbook, this all happened within the span of two months. I am mad at this point, but I had to stop and take a breath and that's when I decided that this could be a good thing. I told my husband that I would search for a used motherboard for him and some other things that he may need for his laptop, my dad told paid for a used laptop that I could upgrade and I simply reformatted my husband desktop and it works great now.