brent how do you naturally avoid the inclination to baby it like any other computer?
Well, I'm careful with all my computers. Obviously I'm more careful about screwing up a high-end computer than a low-end computer, but I baby them all to some extent. That's just me.
brent a low price point always suggests to me short(er) life by design
I think that's true for retail consumer-level computers. I don't buy consumer computers, though. I buy exclusively from the Latitude and Optiplex lines, which are business computers and built to last. No bells and whistles ("NVIDIA, what's NVIDIA?") that consumers want at that price point, but I have no use for bells and whistles. I want solid.
The 11-3120 I bought is a current Dell computer from the "Education" line -- built kid-tough -- and comes with Dell's standard 3-year onsite repair warranty for the Latitude/Optiplex line.
The model i bought (Pentium 6000N, 8GB, 128 nVME M.2) sells for $669 new but I bought the Dell-refurbished "scratch and dent" for $169.
I buy all my computers Dell-refurbished from the Dell Outlet. All are then-current models. The computers are Dell certified and have the Latitude/Optiplex 3-year onsite repair warranty. I usually get them for about 50% of the "new" price, so I can get higher-end computers than I would buy from the retail site. I've had good luck with them, although this is the first "scratch and dent" I've purchased -- usually I buy "like new" refurbished.
The specs on this computer are significantly better than on the circa-2018 11-3180 I'm using to run Solus Plasma, so I might put Solus on the 11-3120 and use the 11-3180 as "Mikey". Who knows. I have always considered the 11-3180 (which I bought as a Best Buy "doorbuster" for $149) a throw-away (that is, suitable for use at the railroad and no tears shed with steam oil gets dumped on the keyboard, as happened to the 11-3180's predecessor) and I'll probably think of this one the same way, although it is a better computer.
