Full hardware upgrade: from $10K to 50 bucks

In August, I decided to go all in on a full upgrade. MacBook, Mac mini, headphones, monitor, and god knows what else you can think of for a new desk setup.

My estimate in my first post landed close to 10K USD, once I added up everything I wanted to upgrade, add, or replace. The old Pieter Borremans would have had half of it ordered before that post even went live.

Instead, the number dropped. In my second post, published in early September, I questioned whether I needed any of it. This is where it ended up.

Read also: Hardware upgrade, part 2: do I really need all of it?

From 10K to a few hundred

By the time I hit publish on part two, I'd already decided most of it wasn't needed. My workload and the way I work are still minimal. A MacBook Air M3 like mine handles everything I do, and my iPad Pro M2 is as functional as ever.

So the number went from 10K to a few hundred bucks. I still wanted to replace my Bose headphones and my Rode microphone.

On top of that, my current earbuds aren't performing like they used to. And no, they're not Apple AirPods.

A few hundred dollars felt more than reasonable. Then it kept shrinking.

The microphone stays for now

After some fiddling in GarageBand, adjusting settings, and one disastrous evening trying to record, it turns out my microphone is still good enough for what I use it for.

That's recording bedtime stories, Study Brew content, and now also Echo Room and Story Valley for kids.

After listening back to my latest recordings, I feel a new microphone would be great, but it's not needed yet. I can make do until one of my SaaS builds takes off, and until I've practiced enough to record better content.

Read also: We did it: got my first organic paying customer!!!

Because in the end, a microphone isn't going to improve my skills. A better mic would capture the same pacing, the same stumbles, and the same moments where I sound like I'm reading off a script, only cleaner.

What makes the recordings better is doing more of them. So all of a sudden, the mic wasn't needed at all. No microphone yet.

The headphones just need earpads

Which leaves the headphones. I love my Bose QC45s. They're solid, they've survived the house, and they're great when I'm recording content.

The problem isn't the hardware. It's the earpads.

Turns out I can just replace them, either with original Bose pads or with cheaper third-party ones. I'm still someone who prefers original parts, and the original earpads cost 50 bucks.

That's a long way from the 400 to 450 USD I was looking at for a new pair. So replacing the headphones is out of the equation too, which leaves new wireless earbuds.

The AirPods I never bought

That's another funny story. When I was packing my boxes, I found a pair of Apple AirPods. I checked the serial number and the version. They were from 2019, second generation, still with a Lightning cable.

Luckily, I don't throw away cables, and I had a pile of old iPhone cables sitting untouched. I plugged them in, charged them, and surprisingly, they work like a charm.

I don't make phone calls, or barely any. I just want earbuds for walking around, or for cooking at home, instead of wearing my Bose headphones.

But here's the weird part. I've never bought Apple AirPods in my entire life. They weren't mine.

So I asked everyone I knew who'd been to my place. A friend told me they were hers. She thought she'd lost them years ago and never asked about them.

I told her I'd give them back, but she said no, it's fine. She'd already bought two pairs of earbuds after losing them.

So I ended up with a perfectly working pair of second-gen AirPods, which means I don't need to replace my current earbuds either. The last item on the list got solved by something that had been sitting in my own boxes for years.

What changed

Going from 10K to 50 bucks in upgrades tells me I've grown up. Back in the day, I would have jumped on it. Upgraded everything, replaced stuff that wasn't broken, and bent to the stupid overconsumerism.

The weird part is that I can easily afford a new setup. But why would I, when I'm happy with what I have and use?

The "I need" or "I want" mentality changed in me over the years. Being able to afford something stopped being a reason to buy it.

That doesn't mean I refuse to upgrade anything. It means I'm going to rebuild my desk gradually, when hardware breaks or when I'm expanding my business.

I know the day will come, sooner or later, when I'm doing heavier work or need a proper 27-inch monitor for multitasking. But I can wait.

What I will do is check in on the hardware market once in a while. I'm still completely lost on what makes a good monitor, or what kind of mic is better for recording.

If I'm going to buy one eventually, I'd rather understand what I'm buying by the time I need it.

Write it down, then wait was the right choice

I think it's good that I don't make rash decisions anymore. I'd rather write it down, think about it, and make a final call after a month or two.

These three posts are that process, done in public. Part one was the wishlist with prices attached.

Part two was rereading it and realizing I'd gone overboard. This one is what's left after the hardware I already own got a fair chance to prove itself.

If I'd ordered everything in August, I'd never have found out that the mic was fine, the headphones only needed pads, and a pair of earbuds was sitting in a box the whole time.

Read also: Hardware upgrade, part 2: do I really need all of it?

Turns out, being patient saves a lot of money. And just like building a sustainable business, patience turns out to be a real skill. It doesn't feel like much while I'm doing it. Mostly it feels like not buying things.

A final word

The spreadsheet of prices from August still exists. The MacBook Pro, the 5K monitor, the Shure mic, the new iPad Pro. They're all still on it.

They're just not urgent anymore, and none of them get bought until something breaks or the work demands it.

For now, the total damage of my full hardware upgrade is one pair of Bose earpads. Fifty stupid fucking bucks. Plus a pair of AirPods I still feel slightly weird about owning.