Keep Above
Laptop or desktop
A laptop and a desktop can do the same work at different prices, with different lifespans and different costs along the way. Each side here takes its purchase price, its yearly running costs, and how long one would last before being replaced — counted over the same years, with every replacement bought again at the price you entered. Both land on a cost per year; no winner is declared.
Not counted while this is $0
Not counted while this is $0
Put in what each one would cost to buy and to run. Nothing here is read from your accounts, and nothing is saved.
| Option A | Option B | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid up front (one unit) | — | — |
| Times it would be bought | — | — |
| Buying, all-up | — | — |
| Running, all-up | — | — |
| Total over 10 years | — | — |
| Cost a year | — | — |
This is one of the tools built into Keep Above
Keep Above is a budgeting app where you enter your bills and income and it works out the balance you need to keep — so you can see what's safe to spend. No bank connection, no ads on your data.
About this calculator
What goes into running costs a year here?
Whatever the two sides would genuinely differ on per year — a battery replacement partway through a laptop's life spread over its years, out-of-warranty repairs you'd expect, peripherals one side needs and the other has built in. Costs the two sides share can sit at $0 on both, and the comparison rests on price and lifespan.
Why are replacements counted?
Because a cheap thing that lasts 3 years inside a 10-year window is bought 4 times, and that is usually the whole story. Every replacement is counted at the price you entered, as a step in the cumulative total — only the first unit is money paid today.
What is the crossing year?
The first year the two cumulative totals would cross, replacements included. It is phrased symmetrically and names no side — a position in the arithmetic, nothing more.