I have a Dell e6420 laptop (i5 @2.5GHZ, quad core) and it's falling apart. When should I upgrade

The HDMI port corner has completely broken off, revealing the laptop internals.

If I shine a flashlight into the laptop I can see the motherboard. It is in one piece. It still runs after 4 years of heavy use. It was originally a refurbished computer.

My System Build:

I have a Dell e6420 (i5 @2.5GHZ, quad core, 2nd gen) 8GB DDR3 (I think) ram, replaced once. It has one (1) ram slot 1TB HDD, 7200 RPM DVD/RW+ Drive, can play DVDs, can play CDs 2 usb2 ports on right, 1 usb3 (it's blue) port on left. 1 eSATA plug on very back OS: Debian 9.1 (stretch) 

Steam is installed and is running fine. Would prefer that it stay that way. Need replaceable keyboard as I tend to wear them out fast with programming, school, and I use it for my work as well. Like large keyboard.

I am asking on when to upgrade to a new laptop entirely and when to stop calling it the shipoftheseus after several parts have been replaced.

Was eyeing the Thinkpad line, because I need sturdiness (I take the bus) and it will need to endure heavy jostling.

Am open to the idea of separate home directory on an SSD or something of that nature. This is to lower risk of any drive errors when traveling or walking in the rain. I don't really want an internal SSD for my OS, because I don't know what supports it exactly, and I want to wait until that tech fully matures.

Have 2 usbs. Want Debian, will travel.

Submitted September 29, 2017 at 05:14PM by fak_ire http://ift.tt/2fuP63i