If you depreciate an asset over its useful life, you do not have to recapture any depreciation.
That is a misleading statement. When you sell or otherwise dispose of an asset, you are required by law to recapture all depreciation taken and pay taxes on it in the year of sale. Even if the asset is completely destroyed, then that depreciation still has to be accounted for. (usually in casualty and thefts, so you don't have to recapture it.)
In the case of converting the asset to personal use (on a SCH C business) that's not a disposition. So depreciation is just suspended until the tax year you "do" sell or otherwise dispose of the asset.
Overall though, a computer qualifies under the Safe Harbor di-minimus act to just be expensed in the year of purchase, if the cost was less than $2,500. That's the way I go so that I don't have to deal with the petty nuisance of depreciating a $1,500 over 5 years, when that $300 of depreciation each year "MIGHT" make a $1 difference to my tax liability each year - but only if I'm lucky.
