Broke a pin off my ATmega328-PU. Should I buy one with bootloader pre-burnt?

You might not get the latest boot loader that way.

You can buy a replacement ATmega328PU with or without the Arduino bootloader preinstalled. Adding the bootloader roughly doubles the price for single quantities by mail.

I suggest a third option. Buy an Arduino Nano clone (cheapest Arduino) and a blank ATmega328-PU (28-pin DIP). Look at how to use the Arduino As ISP sketch. It's in the Examples sketches. Use the Nano, six jumper wires, and your empty Uno board to program a blank 328 with a new bootloader. (There are nine million tutorials. Pick a few, and notice they all have mistakes or missing steps, but you can get the procedure by doing the things they all agree on.)

Save your 328-PU with the missing pin. When you get good at soldering, you can repair it or solder it onto a carrier. And now you know how to update its bootloader.

Here are three links I posted with this on FB.

Microchip formerly known as Atmel ATmega328-PU  probably not counterfeit at Digi-key.   

ATmega328-PU may be counterfeit at Aliexpress. Which is ok if you are not stressing the GPIO or using super low power sleep.

"nano" with cable using CH340 USB chip at Aliexpress. You may need to get a driver for Windoz or Mac. Linux will just work.


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