What's the useful life of the modern desktop P/C?
 

How often do you replace your office machine?


KT

Depends. I used a Gateway from 2001 ~ 2009 and it worked just fine. Typing reports, simple book-keeping and surfing the web.

These days, if you're downloading music, gaming, watching movies, etc., you'll need the latest/greatest to enjoy.

Bottom line is: If it works for what you need, without wanting to smash it for taking too long to do what you need, then keep it.

After 4-5 years its getting out dated. Anything past 5 years and its well past replacement time.

I'm four years into a 3 ghz machine downstairs and about 5 years into 2+ ghz machines elsewhere in the house. Compared to the dual core Windows 7 laptop I set up for my FIL this weekend they're about done. Of course, he has 6 gigs of RAM to my 4, so I might add some and try to wring some more life out of these.

I'd say 6 years is about it.

If you are a "gamer" then maybe a year, otherwise 2 to 3 years is about what I see with my computer science students. I usually recommend to build your own and then when the time comes a video card can be upgraded w/o the whole machine and you keep the drives, motherboard and CPU/ When a game comes along that needs more power, a newer CPU and possibly motherboard is cheaper than a whole machine. Many of my students are building one of the new Intel I7 CPU machines with Asus motherboard, Windows 7 and either ATI video feeding a 40 inch monitor or Nvidia card. I figure they'll be happy for about a year?!

I am over six years, maybe seven on this HP and have so much stuff on it I can't believe it. No problems so far. Second monitor, second printer.

I get a new machine every two years at work. Sometimes more frequently when I have specific needs. I use a lot of beta/pre-beta type stuff, so I often need the latest and greatest hardware.

At home, I have a laptop from 2006, and a desktop from 2003. I am much more tolerant of "old" with my home stuff.

My wife's bare bones Compaq is acting up.
Many programs stopped working and it's 4 years old.

I just replaced it with another bare bones machine.

3GB ram, 500GB HD, Windows7, AMD dual core. $349.

I'll probably get one for myself before long, as well.


KT

Every 2-3 years...but that may not be useful to others. This really depends on how and what what the computer is used for. A Pentium box running XP, or a simple Mac, should be fine for many many years running office, email, internet... If your programs stop working, and you have verified no HW problems, than I would look into reinstalling the OS and copying your data back over.

Just FYI, if your operating system is not 64 bits, more than 3.5 gigs of RAM won't do anything for you. And that's total RAM including what you have on your video card.

I still use a P4/XP for my desktop. For surfing and videos it's way more than enough.

Fixed that for ya. :)

The comp i'm on now, the one in my garage is, an HP I bought in 1998. I'm running Windows ME. Its probably the most rouble free comp Ive owned.
I pretty much just use it for surfin, , Pelican, and a game or two.
The others comps in the house, mine, my wifes are all within 3 yrs old.

no one has mentioned the time to failure of the HDD - replacement is like an insurance policy...

The desktop was purchased just before Vista came out in early 2007. My wifes Dell laptop also in 2007 and came with XP and my netbook I got a few months ago (also XP!) I am not a heavy user or gamer so I will typically wait until the computer will no longer do what I want it to do. With the desktop I had to get a new unit so I could load Itunes. Itunes wouldnt work on the older windows '98 machine.