How long do your computer usually last?

How long do your computer usually last?

  • One Year

    Votes: 2 0.8%

  • Two Years

    Votes: 10 4.0%

  • Three Years

    Votes: 39 15.5%

  • Four Years

    Votes: 39 15.5%

  • Five Years

    Votes: 51 20.2%

  • More than Five Years

    Votes: 111 44.0%
  • Total voters
    252
  • Poll closed .
i have a macbook that is tunning fine since 2006... 1g ram still seems to be sufficient; the harddisk i swapped a year ago to a 500g (nominal) version which improved it a lot.
I love old macbooks where you can do this yourself in a matter of minutes.

However when i put snow leopard instead of tiger, some things changed software-wise.
At least it seems to be related, that since then it can't handle my external HD TV playing full screen movies on it, only if i reduce the resolution from 1080 to 720.
Which is pretty strange, since the video card and memory is the same as before...
to be honest, i see about zero improvement on this machine from tiger to snow leopard.

So to answer the original question, 5 years is the max i have so far.
 
I'm going into my fourth year on this MacBook Pro, and it is beginning to show its age, slowing down despite regular maintenance. My screen has been getting bouts of static as well- I'm just starting the process of finding a new machine.
 
It is funny to me but die-hard PC users often try Macs and hate them, manage to break them in months, etc. and then tell us their HP or Dell is a workhorse, lasting through generations, out in blizzards and on the deck of fishing ships.... and how it was half the price of a Mac, etc.

Apple must have a program of sending its Lemons to the most ardent Windows maniacs.
 
Still going strong are my:

1980 Apple IIe (I use it in the office for making forms)

1998 Compaq Presario Laptop (I use it in the office for billing)

Two year-old iMac, running Snow Leopard (Typing on it now)

Two year old 13" Macbook (For travel; wife has it on the plane currently)

Dead and buried is my 2003 (or so) Sony VAIO. The screen died after fewer than five years of use. Best Buy wanted $1000 to replace it. Most expensive ($2500) pile of junk I ever bought.

Averaging all my computers, I will vote for "more than 5 years."
 
I had an AMD Quad-Core PC running Vista built for me over 3 years ago by a boutique house in NJ (Maingear) and it's still going strong. Prior, had a Win98 Dell box for over 5 years, and prior to that, Apples. May go to an iMac next after this PC dies.
 
My Thinkpad X30 died suddenly around three month ago after my son had dropped it a couple of times from a table ... I had bought it in October 2003 and it was still sufficient to scan film (IEEE1394 port) and some simple postprocessing in PS (Elements).
 
The OP's photograph of his computer - is that an Osborne I, circa 1981? I remember another metal-cased computer, had a name something like K-Pro? With the Osborne (British, I believe) it weighed 24 pounds, had a 5" built in display, 64K memory, 2 5 1/4 disk drives, and came with Wordstar 101.
 
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This Dell Dimension 4100 is been in use since 2001. Only upgrade is Windows XP. The memory is maxxed out & it's slowed a bit. One secert to long lasting is I never turn it off. I just let it sleep. Only goes off in a power failure. It's been proved if you want to kill the life of a computer or TV then turn it off & on.
 
Funny how I saw this thread yesterday but had a busy schedule and thought I'd check that out today...

...well my computer died today! GAH!

Thankfully my brother has left his stuff whilst he moves to London with me so I have snagged his PC for now.

Mine lasted just 3 years, which means I was expecting some more from it.

Pretty gutted really.

I have my Powerbook G4 15" still though, it's a bit slow but serviceable. It's the last ones they made with a high resolution screen (1400 x 960 or something like that) and the better graphics card.

I hope to win a Dell Vostro 400 local to me on eBay tonight, it comes with a widescreen monitor which will be a change from my CRT I guess.

Still gutted. Thank god the hard disk and for that matter the backup hard disk is OK.

Generally speaking I begrudge spending any money on computers, so I do generally expect at least 5 years out of a computer; so 3 years is pretty bad in my book.

🙁

Vicky
 
I generally hate Macs because they represent the worst kind of technological silo I've ever seen in the IT industry. But I do have one. A Mini that I've installed to run a Linux. Only to piss off that certain type of Mac users.
 
I've really only bought mid to high end macs, and they've all been faultless. My experience with PCs is much more limited, but the only computer in my house that has a hardware fault is a PC laptop, more through poor treatment than anything, but the built quality is noticeably worse than any mac I've had, it cost less too of course.

Some macs in the past have had bulld issues, but I don't think any do at the moment.
 
Mablo said:
I generally hate Macs because they represent the worst kind of technological silo I've ever seen in the IT industry. But I do have one. A Mini that I've installed to run a Linux. Only to piss off that certain type of Mac users.
Click to expand...

I'm so mad ... I could spit!
 
Mablo said:
I generally hate Macs because they represent the worst kind of technological silo I've ever seen in the IT industry. But I do have one. A Mini that I've installed to run a Linux. Only to piss off that certain type of Mac users.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "technological silo"? Are you saying that the whole mess, hardware and software is defective, antiquated, or poorly designed? I must admit that I have many Macs, but I do enjoy the simplicity, speed and stability of Linux..Ubuntu distro.
 
Sound like the NVDiA graphics chip is on it's way out. When it finally fails take it to Apple where they can test if it's indeed this chip. MLB replacement will be covered under an extended warranty program paid by NVDiA !


sepiareverb said:
I'm going into my fourth year on this MacBook Pro, and it is beginning to show its age, slowing down despite regular maintenance. My screen has been getting bouts of static as well- I'm just starting the process of finding a new machine.
Click to expand...
 
Production of iBooks stopped at least 6 years ago.......






thegman said:
My work bought maybe 5 iBooks, and they ALL failed, mostly the CD drives, but also screens and hard disks.

If I had to guess why the cheap ones fail more than the pricey ones, it's probably the small size, overheating etc. My old MacBook (which had an array of issues) ran far too hot to use on my lap.

Macs are no more likely to fail than PCs (anecdotally at least, they fail less). However, internally Macs are just the same as PCs nowadays, so your only hope for greater reliability is better parts, or better build. The build of less expensive Apple notebooks at least has historically been very bad, the build of the expensive ones is historically very good.

The quality of parts, well Apple can be the victim of what they buy every bit as much as any other PC OEM.
Click to expand...
 
I like to build a new machine every 3 - 4 years. I can't remember ever having a computer completely fail. My son and daughter have had hard drive problems and other assorted maladies on their computers, which dad has to fix. My latest computer was built to have as much airflow through the case as possible with minimal fan noise. Managing heat seems to be the secret of long life, for a computer at least. I tend not to buy the latest and greatest hardware, so most of my builds are a bit conservative. I still have my first "real" computer, a trash 80 4P. A Z80, 64k of ram, an internal 300 baud modem and no hard drive. Life was much simpler then.
 
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