How long do your computer usually last?

[Prest_400]

My first computer was a 1998 PC which I got in 2001, at age 6, Dad got it free from his company. It was a PII, 4 GB hard drive, 128MB RAM with windows 98.
It got some upgrades, like a new HDD (20 GB), extra RAM and Windows ME. I hated windows ME because I couldn't play some of the games I had.

It still works fine. Although now it's in it's retirement, as storage, in one of the rooms of our old house. Sadly obselescense took it's toll. It probably couldn't even browse the net, because it wouldn't support flash or a new browser.

It's funny that nowadays a small thingly like an iPod touch has better specs than my first desktop.

My next computer was bought in September 2006. It was a PC with great specs back then and they are still decent. It works fine but sadly it takes 10 minutes to turn on. Probably needs an HDD formatting because I messed with double boot and partitions, and reverted it to one partition.

The other one is an ASUS laptop bought in Feb 2010. Very fine working. Only has some odd spontaneous BSOD crashes from time to time.

 

[Bingley]

My current laptop is going on five now. I back things up on an external hard drive to be careful, but I just bought a new battery for it last year so I'm hoping to at least get another year out of it.

On the other hand, this sheet metal beauty is going on 25, and still running strong!:

Cool Kaypro, right? I've got a Kaypro sitting out in the garage that I used in the mid-1980s, back when IBM XT innards and a 10MB hard drive were cutting edge.

I keep my computers for about 5 years. I've never had one fail on me. They just get slow, and the hard drives fill up. I just replaced the one I'd used for the previous 5 years or so for that reason.

 

[Rico]

My daily driver is a PC w/ dual Pentium 933MHz, Serverworks HE chipset, 66/64 PCI, five SCSI buses, expandable to 8GB RAM. This 24/7 machine was cutting edge in 2001, and been fixed over the decade: new PS, new SCSI HD (killed when I hot-plugged it), new CDRW drive. I'm currently running it with dead CPU fans. 🙂 At home, the Pentium Pro 200 box gets some use. Laptops are Panasonic Toughbooks - made in Japan - with one CF-73 at six years old. Not recently powered up are two Amiga 3000UX (Amiga UNIX editions), and this collectible:

 

[jarski]

my only "fail" was when ~4 yo. MacBook was stolen.

been lucky HD wise, never lost one (in ~15 years). I suspect this is because havent used heavy duty virus checkers, that usually bring any computer to stone age by constantly scanning the disk.

 

[thegman]

@Rogier: Indeed, and my more recent MacBook suffered similar issues, cracks in the case, flickering screen etc. It's CD drive last OK though.

@Rico, BeBox, awesome!

 

[Benjamin Marks]

Thank you all for your input. Hmm, it does seem like the Mac users are happier as a group than the Windows users. Or maybe the Windows users rave less. This was not the point of the poll, but it does seem to be borne out anecdotally.

Any thoughts about the difficulty of porting one's expensive software life over to another platform (CS5, Lightroom, Topaz, Silver EFX plug ins, etc.?).

In any event, my current plan will be to do a clean install of Windows 7 on the current box with mirrored enterprise drives. Hopefully this will reduce the chance of my being in the same position again if the primary drive fails. I have tried the on-24x7 approach and also the turn-on-when-needed approach. Neither seemed to result in more computer longevity, particularly with rural power dips as we have them. The ability to use more RAM is what tipped me over into the W7 camp. Also that upgrade path is an order of magnitude less expensive, when you consider software expense, than going with a Mac at this point.

For all of you who posted pix of beloved dinosaurs, I did have an IBM luggable (8088) with dual disk drives from 1985, which I toted around the world with me. Very robust machine. It is fair to say that they don't make them like that anymore. Since Windows 2000, I have had less luck with keeping machines up and running. If this machine craps out in the next 24 months, maybe it will be time to consider switching camps. All things considered it does seem to make more sense to spend $1500 every five years than $800 every 3, particularly when you factor in the amount of time it takes to move programs and files from one computer to another.

Ben Marks

 

[wgerrard]

I've owned Macs since they were squat little boxes with 9-inch b&w screens. I have had *one* fail on me, an iMac drive went south.

I replace hardware when the old machine can't run the software I want satisfactorily.

Apart from moving parts -- hard drives -- if the other parts don't fail early on and you use an UPS that also conditions the current (keeps it from spiking up or down) and you have a good surge protector, you should be good for a long time.

Linux: Spent 10 years with it. Got tired of buying hardware that wouldn't work. Got tired of trying to find out what hardware works before I buy. If I wanted to, I could have the freedom of curing pork in my kitchen. I'd rather just buy some ham.

 

[Steve M.]

I only buy used PC's, and I've never had any failures of any sort. The WD hard drive that I back things up on is 8 or 9 years old now (I also back it up w/ a newer hard drive just in case). The only problems we've ever experienced were viruses, but none to speak of in maybe 3 or 4 years, and none that I couldn't remove. CD drives often become crap, but I don't consider those computer problems per se. I hate CD and DVD technology. It's a terrible system that often fails,

 

[Steve M.]

I only buy used PC's, and I've never had any failures of any sort. The WD hard drive that I back things up on is 8 or 9 years old now (I also back it up w/ a newer hard drive just in case). The only problems we've ever experienced were viruses, but none to speak of in maybe 3 or 4 years, and none that I couldn't remove. CD drives often become crap, but I don't consider those computer problems per se. I hate CD and DVD technology. It's a terrible system that often fails.

 

[RFluhver]

Hello guys. Question to you who build your own rig. It's not too hard is it? I don't imagine so, since I expect components these days to be plug n' play. Would that be right? Do I need to be mindful of power compatibility or anything like that? I realise it's a big and complex question, maybe even stupid, but just high level.

 

[sykotec]

I've still got a bit of the 8-bit Atari stuff around - their later stuff as well, but we won't count that as it doesn't see any use these days. Does still work as of a year or two ago. Not a computer, but I've just about got everything working on an original Space Invaders machine more or less built from parts - the emptyish cabinet was too nice to NOT do it.

Typically about 5 years of primary use for me with computers, though they stick around as spares, go to friends who need, etc afterwards, generally still in good working order. The recent variety has been anything from x86 based embedded systems to Apple stuff. The linux mail and web server got replaced by a Mac Mini a couple years ago, after the first gen iMac a friend threw out in my direction hung on for about 10 years with no real issues. g4 iBook made it over 5 years, and a friend got decent use out of it afterwards - thing made a year without a restart once, just on a dare. Macbook that replaced it a just over a year ago has had no issues.

I suppose everything breaks - either I've been lucky, or they're all afraid of getting 'fixed' by me (it's more or less what I do in real life, systems and networks).

The real trick is convincing myself to KEEP them that long - there's always neat new stuff out there - GAS applies in many aspects of life.

 

[_mark__]

Dell precision 690 is modular so just swap out parts as and when, same for my thinkpad.

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

My PC which I have for about eight or nine years, is running now on its third motherboard;
further I have a Macbook Pro now for about two years.

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

My daily driver is a PC w/ dual Pentium 933MHz, Serverworks HE chipset, 66/64 PCI, five SCSI buses, expandable to 8GB RAM. This 24/7 machine was cutting edge in 2001, and been fixed over the decade: new PS, new SCSI HD (killed when I hot-plugged it), new CDRW drive. I'm currently running it with dead CPU fans. 🙂 At home, the Pentium Pro 200 box gets some use. Laptops are Panasonic Toughbooks - made in Japan - with one CF-73 at six years old. Not recently powered up are two Amiga 3000UX (Amiga UNIX editions), and this collectible:

Really like this type or product shot!

 

[HuubL]

Seems many (most) of us use Macs. I've started a new poll in the "Off topic" forum: Mac or PC?

 

[peterm1]

I am sticking to Windows machines as I like the flexibility it gives me in terms of compatible software. Of course there is a price you pay for this - "compatible" does not always mean compatible and if new software does interact badly with other applications or the OS, then it can be a devil of a job to work out what is causing the issue. And of course there are viruses etc to contend with and so on.

Never the less Windows gives me choices I just would not have with Macs.

I find that most of my PCs have lasted 2-4 years. When I have had laptops they have often needed replaacing fairly soon as new software made new hardware demands that the laptop was not up to - and could not be upgraded. When I have used desktops they will often need upgrading. My last desktop had a motherboard failure at around 2 years so I had to make this upgrade and to do that had to replace the box itself. It also had a graphics card failure before then and now seems to have intermittent power problems. The fun of computers!

 

[barnwulf]

I had a 6 year old computer crash on me about a month ago. Not good news because I lost some of my images. I had some things backed up but I was just too careless about backing up files often enough. A local computer company got some of my old info off the old one and they built a new one for me a loaded everything on the new Windows 7 computer. Then I had to update a lot of other programs and printer drivers. I now have a 2tb external hard drive to put things on. I have a all of my original scans on DVDs so all of my original images are still available. Lost some final print files. Back up your files. I have heard that one a thousand times. Jim

 

[thegman]

I am sticking to Windows machines as I like the flexibility it gives me in terms of compatible software. Of course there is a price you pay for this - "compatible" does not always mean compatible and if new software does interact badly with other applications or the OS, then it can be a devil of a job to work out what is causing the issue. And of course there are viruses etc to contend with and so on.

Never the less Windows gives me choices I just would not have with Macs.

I find that most of my PCs have lasted 2-4 years. When I have had laptops they have often needed replaacing fairly soon as new software made new hardware demands that the laptop was not up to - and could not be upgraded. When I have used desktops they will often need upgrading. My last desktop had a motherboard failure at around 2 years so I had to make this upgrade and to do that had to replace the box itself. It also had a graphics card failure before then and now seems to have intermittent power problems. The fun of computers!

I use both Windows and Mac, both have their advantages/disadvantages. However the Mac wins on compatibility, simply because you can run Windows too. My Mac at home dual-boots Windows 7 and Mac, so I can choose which to run. Macs have their issues, but compatibility is not one of them.

 

[raid]

The results of this poll indicate that RFF members are mostly amateurs as it pertains to computercusage.

 

[Doug]

Amateurs keep their computers longer? I'm keeping stuff longer because the actual utility of new models is progressing slower now than the 1980's. And I'm not a pro. I'm about ready to dump my 2003 PowerMac dual-G5 tower, as it's stuck two generations back on the OS... Well, it's only 8 years old. And this powerhouse now seems SLOW! I got a new Mac laptop last summer, which is noticeably peppier.