Poll

How old is your Computer?

0-1 years
23 (8.6%)
1-3 years
32 (11.9%)
3-5 years
68 (25.4%)
5-7 years
74 (27.6%)
7+  years
71 (26.5%)

Total Members Voted: 262

Author Topic: How old is your computer ?  (Read 20435 times)

Cadman

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #50 on: August 07, 2017, 01:21:05 PM »
Bracken_Joy, that MB Pro of yours shouldn't have trouble with PDFs or pictures, is it still on the original hard drive? Could be an impending failure. An SSD and a fresh install should get you a couple more years out of it, easy.

Lis

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #51 on: August 07, 2017, 01:24:20 PM »
Current desktop is 5 years old and is starting to show its age. It was your standard Dell computer that was good not great, but functioned well. I'm getting more into gaming and would like a decent gaming computer but will not pay a stupid amount. So later this year I'm going to work with my boyfriend and his roommate - I'll set a budget and have them build it for me.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #52 on: August 07, 2017, 01:40:01 PM »
Bracken_Joy, that MB Pro of yours shouldn't have trouble with PDFs or pictures, is it still on the original hard drive? Could be an impending failure. An SSD and a fresh install should get you a couple more years out of it, easy.

Original everything. Other than updates, I haven't touched it. (Cue angels singing). Can you replace the SSD on a unibody like this? Thanks for the info! I know just enough about computers to not murder it, and do little enough to nurse them along for a long time ;) Not savvy though. Luckily my partner is, so I'll just make him fix it, haha. (I say, about the man who can't get 3 years out of a computer to save his life... he's really hard on them for work though!)

robartsd

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #53 on: August 07, 2017, 02:47:12 PM »
Can you replace the SSD on a unibody like this?

https://www.ifixit.com/ has instructions for virtually every Apple product (and many other popular consumer brands).

Bracken_Joy

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #54 on: August 07, 2017, 03:02:32 PM »
Can you replace the SSD on a unibody like this?

https://www.ifixit.com/ has instructions for virtually every Apple product (and many other popular consumer brands).

Very helpful! Thank you!

This also made me go check the actual date of the computer based on serial number. Early to mid 2012, so 5 years old. =)

ChpBstrd

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #55 on: August 07, 2017, 09:44:41 PM »
2009 Macbook bought off eBay a couple years ago for $250 (in hindsight, paid way too much). Now running Sierra.

Upgrades when purchased: 128GB SSD, 2 -> 4GB RAM, MS Office
My Upgrades: new $25 battery
Considering: replacing the DVD drive with a $8 hard drive tray and extra hard drive for media (when one comes along for free of course)

Still works like a charm even though it looks beat up. With an SSD, these things boot and load programs as fast as a modern MacBook Pro. Plus, refurbs like mine now go for $150-200 on eBay. Plus, it's less likely to get stolen. Plus, if I spill something on it or drop it down the stairs - oh well! It won't cost me $1000 to replace. And yes, I can see all the details my eyes are capable of seeing on the non-Retina display.

No plans to "upgrade". Drive it till it dies.


Adventine

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #56 on: August 08, 2017, 01:42:41 AM »
I have an entry-level Lenovo laptop (IdeaPad 100S). It's 10 months old, still works fine, suits my needs (super portable laptop for light document editing and web browsing) and already paid for itself with the income I earned from using it for side gigs (PHP 9,290.00 or about USD 185).

I'm satisfied and will probably replace it with another entry level laptop when it gives up the ghost. Hopefully it won't do that in the next 5 years!

GuitarStv

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #57 on: August 08, 2017, 12:23:01 PM »
Last year I rescued a 2013 custom Core i5 machine from work (free). It came with Win7 Pro, 16bg ram, and 128mb SSD. Fast, simple.
I added 2 2tb hdds and hope to keep it 5+yrs

That's a fast enough PC that it's probably worth upgrading from win7 to win10 while the upgrade path is still free.
 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade)  That machine should last well past the windows 7 2020 expiry date.

stoaX

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #58 on: August 08, 2017, 04:03:43 PM »
I checked the 5-7 years old box.   But I don't use my pc for much beyond emails and the MMM Forum.

aspiringnomad

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #59 on: August 08, 2017, 08:59:00 PM »
7 year old Samsung all-in-one. Was starting to show its age but I cleaned it up and installed Windows 10 last year and now it runs nearly like new.

JLee

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #60 on: August 08, 2017, 09:03:12 PM »
My laptop is over 5 years old.  My desktop...hard to say. The graphics card will be 3 years old in December (holy crap), the primary SSD is a couple of months old, the hard drives were used/refurb purchased maybe a year ago, the case is almost 2 years old, motherboard/cpu/RAM about a year.

Kwill

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #61 on: August 09, 2017, 01:31:27 AM »
Dell Laptop is a little over 5 years old.  I will need to change the keyboard on it soon (too many video games when I first bought it and now I have a few keys that are difficult to use).  This is the main computer used by all members of the family.  I'm also considering swapping to a SDD for a performance boost.

Wife has a Mac laptop that is about 6-7yrs old.  Horribly slow in all things to the point of being unusable at this point.  Battery works great on it though.  She hasn't cracked it open in about 4 months now because the last time she tried to open a streaming video website she opened the page and set the computer down with no response for 10 minutes or so.

With that situation, it might make sense to buy a new but low end desktop PC. You get more space and speed for less if you don't need portability, and it is much easier to switch the keyboard, etc. Then you can clean up the laptops for backup / portable use.

Mr. Green

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #62 on: August 09, 2017, 12:23:00 PM »
7 year old HP Pavilion laptop. Gonna be sad to see that thing go when it does. Can't find a new one where I like the feel of the keyboard and you get a full number pad. This is mainly because the trend is now floating keys and I dislike that.

marielle

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #63 on: August 09, 2017, 12:27:46 PM »
I honestly don't even know, my mom got my laptop at the dump like 6-7 years ago now? It was just missing a harddrive. Now it lives on Linux.

To be fair though, I take my work laptop home which is new.

ketchup

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #64 on: August 09, 2017, 12:28:43 PM »
7 year old HP Pavilion laptop. Gonna be sad to see that thing go when it does. Can't find a new one where I like the feel of the keyboard and you get a full number pad. This is mainly because the trend is now floating keys and I dislike that.
I've noticed that while those are pretty pervasive, the higher-end laptops tend to have versions of them that aren't nearly as bad.  So maybe when you go for a replacement, look into a last-year's-fancy-model vs the new entry-level (price will be similar).

BDWW

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #65 on: August 09, 2017, 12:59:48 PM »
About 4 years for my main desktop i7-4770, 16gb, 480GB SSD, ATI 290X, Ubuntu 16.04.  Although I just recently replaced the 290X with GTX 1060. Only slightly faster, but way quieter, way less power draw and the drivers are way better.

A third generation(2013 I think) NUC running 16.04 hooked up to the TV.

An old HP pavillion(2009ish) laptop in my shop, horribly slow even on linux, probably needs replacing.

acroy

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #66 on: August 09, 2017, 02:20:25 PM »
Last year I rescued a 2013 custom Core i5 machine from work (free). It came with Win7 Pro, 16bg ram, and 128mb SSD. Fast, simple.
I added 2 2tb hdds and hope to keep it 5+yrs

That's a fast enough PC that it's probably worth upgrading from win7 to win10 while the upgrade path is still free.
 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade)  That machine should last well past the windows 7 2020 expiry date.
Hmmm, I'd not thought of that, thanks!

ChpBstrd

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #67 on: August 09, 2017, 04:05:47 PM »
Last year I rescued a 2013 custom Core i5 machine from work (free). It came with Win7 Pro, 16bg ram, and 128mb SSD. Fast, simple.
I added 2 2tb hdds and hope to keep it 5+yrs

That's a fast enough PC that it's probably worth upgrading from win7 to win10 while the upgrade path is still free.
 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade)  That machine should last well past the windows 7 2020 expiry date.
Hmmm, I'd not thought of that, thanks!
Last time I checked, months ago, the upgrade period had passed except for users who have one if Windows' accessibility services turned on and who attest online to being disabled.

GuitarStv

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #68 on: August 09, 2017, 06:21:17 PM »
Last year I rescued a 2013 custom Core i5 machine from work (free). It came with Win7 Pro, 16bg ram, and 128mb SSD. Fast, simple.
I added 2 2tb hdds and hope to keep it 5+yrs

That's a fast enough PC that it's probably worth upgrading from win7 to win10 while the upgrade path is still free.
 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade)  That machine should last well past the windows 7 2020 expiry date.
Hmmm, I'd not thought of that, thanks!
Last time I checked, months ago, the upgrade period had passed except for users who have one if Windows' accessibility services turned on and who attest online to being disabled.

"If you use assistive technology on Windows, you are eligible for the upgrade offer."

mizzourah2006

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #69 on: August 09, 2017, 08:03:47 PM »
Our home computer is a 6-7 year old Dell, but I have a MacBook Pro through work that I use for most of the stuff I do with comps, which is mostly Machine Learning and Deep Learning stuff and Kaggle competition type stuff.

ketchup

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #70 on: August 10, 2017, 08:02:07 AM »
My dell laptop is just over 7 years old.  It's time for a new one, but really hard to figure out what is good.  It seems the specs haven't changed much in 7 years, or they've made it harder to understand (and I'm pretty tech savvy).
The tricky thing is that some of the names for things are the same, even though stuff as evolved. 

Comparing my GF's old 2010 laptop to her new-as-of-last-year laptop, her old laptop had an Intel Core i7 620M (2.67Ghz), and her new one has an Intel Core i7 6700HQ (2.6Ghz). They're both i7s, which are Intel's upper-tier CPUs.  They're even basically the same clock speed (with close to the same turbo speeds too).  So what the hell is the difference?  For starters, the 620M is a dual-core, and the 6700HQ is quad-core (that's what the Q stands for; M just means mobile; H stands for H).  The 620M is from Intel's first generation i7, and the 6700HQ is from Intel's sixth generation (that's what the 6xxx means), so there's five incremental updates between the two.  For a laptop this means the power consumption and heat are much improved (this also means the laptop can be thinner and lighter with longer battery life).  It also means that clock-for-clock it's about 50% faster (three architectures' worth of updates: Sandy Bridge, Haswell, and Skylake).  So clock-for-clock roughly 60% faster, plus in addition it has double the core count.  So substantially faster (and so is the rest of the machine).

It's not intuitive.

robartsd

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #71 on: August 10, 2017, 09:18:53 AM »
Last time I checked, months ago, the upgrade period had passed except for users who have one if Windows' accessibility services turned on and who attest online to being disabled.

"If you use assistive technology on Windows, you are eligible for the upgrade offer."
My brother likes to use high contrast mode and many people occassionally like to use text-to-speech. Both are usage of assistive technology that technically qualify. I agree that the intention of the policy is to provide for users who need assistive technology, but were reluctant to upgrade until the assistive technology on Windows 10 had an opportunity to mature.

Gondolin

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #72 on: August 10, 2017, 10:16:40 AM »
Built my desktop 4 years ago.
Laptop is a 4 year old Asus with new SSD.

PoutineLover

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #73 on: August 10, 2017, 10:25:42 AM »
4 or 5 year old Toshiba laptop, bought when I was in school and now starting to slow down but still works well enough. 3 year warranty and SSD has saved my life, it has gone through a lot. Hopefully it keeps on ticking, I don't want to have to buy a new one anytime soon.

Jane

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #74 on: August 10, 2017, 10:40:49 AM »
2011 Asus laptop. Only minor issues are that it sometimes goes to sleep when I adjust the angle of the monitor, which is moderately annoying, and the right click touchpad button is hard to push. Otherwise, it's still going strong and no plans to replace it anytime soon.


Digital Dogma

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #75 on: August 10, 2017, 10:49:46 AM »
My computer is a mix, but i selected 0-1 year given my spending habits. The motherboard, case, memory, SSDs and power supply are all 5-6 years old. The CPU was just upgraded to a used extreme edition processor I got on ebay, and the GPU is brand spankin' new. I donated the used parts I upgraded to a friend in need.

My final upgrade will be doubling the RAM (which will need to be purchased new, unfortunately) and replacing the monitor which is 15 years old and making me squint as I get older to see on its small screen size. That upgrade may come sometime next year.

I expect to get another 7-8 years out of everything I've got in there today if I'm lucky. Eventually I'll retire it and set it up as a media PC attached to a television somewhere when it becomes obsolete for gaming. This is probably the least mustachian thing I own, but we'll see about that retrospectively after I've used it several years to mine for cryptocurrency while its idle. Maybe its a relatively low-cost high-risk speculative gamble that will fail. Either way I get to play my favorite games and enjoy my free time using it!

Neal300

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #76 on: August 12, 2017, 07:53:51 AM »
Last 2.5 years I used this computer.

Bateaux

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #77 on: August 12, 2017, 12:33:16 PM »
Just bought my mom an IPad.   Told her to junk her old desktop.   Non technical people no longer need a computer.

daverobev

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #78 on: August 12, 2017, 12:48:39 PM »
Not entirely sure; I am now in the habit of buying off-lease Dell Latitudes. I put 5-7, but my current one might be just under that.

Huh, actually I got this almost a year ago. So probably a three year lease, maybe 4, I guess I should've put 3-5.

WhiteTrashCash

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #79 on: August 12, 2017, 01:07:05 PM »
My laptop computer is ~6 years old and it works perfectly fine so I will keep using it as long as I can. It is running Windows 7 which in my opinion is the best operating system that Microsoft ever made and it was pretty much the last OS they developed before they decided to start spying on everybody all the time. It also has lots of great features that they now make you pay extra for (like Windows Media Center.)

In general, I will not buy a new tech product unless A.) It significantly improves my quality of life/access to information and entertainment or B.) My old tech product is damaged beyond repair. Otherwise, thanks to the internet, it's easy to fix absolutely any problem you have with an old tech product, so I will keep it for all eternity.

gggggg

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #80 on: August 12, 2017, 03:48:54 PM »
I have an approx 3 year old chromebook; awesome, cheap piece of kit.  My main "desk" computer is an approx 2 year old cheap Toshiba satellite laptop. I may look at apple when I'm due for the next computer.

markpst

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #81 on: August 13, 2017, 08:46:59 AM »
I bought my laptop refurbished in 2009. It has 4GB ram, so it is still somewhat relevant. It actually has two hard drive bays (17" screen), so I added a 128GB SSD hard drive for $30 from ebay this year and made that the boot drive. I copied all my files over to that drive since I don't have boot/install disks for the original setup. It boots much faster now.

I've tried to price out upgrading the ram to 8GB but it's not worth it for the cost.

I did upgrade to Windows 10 this year (for free) because Windows 7 will eventually reach EOL and not be updated by Microsoft. It took a little bit to get used to it, but I'm fine with it now.

Kwill

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #82 on: August 13, 2017, 11:31:04 AM »
Not entirely sure; I am now in the habit of buying off-lease Dell Latitudes. I put 5-7, but my current one might be just under that.

Huh, actually I got this almost a year ago. So probably a three year lease, maybe 4, I guess I should've put 3-5.

Oh . . . I was counting my own refurbished Dell Latitude from the time I got it rather than its actual age, but you're right. Mine is probably 5-7 altogether.

HipGnosis

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #83 on: August 13, 2017, 11:37:58 AM »
I put 5-7.  My computer is right at 7 yrs old, but I've only had it two years.
I kinda bought it from work - I paid a few bucks for two broken PCs.  Dell Vostro.  Win 7 Pro.  The boss would have given them to me for free, but accounting needed some money to register the loss of the assets (and not be a gift).

Years ago, I use to build my own PCs.  Researching and deciding what to buy took to long, so I switched to buying used PCs.  Only had problems with one of em.
I keep my data on a separate harddrive, which makes transitioning to a new PC (and back ups) a lot easier.

Lski'stash

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #84 on: August 13, 2017, 01:32:32 PM »
I just bought a new one this last Christmas, but before that, I had my computer for 8 years.

jordanp123

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #85 on: August 13, 2017, 06:18:50 PM »
I'd forgot to mention this earlier, as its slightly OT but, we have a computer at work that is offline (not network connected) and just monitors the building security, keycard access etc... Last time I looked at that thing, about a year ago, it was running Windows 95, and had a old Pentium CPU running at 66Mhz. As long as it works, their definitely getting they're money out of the thing, I just dread when it finally dies, as knowing our company we have no backup....

markbike528CBX

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #86 on: August 13, 2017, 07:16:52 PM »
I'd forgot to mention this earlier, as its slightly OT but, we have a computer at work that is offline (not network connected) and just monitors the building security, keycard access etc... Last time I looked at that thing, about a year ago, it was running Windows 95, and had a old Pentium CPU running at 66Mhz. As long as it works, their definitely getting they're money out of the thing, I just dread when it finally dies, as knowing our company we have no backup....

jordanp123: Dang, I thought I was at least in the running.   
But.... this could be considered an embedded system, or instrument, not your computer, per thead title definition.

jordanp123

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #87 on: August 13, 2017, 07:28:23 PM »
I'd forgot to mention this earlier, as its slightly OT but, we have a computer at work that is offline (not network connected) and just monitors the building security, keycard access etc... Last time I looked at that thing, about a year ago, it was running Windows 95, and had a old Pentium CPU running at 66Mhz. As long as it works, their definitely getting they're money out of the thing, I just dread when it finally dies, as knowing our company we have no backup....

jordanp123: Dang, I thought I was at least in the running.   
But.... this could be considered an embedded system, or instrument, not your computer, per thead title definition.

Exactly. It was just such a oddity that couldn't help but mention it. I hope I'm already FIRE when that thing goes.

markbike528CBX

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Re: How old is your computer ?
« Reply #88 on: August 13, 2017, 07:51:44 PM »
I'd forgot to mention this earlier, as its slightly OT but, we have a computer at work that is offline (not network connected) and just monitors the building security, keycard access etc... Last time I looked at that thing, about a year ago, it was running Windows 95, and had a old Pentium CPU running at 66Mhz. As long as it works, their definitely getting they're money out of the thing, I just dread when it finally dies, as knowing our company we have no backup....

jordanp123: Dang, I thought I was at least in the running.   
But.... this could be considered an embedded system, or instrument, not your computer, per thead title definition.

Exactly. It was just such a oddity that couldn't help but mention it. I hope I'm already FIRE when that thing goes.

Not as much of an oddity as you think.   

I did testing 2014 on a new,not yet deployed system that used 680x0 Motorola  chips.  Running  some unix variant.
the last Mac (IIfx) I had that used that series chip, I gave to my little sister in 1994.