What type of computer do you have?

[Killerbrandt]

2009 Asus laptop. After all those years, still works perfect! :)

Asus is one of the best brands for prebuilt computers and for parts.

+1 Asus makes the best motherboards

100 percent agree!!!

[Friar]

It is 4.5 years old, the battery lasts about a minute now, and I think a fan is shot because it overheats if I don't have it on a cooling pad.

It's most likely a build up of dust in and around the fan and its vents. I had a laptop that would turn off from overheating and when I took off the back there was a centimetre of dust on the air intake.

If you're not sure how to take the back off the laptop, have a look at YouTube. It's worth the 30 minutes it might take!

[FIRE me]

My daily use computer is a six year old (March 2009) Dell Inspiron desktop. I paid $449, it came with a mouse and keyboard but no monitor. Quad core 2.33 GHz. Came with 4GB RAM.

Wiped Vista the day I got it and installed Kubuntu Linux (switched to the KDE spin of Debian three years ago). With all the upgrades and Linux, it still feels fast and new and I have no need to upgrade.

Running on a 24” Samsung Syncmaster 1920 x 1200 LED monitor that I bought for $300 in 2008.

Upgrades:
Came with onboard video, have gone through two upgrade video cards, first add on card failed, current one is Asus Nvidia GeForce ENGT430 1GB DDR3.

Boot / OS drive upgraded to Kingston 120GB SATA 3 SSD (runs at SATA 2 speed on my old mainboard).

RAM upgraded to 8GB, the maximum that mainboard will accept.

Storage drives: 4TB HGST, 1TB Hitachi.

Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers, they are a beast!

[neo von retorch]

I have several Dell servers (desktop configuration) (T120 I think... used for backing up other computers and storing media. One is a Quad Xeon beast, used for serving up web sites.)
T120 was $200 brand new, but added several hard drives. The beast was $400 secondhand and required no upgrades.

Desktop is custom... Antec, Corsair PSU, Gigabyte, Phenom XII 940 Black Edition, ~8GB, some fancy mid-range video card from 2-3 years ago. 2 x Samsung SSD. Win 8.1
Probably spent too much overall. While I'd sell the previous parts when I'd upgrade, they cost something too :) Easily $1000+

Laptop was purchased with sign-on bonus for company that required BYOD - Dell Inspiron 17R 7720 Special Edition Core i7, 8GB, 256GB Samsung SSD. Win 8.1
Because bonus was taxed hard, I put about $700 of my money in.

Toy laptop was purchased before taking the big beast home after changing jobs. Dell Inspiron 3137 (11") with 8GB, Samsung SSD. Windows 10 Tech Preview.
Laptop plus upgrades was about $500.

[ash7962]

I custom built my desktop 3ish years ago.  Reused my old HD and monitors from my previous build, but added a SSD last year.  I'd say it was around 800-1000$ for everything (OS included).  Its a bit of an estimate 'cause my SO bought me the CPU for Christmas, and we exchanged SSDs for valentines day last year so estimating costs there. 

For the future;  I'm not a huge stickler for running games at their highest possible settings, so I'll probably stick with this build for another couple years.  I'll also keep using my two monitors until one really dies.  One was actually a tv I had in college that I just repurposed as my side monitor.  I actually just got rid of my 12 year old Dell monitor (first one I ever bought) since I wasn't using it anymore, and even then I gave it away on freecycle 'cause that thing was still running like a champ.  I might even be able to limp along with the current build for longer by just replacing the graphics card at some point.  I am tempted to do a smaller case build to save on desk space, but that'll just have to wait for a few more years.

[Chranstronaut]

2008 black Macbook: Still alive with a 3rd party battery replacement and cracking plastic around the screen.  Needs to be properly backed up and all my music and school files pulled off and organized before being transformed into something awesome?  Not sure its fate yet.

2012 Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga: I love it!  I use the stand and tent functions more than I ever thought I would when doing stuff around the house or playing touch-based games.  I don't use tablet mode at all.  Seems to be as solid as the other Thinkpads, and I like that it looks like the cool younger sibling of my SO's mobile workstation Thinkpad.

iPhone 4S: it's what I do all my email, googling and mapping on.

[Syonyk]

Chromebook Pixel 2, the standard model with Broadwell i5 and 8 GB RAM.

The screen, the build quality, the battery life and the two USB-C ports for charging are fantastic.

I've been chromebook-only since 2013 but I cheat by running Linux, either via crouton or on a separate partition.

Currently running Chrubuntu 15.04 next to Chrome OS.

Woohoo, not the only one! :D

Are you dual booting or Croutoning?  I haven't found anything that Crouton won't do, but I don't run GPU-intensive things, so the plugin model works just fine for me.

And, yeah, the screen and build quality are incredible.

[Rural]

We have a 2010 HP that has issues.

Some of the keys don't work, specifically the spacebar, enter, and backspace key.  I read a tip online that holding down all three for a few seconds resolved the problem, and it did for a few days, but now it's pretty much stuck on broken.  So I got an $8 usb keyboard from ebay, figuring that if I can get it to last for another month, I'm coming out ahead v. buying a new one.  (based on expected cost of a replacement around $400, useful life of about 5 years)  If I can deal with it until Christmas time, I can probably get a parent or in-law to chip in $50 or so towards a new laptop fund for us. 

If you don't haven o port it around, you can make this setup (sub keyboard because dead keys) work more or less indefinitely. I've been running my toshiba laptop as a less-bulky desktop ( won't block my view out the windows) for two or three years now.

[sleepyguy]

WAY too many but generally I use 2 on a daily basis.

Laptop - old Thinkpad
- very old laptop but I really like it and it's built like a tank
- updated to 8gb and 120gb ssd and it flies on Windows7 fine
- do wish it had HDMI out but, 1st world problems

Desktop - Custom PC
- nothing too special or expensive, i5-2400, 8gb, 120gb ssd + 2x 2tb internal drives, 6850 video
- 2x 22 LED displays

I generally use the desktop for most things as i'm spoiled working on nicer dual screens and faster (although 6850 is older now) video card.

I've used this setup for awhile now with no urge to upgrade or change to something newer.  Gaming wise I like older 3D titles so the 6850 serves it fine (although Witcher 3 is tempting :)

GF has her own systems as well, she hates noise of PCs so just uses a older Thinkpad fully upgraded with Dual 22 leds on a dock.

Almost forgot our home NAS as well, that counts as a PC.

Server
- 4bay Acer homeserver running Windows server 2008
- nothing special, 4x 2tb drives

[aceyou]

Just replaced my 2008 MacBook Pro with a very fancypants new computer that I use for my side hustle:

2015 MacBook Pro
15 Inch Retina
Processor: 2.8 GHz
Memory 16 GB
1 Terabyte Storage
Parallels so I can toggle between Mac and PC mode
The PC side runs on Windows 7

- I have to run a download/upload enormous excel/csv files constantly, so speed and storage are how I make money
- Also, I have to run large simulations frequently in R Studio, where speed is critical. 

[StartingEarly]

I have a frankenputer. It has all kinds of left over bits and pieces from business computers thrown together. Given that it's got decent chops. It has 6gb of ram, a xeon 2ghz quad core, 20 inch monitor, my brother's old subwoofer, nvidea gt9500, 250gb hard drive and a dvd burner. What I really like about it is that it is very upgradeable. It has a dual socket motherboard that will run six core cpus at 3.2ghz with twelve ram bays and I think it has usb3. The parts to upgrade it wouldn't be expensive at all since they're not highly sought after. The main costs would be a new power supply, video card and cpu coolers. Ram is cheap and the cpus are cheap.

[Syonyk]

Makes me feel so smug, having the best stealth hardware on the market and no one even knows about it. It's like a secret club.

:D Yeah.  They are rare to see in public.  That the tech press laughs at them doesn't hurt the exclusivity.

[Norrie]

I've got a 2010 13 inch MacBook Pro. It may actually be a 2009, but I bought it on deep discount in 2010 at our university tech store. I'm hoping that it lives for another eleventy years.

[dcheesi]

Custom built desktop attached to my TV. One of the AMD "APU" chip sets; at the time they were the cheapest option for light gaming (their integrated graphics were much better than Intel's) and general home use. Not sure if that's still the case though.

I stare at a computer monitor all day, so the prospect of staring at a laptop screen all night doesn't appeal to me --I'd much rather sit back on the couch, plus it's better for streaming video content. Of course if I had actual work to do on my personal time, that would be different.

[SpareChange]

Currently a Dell Inspiron  I3 desktop from 2010. Leaning towards trying a chromebit/box plugged into a large HDTV next time.

[SingleMomDebt]

Mac finally kaputz'd. Bought a Google Chromebook2. For $300. Love it! I put everything in the cloud...

[GlobeTrttr]

Custom built desktop that I made in mid 2010 - 5 years ago!  Still runs okay, a but slower now but all I do is Word/Excel docs, web browsing, and Quicken.  No gaming for me.  Also have a mid 2012-ish Dell Latitude laptop I inherited from an old job that I use for travel, coffee shops, etc. 

I really want a MacBook Air but just can't justify a $1K+ for it when I need to save for furniture, bathroom renovations in my home (just bought 1st house about a year ago).  The ROI on that money would be nothing in about 3-5 years vs. virtually unlimited ROI on furniture and renovations.

[poorboyrichman]

mid 2013 mac air (4gb) bought second hand at 50% off rrp for general surfing, recipes in the kitchen and music around the house.

a build custom PC from 2011 which still does all my heavy lifting apps, ripping blu-rays etc, core i7, 8gb, 3TB HDD etc etc

Acer Revo - HTPC

If I could go back and do it all again, I would have merged my HTPC and custom build so they could be transported to and from desk and TV easily, but I love the portability of the Mac. It's way too fancy for my needs, but its one of my rare treats and should last me another 5 years if the hardware holds out.

[Ozstache]

I have a self-built desktop of med-high specs put together a year ago that I use to slowly work through steam games I buy when on mega sale. While such a computer is an indulgence, the ongoing cost of games is minimal (< $100 per year) and allows me to achieve in ER one of the true pleasures that my working life denied me - playing hours of fun computer games!

I also have three laptops. The main one is a Toshiba ultrabook that I bought when I was working and now use for internet browsing and finances. I have a netbook which is too gutless even for internet browsing with more than a few tabs so it has been relegated to being my solar power and electricity consumption monitor during the day and for showing internet-sourced recipes while I am cooking.

The last one is an old Dell notebook that I bough for my mother around 7 years ago but she gave it back to me when she upgraded last year. I keep this as a spare but, as I have other computers to fall back on, it will be sold or given away soon as part of my ongoing decluttering program.

[andystkilda]

Acer C720 Chromebook - can't recommend these highly enough - balancing price/functionality/speed - I don't think anything can beat them.

[markbike528CBX]

Desktop: Mac G5 1.8GHz Dual(2004) runs 3 monitors fine. MacOS  10.5.8  
bought it new, but I think the amortized cost is pretty low.

as far as I've read, oldest machine yet listed


sent from my Ipad 1   iOS 5.1.1

[Mikhial]

I built a desktop computer in 2007 for a little under $1,500. Probably one of my least frugal buys but I had it until earlier this year. I was able to sell it for $125 and built a $500 hackintosh. It was a PITA to set up, but completely worth it in the end. I've got a Mac for a fraction of the price.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk