What is your "post-PC" plan?

[HFWR]

Will most likely always have two PCs/laptops, one dedicated to my home studio, and one for regular use. But then I actually use them as computers, and not smart terminals...

Also have an iPhone and a Kindle Fire.

[marko]

Chromebook.

Been working/storing in the Google cloud for over a year now; just waiting for my HP laptop to flip out on me.

[TallTim]

About 2 yrs ago we went to Mac cold turkey once DW, DD, DS and I all had iPHones and the kids' school went to an iPad program. We now have 3 tablets, 3 mac book Air, 4 iphones and 1 iMac desktop. I have a laptop PC from work, but if/when I RE, that will go away. FWIW, DW uses the desktop mostly for layout and design for her business and its the only computer that is connected to the printer/scanner/copier in the house, so it gets more use that way too. We found the switch pretty easy - your local Mac store will empty and copy over your PC HD to your new Mac if you want when you buy one there.

[rodi]

I treated myself to a cheap (sub $300) lenovo laptop in November.

Most of my home computing/screen time is on my very old, cracked screen, Motorola Xoom tablet. But I do finances, word processing, etc on my laptop. I'm treasurer for a non-profit so I keep the records/quicken files on the laptop.

I also watch a lot of streaming video on my laptop through amazon prime. My xoom is too small of a screen, despite being true HD.

Travel, I take my tablet, not my pc.

[Nodak]

My laptop is only about 2 years old and I will replace it when the time comes. I have been looking at tablets for some time now and will probably pick up a Samsung Android model this spring. Almost all of my computer use since retirement is internet access.

[travelover]

I'm having a USB port installed in the back of my head, as a back up. For when I can't telepathically download my Facebook page.

[Major Tom]

My current desktop PC probably has a few more years left in it. If I make the move to full-time RV living in a few years, then I'll most likely get a laptop - with an external drive(s), for the 6-7 TB of music that I always want to hang on to.

If the RV plan falls through, I'll be sticking to a desktop PC for the large monitor, big keyboard, and the ease and relative low cost of expanding and replacing parts. I'll probably add a tablet at some point though, for reading in bed, on the sofa, and in the little boys' room

[W2R]

Right now, I have a desktop computer that I seldom use. When it craters, I do not plan to replace it. If it doesn't crater I may end up junking it anyway. It is still running Vista and that seems almost antique by now.

Mostly I use my laptop as my workhorse computer, and I will stick with that as my #1 main device. When it breaks, I will immediately get another, within 24 hours in fact. That is precisely what I did last October when my previous laptop fried. I use my laptop for hours every day and it is important to me that I have a laptop that is satisfactory to me at all times.

I have an iPad 2 which I enjoy, but I regard it as a toy, not a workhorse computer. If/when it breaks, I would probably buy an iPad 4 or whatever the latest is, but I wouldn't need to do that immediately since to me it is just a toy for games and internet.

[Janet H]

Desk workstation, laptop and tablet currently. My PC will need to be replaced in the next year and will be replaced in kind. It's about 8 years old and has had several parts replaced over the years; it's maxed on ram and it's time soon for an upgrade. I just ordered a new laptop from Lenovo and paid the penalty bounty for the windows 7 downgrade. Next year I'll tackle the PC. Changing machines is a huge time suck...

[wmc1000]

I use 2 desktops and a laptop. When I decided to cut the cord for tv I bought a Core2duo IBM PC off ebay for under $200 to use as a dvr and internet, (HULU, etc),access. It is hooked up to our 55" HDTV and controlled with a wireless keyboard/mouse combo. It has been running non-stop strong with no changes for almost 3 years. I don't forsee having to upgrade it just replace a hard drive if it crashes.

My wife's desktop died about 1 year ago so I picked up a Core2duo dell slim desktop for $55 on ebay with windows vista and it is working fine also.

I had an older laptop running XP that was getting slower and slower with all the windows updates so about 6 months ago I installed LINUX and it once again runs at an acceptable speed for surfing the internet, checking emails and reading the daily newspaper!

[explanade]

I just got an iMac in October/November and I have my iPad and iPhone with me all day.

I do a lot of surfing on the iMac but also on iPad when away from the desk.

Got the iMac to host my large library of photos. Yes you can't beat desktops for storage and power, plus the big screen.

Also got an HP laptop a couple of months ago to use on trips, in addition to iPad. I shoot RAW so will be generating several gigs of new photos on each trip so the laptop is more or less for storing the photos and then merge back to my main iMac library.

[Midpack]

Just ordered a Dell XPS 8700** for $650 and Office 2013 Home & Business (DW edict) for $180. An iMac would have been a nice toy, but I'd have to learn a new OS-X & software and spend about $1800-2000 all up. Since I already use the desktop only 20% of the time and DW uses it never, might was well save $ and stick with the (Windows) devil we know. Now I need to research how best to migrate files (without bringing viruses, etc. across) and delete bloatware from the new PC.

I want to plug it into our family room TV with HDMI, but DW glared at me when I surfaced the idea.

Will be quite an upgrade from Vista and Office 2003 (believe it or not). We'll use the old 19" LCD monitor, printer, router, etc.

Funny, buying a new PC was always an event for me. Now it's truly just another appliance for us, unlike mobile devices. My next iPad will cost more than our new PC (if they put out the rumored 12.9").

** Win 8.1, 4th Gen i5, 8G RAM, 1TB HDD, NVIDIA GPU and all the desirable ports & doo-dads.

[sailor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Major Tom My current desktop PC probably has a few more years left in it. If I make the move to full-time RV living in a few years, then I'll most likely get a laptop - with an external drive(s), for the 6-7 TB of music that I always want to hang on to.

6 TB of music? Wow.
Uncompressed CD quality, that's about 10000 hours of music.
Do you listen to most of it? How do you organize it?

[ERhoosier]

I think I'll get another iMac, Windows 8 hybrid (tablet/laptop), and replacement smartphone...in whatever order my current devices decide to die 1st.

[Major Tom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailor 6 TB of music? Wow. Uncompressed CD quality, that's about 10000 hours of music. Do you listen to most of it? How do you organize it?

It's compressed, but to the lossless FLAC format. I also scan the entire CD booklet, jewel case tray insert, and even the CD. All these images are scanned at 300dpi and stored as lossless PNG files.

It represents my CD collection, which used to number ~10,000 but is now down to about half of that. I may hang onto some of the CD's but plan to have them all archived digitally in a few years hopefully. Doing this will help me to put less stuff in storage if I ever go the full-time RV route. It's not just the CD's, but also the racks they are in. It's a pain in the behind hauling all this stuff around when I move!

As for organizing it, I have CD racks lining the wall of my apartment. Everything is alphabetized and divided into separate sections - Rock/Pop/Hip Hop, Jazz, World, Blues, Folk, Reggae, Electronic, Classical, Holiday music. Each section has a separate section at the end for compilations.

No, I haven't listened to all of it yet. The funny thing is that when listening, I keep coming back to the same old albums, despite having a fairly sizable collection.

[eytonxav]

I want to replace my almost 8 yo PC desktop soon due to XP support ending and am leaning toward a 21.5" iMac with the newer processor, but pricing this out at MacMall is causing me to pause. I was hoping to dodge some of the malware encountered over the years on my PC, and it would be kind of fun to learn a new OS, but the cost differential is hard for me to justify. Feeling the same as Midpack.

[ShokWaveRider]

I have 3 Windows Laptops, all somewhat aging but you really do not need a new one providing they run Windows 7.

1 Lenovo W510 was my W#$rk machine when I was W#$rking, they let me keep it when I left.

2 Lenovo T60P this was the predecessor to 1 and I kept it too.

3 Lenovo T60P for DW Exactly the same as 2 but I purchased it on eBay for $150

I do not plan on getting rid of them. I also have a iPad Air that I do not use, I thought I sold it but the deal fell through. I plan on getting an Android Tablet to replace it some time when it sells.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Major Tom It's compressed, but to the lossless FLAC format. I also scan the entire CD booklet, jewel case tray insert, and even the CD. All these images are scanned at 300dpi and stored as lossless PNG files. It represents my CD collection, which used to number ~10,000 but is now down to about half of that. .... No, I haven't listened to all of it yet. The funny thing is that when listening, I keep coming back to the same old albums, despite having a fairly sizable collection.

Wow. I have only about 0.22 TeraBytes digitized, and I even seem to come back to the same ones!

I've scanned a few CD covers, I found it to be way too time consuming. I guess I'm going to be satisfied by searching the web when I want info on a particular CD. I sure wish this stuff was included in a a CD database somewhere - I found a few, but only the most popular CDs were populated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DFW_M5 I want to replace my almost 8 yo PC desktop soon due to XP support ending and am leaning toward a 21.5" iMac with the newer processor, but pricing this out at MacMall is causing me to pause. I was hoping to dodge some of the malware encountered over the years on my PC, and it would be kind of fun to learn a new OS, but the cost differential is hard for me to justify. Feeling the same as Midpack.

Simple solution. Linux. I've been running Ubuntu-Linux as my primary system for 3.5 years. With the 12.04 release, I switched to the Xfce desktop (AKA Xubuntu) and I really like it.

It would probably run fine on an 8 yo desktop, and it's easy to try it out. The next long Term Release comes out in April, so if you're in no hurry, you might want to wait for that (the pre-releases are still bleeding edge from what I've read).

PS - It looks like the OP (Midpack) got his answers so hopefully these little thread-jacks aren't a problem.

-ERD50

[Ronstar]

Just got a new iMac. That will cover me at home for a while. I'll assess my home needs about 5 yrs from now, and decide what best fits my needs at that time. But I can see getting another iMac or Mac Pro type of home computer. I need a big monitor.

Have a late model iPad for the road and for surfing on the couch while watching tv. Almost everything I need for the road, except I can't do much with the photos I'm taking until I get home. Might need a laptop for the road at some point, but I'm surviving so far without one. I can see using iPads into the future for mobile stuff

[explanade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DFW_M5 I want to replace my almost 8 yo PC desktop soon due to XP support ending and am leaning toward a 21.5" iMac with the newer processor, but pricing this out at MacMall is causing me to pause. I was hoping to dodge some of the malware encountered over the years on my PC, and it would be kind of fun to learn a new OS, but the cost differential is hard for me to justify. Feeling the same as Midpack.

I would make sure that the processor and other components like the RAM are the same as the PC that you're comparing to.

You definitely are paying a premium for a Mac. But they do tend to use the faster CPUs and GPUs.

If you were to get the 27-inch Mac, it has a pretty high quality IPS screen. When they first started making them, those screens were $1000 by themselves.

The other option to consider if you do get a Mac is to upgrade to a fusion drive, which is a 128 GB SSD paired with a 2 TB disk and the OS will move your system files and your most frequently accessed files into the SSD portion.

I wouldn't necessarily get the RAM upgrade through Apple, though the 16 GB RAM upgrade for my iMac is $140 at Amazon.