Poll: How Long Do You Keep a PC/Mac These Days?

[kat]

Midpack, I misunderstood your poll question. I saw how long did you keep.... And then did not see how old is your most recent.... For me, those are different questions.

My oldest Mac is very old, and the one I am typing on now is about 9 years old and is great. It's my primary. But, I just bought an ipad on Black Friday. And I bought it for one reason. I carry my computers around with me a lot in my work, and my shoulder kept saying "I hurt!" I am going with the smaller, lighter computer finally. My MacBook Pro will stay on the kitchen table.

My oldest Mac is 25 years old. The everyday Mac in the kitchen is about 9 years old. The ipad is still in the box, three weeks later.

 

[Midpack]

Midpack, I misunderstood your poll question. I saw how long did you keep.... And then did not see how old is your most recent.... For me, those are different.

My apologies, on retrospect the way I framed the poll was pretty clumsy. Fortunately I'm getting some very good feedback nonetheless. Thanks...

 

[audreyh1]

I guess I'm an exception. I upgrade my Mac every 2 to 3 years. Reason: I do a lot of photograph editing and some graphic design and video editing. The software keeps coming up with huge improvements - like for creating panoramas or the new HD video and HDR photos - and you really need faster computers with more memory and larger drives if you don't want to wait all day for the processing. And the newer cameras keep taking bigger photos!

It's worth it though, because it's so much fun, and you can create such amazing images these days. Can't believe how hard it used to be to stitch a simple landscape panorama together. Now it's like magic!

Audrey

 

[eytonxav]

My Dell desktop is over 5 years old and is still going strong. I will keep it until it dies and then may go to an iMac. Laptops are a totally different matter and I would say you are lucky to get more than 4-5 years on a laptop.

 

[tightasadrum]

I've been using DD's discarded Dell laptop with XP since she cast it off in 2006 for an HP (which lasted less than three years). But the Dell has become frustratingly slow at times. I began to see my life ticking away while waiting forever for the thing to load. So I decided to buy a new computer. After about two days of surveying options I bought an iMac desktop, my first Apple computer. I was nudged in that direction because I like the iPhone. Turns out that the iMac is not nearly as intuitive operationally as the iPhone. Still, many things about it I like.

-21"screen (good for tired old eyes)
-communicates effortlessly with iPhone through iCloud (email,calendar,notes, pictures etc.)
-Some really cool applications to explore

I'll keep the Dell too on the desk. It's useful, when looking at investments and other things, to have two screens sometimes. I hope to keep the new one for a long time, like my vehicles.

 

[Walt34]

Before this one (Dell XPS) we kept our locally-built tower box for about 10 years. At the time it was a high-end machine and originally came with Windows 3.1 installed. Over the years I upgraded memory, drive space, OS to Win 98 and pretty much left it there.

We bought a new desktop when we couldn't find tax software that would run with Win98 and figured it was time. Now with me doing much more with graphics and photography I doubt we'll keep this one for as long. For us the time to upgrade is when the old box won't run the software we want to run. That may happen when I eventually get the full version of Photoshop instead of Elements and Lightroom.

 

[RE2Boys]

The main computer is an emachine (2 gig clock) that's lasted much longer than I expected. Though I've had to replace the DVD/CD drive twice, power supply once, upgraded memory twice, but it keeps on chugging. Bought it in Sep 2005. About 6 months ago my wife was complaining that the system seemed to be running slow. Got a freeware utility from the IT guy at my seasonal job (taxes). It cleaned up the registry but it became apparent that the problem was the system was paging applications onto the hard drive.........not enough memory. Doubled the memory and its a new machine.

The kids computer I got used, Dell desktop with 3Ghz Pentium probably 2004-5 vintage. So far........

But the Compaq laptop is only about 2 years (with that %$#^& Vista). But it's no one's regular machine. XP forever, but I'm hearing good things about Windows 7.

 

[justplainbll]

6.33 year mean time between replacement of main PC over the past 23 years-
1989- bought a used IBM Model 70
3 years later
1992- bought a Compaq Contura 430C laptop
7 years later
1999- bought a Compaq Prosignia
9 years later
2008- bought an HP Pavilion and, in 2011, an HP laptop for mobile usage.

 

[Midpack]

6.33 year mean time between replacement of main PC over the past 23 years-
1989- bought a used IBM Model 70
3 years later
1992- bought a Compaq Contura 430C laptop
7 years later
1999- bought a Compaq Prosignia
9 years later
2008- bought an HP Pavilion and, in 2011, an HP laptop for mobile usage.

The interval is getting longer, that's what I would expect too. Thanks...

 

[justplainbll]

Hardware durability, new software compatibility with the installed operating system and operating system demands on hardware seem to be the principal factors that prompt a frugal user to replace their PC's.

 

[FUEGO]

For casual users, you should be able to get at least 6 years out of a new computer. CPU processing power and ram are so cheap these days, that even a low end $300-400 laptop or desktop bought today has as much power as a 3-4 year old high end computer.

I have computers from 2001, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009. All dells. The newest 4 still run like champs and serve our families needs well. The 2004 and 2008 machines are desktop computers and are able to do pretty much anything we throw at it.

The biggest limitation I see now is HD video playback. Most machines you buy now can do a good job, but you can still buy some computers without a beefy enough HD video card or on board video chipset which prevents playback of some HD content (youtube, hulu, other web based video, for example). I imagine that not having HD playback capability would make you want to replace your machine sooner rather than later (if you care about watching HD video on your computer instead of SD). So if you want to get 6+ years out of your machine, make sure you have the bare minimum specs to play HD video (again, if you care about ever watching an HD video during your computer's lifetime).

 

[GrayHare]

I upgrade when new computer performance with typical applications is 5 to 10 times faster than my existing machine. In the '80s that meant every 2 or 3 years. As the pace of performance increase has slowed, I've likewise moved to new computers more slowly.

 

[happy2bretired]

I've had my little iBookG4 for 6 years now. I would like a new Mac laptop but from what I've read, my old Quicken software (Quicken2007) won't work on the newer Macs and there isn't any new software yet. I'm very confuuuused on what I want right now.

 

[Lsbcal]

Answered 4-5. The desk PC tech changes are probably not coming as fast as laptops. Our current laptop will be fine until we really need lightness for airline travel. Haven't bought a smartphone or pad yet but probably will want one someday.

 

[ziggy29]

No set time. When it starts feeling too slow and incapable for the applications I'm running, it's time for a new one. On average that's about every 4-6 years, give or take, since the late 1980s.

It does feel like Moore's Law is slowing down, so the "tech refreshes" may not occur as often in the future -- but we'll see about that when we get there.

 

[Major Tom]

My first reaction on seeing this thread was what kat said - that the title of the thread and the poll question are 2 different questions.

My first 2 desktops spanned 13 years, and I've had the current one for about 3 years. It looks like the average life of my desktops will continue to be 6-7 years.

I use my computer for various tasks other than e-mail and surfing - mainly audio recording and production, some ham radio applications, and the odd bit of Photoshop on medium-sized files, but nothing too taxing. No need for super-high processing speed or racy video cards here.

My screensaver used to be courtesy of SETI@home. I thought it was really neat that my PC could look for extra-terrestrial life when I wasn't using it.

 

[Meadbh]

My oldest Mac is 25 years old.

1986. That's got to be the winning geriatric computer! Congratulations Kat!

 

[Gumby]

I usually keep components until they break beyond my ability to repair them. Until last month, my oldest computer equipment was my vintage 1993 HP 4l laserjet printer. Currently, my modem is vintage 1999, LCD monitor from 2003 and Mac Mini from 2005.

 

[W2R]

I usually keep components until they break beyond my ability to repair them. Until last month, my oldest computer equipment was my vintage 1993 HP 4l laserjet printer. Currently, my modem is vintage 1999, LCD monitor from 2003 and Mac Mini from 2005.

Modem? Next you'll be talking about your stringy floppy...

 

[TromboneAl]

Where is my TRS-80? It's got to be around here somewhere.

Actually my first computer was an Atari 400.

 

[M Paquette]

Modem? Next you'll be talking about your stringy floppy...

I still have some 8" floppies along with the FrugalFloppy drive that connects to the Intellect 8 S-100 bus development system. The Intellect 8 was upgraded to use the 8080 CPU from the original 8008. Yes, it still boots, but since I don't have an ASR-33 teleprinter, this gem is programmed strictly via the front panel switches and reads out via the accumulator state lights.

 

[plex]

Budget gamer, I spend $400 or so every 4-5 years. That just means a moderately upgraded power supply and video card thrown on a new basic rig. I also upgrade one or two parts in between, something usually comes up that needs an upgrade, last time it was a ssd OS drive. Turned out to be a very large performance boost. Spinning drives are a ridiculous bottleneck.

When I have more money (and time) I'll do a full blown gaming machine for $800-1k that has a serious processor, ssd, power supply, and cross-fired video cards.

 

[W2R]

OMG, MPaquette, that's amazing. It has been a long time.

 

[donheff]

Where is my TRS-80? It's got to be around here somewhere.

Actually my first computer was an Atari 400.

Ha. Mine was a Timex Sinclair. 2K RAM IIRC. You had to connect it to a pocket tape recorder for storing and retrieving programs/data.

 

[Midpack]

Where is my TRS-80? It's got to be around here somewhere.

Actually my first computer was an Atari 400.

Fun redirect. My first was an Osborne 1 in 1981 (wow, 30 years!). I was certain Osborne would be a big market player, they were bankrupt a few years later.

My Dad started with a TRS-80. How far we've all come...