How old is your computer?

[easysurfer]

Is there a good way to tell the actual age of a PC/Laptop?

Running a ThinkPad T450 that transitioned from work laptop to personal laptop when MicroCorp decided to upgrade to new ThinkPads a few years ago. The T450 is running an i5-5300U CPU, which was apparently released in early 2015 so I guess this one is 5+ years old. Swapped the HDD for an SSD when it became my personal laptop and now it runs better than the newer work laptop since it doesn't have the corporate security/monitoring software etc. bogging it down. The 14" now feels like the perfect balance of function and size after preferring a desktop for personal PC for 20 years

I usually look up the model number on an internet search and read reviews.

But there are more objective way. Tips include looking at the BIOS or when the OS was installed. This isn't exact though as I person could buy an older PC then upgrade with later version OS and BIOS.

Sometimes condition comes when you want to know the age of your computer. There might be various reason why you want to know that. Windows operating system is one of the best operating system available in the market. It has all the possible tools and utilities which users require while working on a machine running it.
Similarly, it also tracks the date which tells when the manufacturer installed the operating system on the machine for the first time. The same date is also the date when you have purchased the computer using which you can quickly calculate computer age. But it only shows you the correct date if you have not performed the fresh installation of the operating system.

https://geekermag.com/how-old-is-my-computer/

 

[Getyoung]

I replaced my 8 year old HP all in one system with an Apple macbook about 18 months ago. I really couldn't be happier. So nice to have everything synced up to my Iphone and Ipad, such as notepad, pictures, contacts, etc. I also bought a 23" Benq monitor for home use, i just unplug the laptop when I want portability, and with micrsoft office, everything transfered over seamlessly. After a lifetime of PC's it is pretty refreshing to work with this.

 

[ychuck46]

Just added a desktop

I have three units right now - an older HP laptop I put Linux Mint on, my former fulltime Lenovo laptop that I use now for our travels (i5-based), and a Lenovo desktop unit I just purchased refurbed that is great - i7, 16GB of memory, and 512GB SSD, that I marry to a 32" monitor on my desk. The reason for getting the desktop is that I wanted more USB ports, etc built-in, and the energy usage (likely due to the SSD) is exactly the same as the laptop, 65w. Quiet as heck and it works great. Never buy new; too many quality refurbed machines out there from reputable resellers.

 

[HI Bill]

I just built a powerhouse computer with an AMD Ryzen 5950X CPU, 21 TB of SSDs (solid state drives, with four comprising two RAIDs), an NVidea RTX 3090 video card, an 850-watt Seasonic power supply, and 128GB of RAM. I ended up doubling my original budget, mostly due to the unavailability of the CPU and GPU. I added a 4K 31.5" LG ultrafine monitor for 4K video editing.

I then took my previous build (a very capable PC from 2013), and added two 8TB SSDs and a 1TB SSD for my wife, who uses LightRoom, but doesn't do video editing. It's a solid computer, and hasn't had any issues since I built it. I'd still be running that one if I didn't want to edit my drone footage.

 

[ychuck46]

I just built a powerhouse computer with an AMD Ryzen 5950X CPU, 21 TB of SSDs (solid state drives, with four comprising two RAIDs), an NVidea RTX 3090 video card, an 850-watt Seasonic power supply, and 128GB of RAM. I ended up doubling my original budget, mostly due to the unavailability of the CPU and GPU. I added a 4K 31.5" LG ultrafine monitor for 4K video editing.

I take it this is a work system? If not you lost me at the need for an 850 watt power supply, since my intent is to hold down my power costs as much as possible. And 21TBs for SSDs?? I think your needs dwarf the typical user by orders of magnitude, my friend.

 

[HI Bill]

I take it this is a work system? If not you lost me at the need for an 850 watt power supply, since my intent is to hold down my power costs as much as possible. And 21TBs for SSDs?? I think your needs dwarf the typical user by orders of magnitude, my friend.

No, this is my 'retirement' system. It has the 850-watt power supply to power the 105-watt CPU, and the 400-watt graphics card. Two of the SSDs are 8TB each, and are running in RAID (mirror images of each other) for archival photo and video storage. Two other SSDs (2TB each) are also running in RAID and are my photo and video 'working drives'. The last SSD is only 1TB and is the system and software drive. For editing 4K video, I chose a moderate system that would allow the system to run smoothly, no matter what I throw at it. I'm using DaVinci's Resolve video editing software, which uses a lot of resources.

 

[NC 57]

I have a 2012 iMac desktop which I used for email, word processing, spreadsheets, photo editing, and video production. I have maximized its ram memory. Then internal fusion drive was dying. Instead of trying to replace the internal drive with another internal drive (not something I was comfortable doing) I purchased a high speed Samsung 2TB external solid state drive which I directed the computer to use as the startup disk. It also contains applications and data. I also use other external hard drives for data for my video production. The new external drive dramatically speeded up the machine so it should last another 2-3 years.

I also have a 2015 MacBook Pro laptop. 16GB ram memory and internal 1TB solid state drive. It is the best computer I've ever owned and continues to work beautifully and handle everything I throw at it including some photo and video editing. I recently had the battery replaced by Apple. Apple replaced the entire bottom case and the keyboard so I expect another 5 years of use out of it since it continues to run fast and exceptionally well with Apple's latest operating system Big Sur. It receives heavy use -- at least 2 hours a day and I take it everywhere I go.

 

[NW-Bound]

I just built a powerhouse computer with an AMD Ryzen 5950X CPU, 21 TB of SSDs..

I had to look up that CPU. One heck of a machine, with a Passmark of 46,000. The CPU alone is $750. I was eyeing an HP laptop that sells for $650, and a CPU benchmark of 10,000, and that's 4x faster than the laptop I am typing this on.

And the top Ryzen 3990X CPU has a passmark of 80,900, for $5000. A lot more money for not quite 2x in performance. And I am not sure there are many applications that can use all of 64 cores of the 3990x. The 5950X already has 16 cores.

This kind of computing power would get me really excited when I was still working. I still remember back when my self-written Monte Carlo simulation (for an aerospace design) took a day to make a set of 5000 runs. The new machines would be so fast, I would not have time to finish a cup of coffee.

 

[Exchme]

I think solid state hard disks are game changers for computer life.

I had used the w*rk laptop for travel, so when I retired, I needed something else. DW had a 2014 Mac Book that was struggling to do what she needed and its battery was shot. It has a solid state hard disk and I don't need much more than internet browsing when we travel, so she replaced the battery with instructions from U-Tube, gave me that one and we got her a new Mac Book with more power.

For home, I have a Mac desktop with the 27" Retina display from 2016 that I just put a new (small) solid state hard disk in, I mostly store stuff in the cloud so I can swap between desktop and laptop without problems.

I never thought of myself as an Apple consumer, but now all our computers are Apple, we both have AirPods and DW has an old iPod. I guess we like stuff that just works.

 

[samcat]

We just replaced computers that were bought in 2010 and 2011. We did not know what we were missing!

 

[Out_the_Door]

My HP is nine years old. I've replaced the failing HDD once and I upgraded the ram and it is still on windows 8. I run a myriad of software (including photoshop) on it and I use it for backups to my NAS (lots of audio files and photo files). And it works fine. I have a five year old laptop (windows 10) that I use just for surfing the web and trolling the occasional reddit subgroup.

 

[ejman]

We just replaced computers that were bought in 2010 and 2011. We did not know what we were missing!

Very curious to learn what it is you found you were missing?
I've been happily using my HP 8300 which I bought a couple of years ago refurbished for a princely $99 including shipping I don't know exactly when it was built but I would guess in the 2012 time frame. It has an Intel I5 3rd gen and it functions very well to run my Vizio TV, run spotify thru my stereo system and of course browse the interwebs. I installed MX-Linux on it and a small SSD which if I remember correctly cost $20 and I used the existing spinning hard drive to load about 500 music CD's or so converted to FLAC files. Other than gaming, which I'm not interested in I struggle to imagine what it is am missing that I would get on a current machine?

 

[NW-Bound]

... Other than gaming, which I'm not interested in I struggle to imagine what it is am missing that I would get on a current machine?

If you don't play computer games or do video editing, you are not missing a lot.

The biggest thing for improvement is an SSD. They are cheap enough now ($29 for 240GB, $55 for 480GB), that there's no reason not to get one for a boot drive for old machines that still run on HDD. All of my old machines now have an SSD for the boot drive.

I have an SSD for a NAS. Copying a file from my laptop to the NAS via WiFi is about 2x faster than copying the same file to a USB 3.0 flashdrive plugged into the laptop. They are both solid-state drives!

On the Web, it is explained that the reason SSDs are faster than thumbdrives is because the former has a better controller, has RAM for caching, plus the memory itself is of a faster type.

 

[ejman]

If you don't play computer games or do video editing, you are not missing a lot.

The biggest thing for improvement is an SSD. They are cheap enough now ($29 for 240GB, $55 for 480GB), that there's no reason not to get one for a boot drive for old machines that still run on HDD. All of my old machines now have an SSD for the boot drive.

I have an SSD for a NAS. Copying a file from my laptop to the NAS via WiFi is about 2x faster than copying the same file to a USB 3.0 flashdrive plugged into the laptop. They are both solid-state drives!

On the Web, it is explained that the reason SSDs are faster than thumbdrives is because the former has a better controller, has RAM for caching, plus the memory itself is of a faster type.

Yes, the key to getting these old machines to be as zippy as could be is that SSD. With Linux in this old machine startup is basically as fast as I can hit my logon password. And my "workday" is also about as fast as my WiFi will allow which is plenty fast for me.

 

[NW-Bound]

Modern-day technology is amazing. I still remember my very 1st PC, which was an IBM XT clone made by Mitsubishi. I paid $1,500 in 1985, and that is equivalent to $3900 in today's dollars. And I still had to pay extra to add more memory, add a 30MB RLL hard drive, an 8087 floating-point math coprocessor.

Nowadays, one does not need to spend a lot of money to have a good life, with decent amenities. A run-of-the-mill car provides good comfort, a refurbished PC gets you all the computing power you really need, a low-end smartphone gets you all the modern conveniences, a $6/lb steak on sale at Safeway can taste good enough instead of the $100/lb Japanese Wagyu, a $20 bottle of brandy can get you as drunk as a $200 bottle of XO Cognac.

We don't really need all that much money to live well.


PS. Here's an 1989 Macintosh for $6,500, which is equivalent to $14,500 in today's dollars.

Here's the 1983 Apple Lisa, which cost $9,995 then ($27,500 in today's dollars).

 

[easysurfer]

Back in my Mac days, I remember picking up an external CD burner and having that shipped overnight (way before getting spoiled with Amazon shipping). I think the CD burner was about $300, overnight shipping about $10. Felt like money well spent being able to burn stuff on a CD.

 

[ejman]

Well, maybe some day soon the Star Trek theme where money becomes obsolete because material goods are so easy and cheap to produce will become reality. In the meantime I'll continue with my (very satisfying so far) cheapskate ways I guess - unless I hear from someone who convinces me otherwise.

 

[NW-Bound]

In the last 12 months, my stash gain was in the 7 figures. Yet, I have not seen anything that I care to spend money on. If something I have is good enough, I just let it be.

And I am getting lazy too, and do not care to spend the time to figure out the new "stuff", particularly if the new stuff requires you to do something different for the same result.

Just earlier today, I swore at my recently bought Android phone, because Android 10 does not work like the old Android 6 of the old phone. I don't regret getting the new phone, because its battery life is vastly superior to the old one, but damn it, why do they change the user interface for the old features?

 

[ejman]

In the last 12 months, my stash gain was in the 7 figures. Yet, I have not seen anything that I care to spend money on. If something I have is good enough, I just let it be.

And I am getting lazy too, and do not care to spend the time to figure out the new "stuff", particularly if the new stuff requires you to do something different for the same result.

Just earlier today, I swore at my recently bought Android phone, because Android 10 does not work like the old Android 6 of the old phone. I don't regret getting the new phone, because its battery life is vastly superior to the old one, but damn it, why do they change the user interface for the old features?

Good for you NW-bound! Yes, no sense in spending money for no or little improvement. One reason I got off the windows merry go round is that a lot of the changes since Win7 score low on the real improvement scale. On the Android front, my Galaxy J3 Orbit with Android 9 seems to be behaving itself and doing what it needs to do. That was $50 well spent a year or two ago. It probably works so well because Android is Linux based too.

 

[teetee]

My work MacBook pro from 2018 has an Intel i7 chip in it. The Ryzen 5 5500u laptop I recently got for $450 for personal use has the performance score 4 times more than that. Being released from earlier this year certainly played a role but that Ryzen CPU is not even the latest AMD architecture. It is just a good value.

I wonder if this chip shortage will cause the laptops pricing to climb like the current chaotic car market.

 

[2cheap2eat]

My computer was bought at the end of 2012 so it's almost nine years old. It works perfectly fine for the things I do (surf, email, simple spreadsheets . . .). I timed it the other day and I can push the power button and have ER.org up in less than a minute and that includes me typing in the main password to unlock the machine at start-up. I don't figure a new machine getting me here in 30 seconds or less is going to make it worth it for me to upgrade.

However, with Windows 11 coming, I'm wondering how long I can rid this machine. My understanding is that they'll only support Windows 10 through 2025. So of course I have plenty of time. But in the meantime, I'm wondering how old others have gone and still have a useful machine.

Useful to me means that you can get on the internet and perform typical tasks. Not an old machine that you have maintained for a specific purpose - like running Quicken 2000 or some such single use task.


ETA:

I have an i5-3450S (4 core/64 bit) 2.80GHz processor with 16GB ram and a 250GB ssd. I also have a 1TB internal data drive. The thing I really like about my machine is that it has no fan. It was custom built and the case is small but it's aluminum and is basically a heat sink. The thing I would like is to upgrade the graphics to 4K but I can't really say it's worth it for what I use the machine for (no photo editing or video/movie watching).

Fans are actually a good thing to help components stay cooler, modern fans are very quiet. Also your hard drives are old, be sure to backup on thumb drive. Cloud drives are fine for non-sensitive files.

 

[Gumby]

.... vastly superior to the old one, but damn it, why do they change the user interface for the old features?

I hear you. I have been annoyed about MS DOS since they replaced the command line with that GUI stuff. I want direct control, darn it, not intermediated through some silly Windows program.

 

[Jerry1]

Fans are actually a good thing to help components stay cooler, modern fans are very quiet. Also your hard drives are old, be sure to backup on thumb drive. Cloud drives are fine for non-sensitive files.

When you have OCD, no fan is very quiet. It’s hard to explain, but there’s certain noises I just can’t stand.

The drives should be fine. I actually upgraded the SSD not too long ago. It came with a 120GB and I swapped out for a 250GB which is just barely over half full. The data drive is old, but I back that up to an external drive.

To be clear, the unit is more than just a computer in an aluminum case. There’s piping and special architecture that keeps the machine very cool. It’s just one step less than liquid cooled. Plus, I don’t and have never really run this computer hard.

Bought here: https://silentpc.com/

 

[Mymichele6]

about 4 years

 

[NW-Bound]

I hear you. I have been annoyed about MS DOS since they replaced the command line with that GUI stuff. I want direct control, darn it, not intermediated through some silly Windows program.

Touché!

No, I am not such a Luddite. I was annoyed at some windows in my phone that are now dismissed or closed by swiping down, instead of sideway. It took me a heck of a long time to figure out how it now works.

With Windows versions, some features or settings would be moved about, and you have to go look around to see where they hide them.