im sure many of you wondered abou tthis...lol http://www.pcworld.ca/news/column/b2f8e37a0a0104080147c3021fc6e162/pg1.htm So, your machine isn't the latest and greatest. That doesn't mean it's toast. Just how aged is the PC that sits in my home office? It's not just older than my laptop and my work machine, it's actually older than my car. Heck, it's older than my house. And the amazing thing is, I'm not itchy to buy a new home system with all the newest trimmings. This one still plays an essential role in my everyday computing, even as it approaches its fifth birthday. Time was when a PC that was a couple of years old could feel downright creaky, especially when you threw the latest tasks at it. Today, many vintage computers are doing just fine. They may not pack the latest and greatest technology, but they can do most of the things that most of us want to do in 2006. Especially with a few well-chosen upgrades. I thought about that as we were working on this issue's upgrading how-to story, Robert Luhn's "The Ultimate PC Power Boost". Don't scrap any machine until you read the article--it's full of hands-on, real-world advice on giving new life to old boxes. Herewith, a few more tips, drawn from my own life with my very own PC, on how to be a happy owner of a computer that's been around the block a few times: Buy a system you can grow into. Upgrading is a smart move; avoiding the need to upgrade is smarter still. So, even in this era of extremely cheap, surprisingly powerful PCs, I recommend springing for a machine with more horsepower and features than you need right now. Way back in early 2002, I bought my Presario with a 1.7-GHz Athlon XP CPU, 1GB of RAM and a 100GB hard drive--which made it a pretty sweet system back then. Today, those specs are mundane at best, but they've extended the PC's useful life. Upgrade as your work demands it. The best time to invest in an upgrade is when it will provide instant gratification. So, I didn't buy a DVD burner until I was ready to start fooling around with video. And there are some seemingly obvious upgrades I still haven't made. (Don't tell anyone, but my PC has its poky old original USB 1.1 ports). Think outside the box. Defined liberally, an upgrade is any piece of new hardware that lets you get more out of a computer you already own. In the old days, most of them were components that lived inside the PC. But, lately, I'm discovering that it's just as important to pay attention to external infrastructure. In the time I've owned this PC, for instance, I've gone from no network to a wired one to 802.11b Wi-Fi to 802.11g with a great big networked drive. And I'm about to get a faster DSL connection. I don't think there's a single internal upgrade that would be as worthwhile as these connectivity upgrades have proved
I have a 5 years computer at my home My laptop is 1 year old I don't change things if they work fine Probably will get a new laptop to work when i will realy need it or hope not this one get's broke (that's what happend to my last laptop) I'm not a addicted to the newest and greatest ghz and ram and etc i do my business and lucky for me i don't play games (exept FIFA)
My first computer was a 2.86 at an extraordinary 33 megahertz CPU ) Ahh the times ) I have a nother Celeron used by my dad a crap at 2.4 ghz Soon i will have a medium network in my home For now 2 laptops 2 pc all working fine (one of the laptops afther 3 hous shut downs but it works ) I colect Pc's )
u can keep it as long as you want and as long as it works .... i have a 4 year old desktop and couple month old laptop
I have a 5 year desktop that is ued for browsing and the current system is nearly 2 years old. Probably gonna get a laptop with the next few months.
I have a soon to be 4 yr old AMD machine at home which is still okay ;-) I did upgrade the RAM to 1 GB recently, and it works better ;-)However, I am keeping the OS to Win XP SP2 for now. Vista's requirements would slow my PC dramatically. Once Vista is fine and dandy, ( give one or two SP upgrades ), I'd probably buy a new machine.
As long as your computer is meeting your needs there is no reason to get rid of it. Years ago, my desktop was a dual with p-II 360s running Windows NT 4.0. That machine now serves my more modest websites as a *nix box. My main server is around four years old and is a dual with Athlon MP 1800s. My current desktop is three years old with dual athlon MP 2800s. It is even Vista Aero compatible because it has fanless Geforce 5200 and 4 gigs of RAM. My only issue with these machines is noise and power consumption. Today we solved the noise problem by moving them on the other side of the wall. The power question will probably need an upgrade to more energy efficient processors and a consolidation of the machines.
My laptop is three years old and I have one four and one five year old desktop that I use. I have also converted a 7? year old Compaq Ipaq into a radio to listen to music online.
I have a downline for computers. I have 3 kids and a wife. No one is allowed to touch my computer, but I buy a new one once a year and my old one goes into the kids/wife computer pool and the oldest of theirs gets given away or thrown out.