# How long do you expect a new laptop to last for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 9, 2014, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-you-expect-a-new-laptop-to-last-for/704117 "2014-11-09T02:10:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-you-expect-a-new-laptop-to-last-for/704117/21 "2014-11-09T15:58:45Z")
> [@Pauly01](#): > > Assuming you get a very fast laptop now, say its a quad core i7 or an i7 nonquadcore how long do you plan to have it last for? Thus in 5 years, would an i7 laptop woudl be considered slow? The thign is i bought an i3 laptop many years ago and thought i never need to upgrade it anymore but now its very slow now. I also have an i5 quad core desktop however that seems to be very fast and its faster than many of the i7 laptops that aren’t quad core. my laptop is coming up on 5 years and it’s probably faster than most laptops in it’s price group today. that’s because I changed over to an SSD drive. AFAIK that’s the best single upgrade one can make to improve speed. For everyday use we’ve moved passed the need for faster processors. Gaming is a different story. It will always need more speed because the games are continually designed to use the newest technology. The newest version of Excel doesn’t need this. So from that standpoint I’m not interested in processor speed. I’m interested in the size/speed of caches and the ability to move the information being processed. That’s what makes a huge difference in the everyday computer. If I were building a laptop I’d order a reasonably fast processor with a lot of cache memory, a video card with the same criteria, and an SSD drive. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-you-expect-a-new-laptop-to-last-for/704117/22 "2014-11-09T21:58:04Z")
My employer offers a laptop upgrade every 16 months. I usually wait longer, till there’s a new model I like. And I max it out with upgrades when I buy it. But I use it full time for work, so it makes sense to have something that isn’t slowing me down. SSD makes a huge difference. I think the current generations of laptops will be useful for longer. Re magsafe, and Apple cables in general: I’ve noticed that some people have cables that look near new after years of use. And others that after 6 months look like they’ve been used as a tow rope. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-you-expect-a-new-laptop-to-last-for/704117/23 "2014-11-10T02:19:48Z")
My laptop is just over six years old, and is fine. I don’t play games requiring lots of resources, and have never found a website that slows it down significantly. Web pages in general are built to maximize traffic, and forcing users to download immense graphics files, say, would hurt usage. Incompatible software has been the biggest problem. I’ve replace my power transformer, and probably would need to replace the battery if I ever used it not plugged in, otherwise no hardware issues at all. Toshiba (yay) running Vista (boo!). Waiting for Win 10 to get a new one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-you-expect-a-new-laptop-to-last-for/704117.md?page=1)