Moore’s Law approximates that technology doubles every two years. This has been applied across the board for all technology, and some of mine is getting pretty dang old comparatively. . .
I’m curious on how often y’all replace things like desktops and laptops. I’ve got a laptop going on seven years old now, and it takes a fortnight to boot up.
How often do you replace your non-workplace tech?
Tripler
Typed from a 1-year old desktop with dual monitors (an upgrade from my XP box).
I just replaced my 2011 MacBook Pro with the newest model - the 2016 Touchbar MacBook Pro.
That seems to be about right - every 5-6 years for a computer. My desktop is a Hackintosh I made in 2011. It’s had one motherboard upgrade since I built it, but I haven’t found the latest intel chips to be very compelling. My Sandybridge Coire i7-2600K is still considered one of the top-performing processors, even after 6 years. It helps that I’ve replaced the boot drive with an SSD.
When broken, or not sufficiently keeping up with what is demanded of it is when I usually upgrade or change.
That said I keep everything I own looking like new or nearly new condition. By the time you buy something new, something else is out that will replace it. Here’s my logic on the matter:
Sometimes there is an added benefit of waiting. New software or hardware usually has flaws when it is first released, especially since companies are competing and taking shortcuts just to get it to market. That’s why there are Patches and Fixes and aftermarket additions. If you wait a little bit, the problems are worked out, fixed or patched or what have you and you now have the product, working great and much cheaper. An example. I have up until 4 months ago been using an XBOX 360, knowing there are ton of top rated games to play, I finished all of those, and then moved on, so now all of the Xbox One problems are fixed, the games are a little cheaper and I have a surplus of games to play (only played 4 and have 17 more sitting waiting to be played) that I had gotten cheap. I’m even using a computer flat screen that was manufactured in 2007, still works fine and in great condition and I’m driving a heavily modified 2002 Chevy Cavalier that looks like that (http://images.gtcarlot.com/pictures/66270504.jpg) picture, except with nice alloy wheels and deflectors over the windows.
Better to be late to the game with something that works, than something new that doesn’t. In short, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”
My laptops and desktops go at around 5-7 year cycles. I’m still on a 2011 laptop, but my desktop is a 2014 MacPro. (Or, rather, I think a 2013 MacPro that I bought in 2014).
Replaced my 2007 MacBook with a 2015 Pro last year (refurb after new ones released).
Motherboard failed on my 2007 Windows build, rather than replace it (don’t code any longer) I installed Win7 on a 2009 MacMini via Bootcamp.
iPads get replaced every 3 or 4 years - these are the most heavily used computers these days.
Phones when they break.
Much the same as the above. Still working on a 2011 MacBook Pro. It is on the list of non-urgent things to replace sometime. Maybe this year, maybe not. I have not seen any useful improvements in the technology that would justify the upgrade by themselves. A few nice-to-haves. Nothing more. I’m still on an iPhone 5. Much the same deal. No compelling reason to upgrade. Indeed I don’t like the new ones as much.
If your old laptop is slow, the standard thing to do is replace the hard disk with an SSD. My MacBook got such an upgrade a few years ago, and the difference in speed is jaw dropping. This simple upgrade is probably the biggest reason people are not finding any good reason to replace machines.
Professionally we are still using reasonably old mid-range PCs. Mostly Linux. Serious compute goes into the cloud. You are nuts if you buy your own compute farms unless there are security or commercial confidentiality concerns, or you need very bespoke hardware.
Desktop : replaced my 2010 PC with a new one in late 2016. I had to get a Lenovo because I wanted to pick and choose the parts. My previous PC was still running reasonably well, but its variable cooling fan was driving me nuts.
Laptop : replaced my cheap 2012 laptop with a Surface Pro 3 in late 2015, mostly because the Wi-Fi didn’t work well anywhere. I was under the belief that the Surface Pro could serve as both tablet and laptop. No, it’s too large and Windows-clumsy for normal tablet uses, but it makes for a pretty good laptop.
Tablet : my Galaxy Tab from 2014 is starting to show its age : out of memory, general slowdown. Maybe in 2018.
Phone : 2008 - 2012 - 2014 - 2016. On the Android side, manufacturers stop providing interesting updates after about 18 months, maybe 24 for Nexus phones. And things become sluggish.
My computers tend to be on a 3 to 4 year cycle, as are my cell phones. I’m now overdue to upgrade from my iPhone 5, as it’s starting to get glitchy.
Ha ha, not often enough. My phone is about three years old, and for the last year at least it has been reporting the time as one hour ahead of the real time, and nothing I do will change it.
As far as laptops or desktop PCs, I replace mine usually when, and only when, they are FUBAR. Despite my best efforts, this happened most recently about two years ago, so I got a bare-bones from Tiger Direct for hella cheap. (a bare-bones is usually a motherboard, processor, and limited peripherals – in this case, I got a terabyte HD and lots of RAM along with them – all for a little over $200.) I love them because their customer support is outstanding.
Moderator Action
Since this is more personal experience and opinion than factual, let’s move this to IMHO (from GQ).
As a serious computer geek (PhD, taught Computer Science), I’m alway slow to upgrade tech. I can keep stuff alive and useful longer than most people. So no interest in getting the latest and greatest.
E.g., the CPU on my computer was released in late 2011. I see no need to replace anything for some time. My iPod dates from 2004. I just replaced the battery on it (again). It also has a 32GB SS drive so it’s good to go from quite some time. And on and on.
I remember a poll of the faculty of one department I was at years ago on their home PCs. We were all using out-of-date computers. The usual “slowing” of a computer as it gets older doesn’t happen to people who know that the computer isn’t actually getting slower, it’s just getting loaded with crap.
Hence I usually advise people like kenobi 65 that maybe the phone is just loaded with crapware. Time to backup, wipe and re-install only the essential apps.
ETA: completely agree with ftg.
My “desktop” is a 2010 laptop. It’s getting long in the tooth but probably has another 3 or 4 years in it. It runs 24x7 but doesn’t get much hands-on use.
My tablet is a Surface 2 from 2013. I’m on my third used one; the touchscreens tend to die young. I don’t want any of the newer Surface models as they’re all larger & I don’t want larger in what’s supposed to be a handy portable format. I hope to stretch this out for another 3 or 4 years.
My phone is just 1 year old. I bought a waterproof model after my last (nonwaterproof) phone went swimming with me. I hope it’ll last 3 more years at least. My prior phones were good for 3-4 years each.
My TV is barely HD and my stereo dates to the late 1990s. Neither of which get much use.
My bigger challenge is software / ecosystem. I’m still using Office 2010 and using my desktop-bound laptop as my lifetime archive device. Yes, with cloud backup, but not cloud-centric storage. I also use a 3rd party pay-for email provider.
Part of me wants to switch to the modern “it’s all in the cloud for free & synced to your devices model.” Part of me doesn’t really want Google or whoever reading all my email and files and tracking all my internet activity as the payment for their “free” services.
Bottom line, my current unwillingness to update the software model is the largest practical obstacle to getting new hardware. But besides that, I have no interest in new hardware. Despite having been a dev for years, my personal IT ecosystem is about as interesting to me as is my assortment of kitchen appliances. It toasts, it makes coffee, it blends. After that, who cares about the details.
When it needs fixing I fix it. When it needs more fixing than I’m willing to bother with (which ain’t much anymore), I replace it. That’ll happen to my IT stack eventually. But not this month.
Phones and tablet, probably every 3-4 years. I mainly use my tablet as a light consumption device: email, web browsing, etc so it doesn’t need the latest processor. Just did my phone last November, tablet is pushing its third birthday.
My desktop still sports an overclocked i7-860 (released 2009) though the GPU is newer with an R290X (2013). It runs stuff fine including the latest games, albeit at 1080p and at Medium/High vs the maxed out highest settings. Still, I can’t complain about the mileage I’ve gotten out of it. I don’t really have a turn-over schedule for it, just when it stops doing what I want it to do.
Phone - every 2 years on average, although I’m on my 3rd phone in six months because I tried a larger one, didn’t like the size, and then bought a smaller one.
Laptop - every 2-3 years.
Desktop - whenever it stops working. The desktop is mostly just a file server these days, occasionally playing old not-graphics-intensive games, so I pretty much just replace parts when they die. It’s now old enough that the old computers at work that get retired are newer, so I can often scavenge parts from them to upgrade it.
Five to seven years on my computers. Anything else as long as it does what it is intended to do I don’t replace.
When it totally becomes unusable. I still use my 520c for some things and I’m typing this on a first generation Mini.
I make my kids nag me for at least three years. Often longer. My current iPad is one of their old ones, after they upgraded. I bought the phone directly. It’s a 5. One of them has started complaining that I spend too much time with it recharging, and a new phone would hold the charge longer. I don’t count the nagging as truly started if only one of them complains.
I’m not as bad as my mother was, bless her soul. She refused to get a new computer because the old one wasn’t broken, yet. Never mind that, between it and her slow connection, it would pause about every third word if she was writing an email.
All the things that make my life easier:
Desktop - Probably will never have another one. It hasn’t even been turned on since I got a wireless external hard drive to save all my important stuff.
Laptop - When it stops working, usually in the 4-5 year range.
Phone - Every 3 years, on average
Wife - Initial unit is at 29 years now, don’t foresee a need to upgrade.
Let’s see…
PRIMARY COMPUTER… FROM/UNTIL
Macintosh SE/HD (used) 1991/1996
PowerMac 7100… 1996/1999
PowerBook “wallstreet” 1999/2006
PowerBook 17" DL… 2006/2012
MacBookPro 17"… 2012 (current)
The PowerMac 7100 got dethroned not so much because of being slow & obsolete as because I really craved a laptop for portability. And the SE was already used and quite a bit out of date when I bought it as a college student. Looks like I replace my computers every 6-7 years on average, need it or not.
I still own them all, with the exception of the SE which blew a motherboard back when. I have a rack I refer to as my “computer museum” and I have Timbuktu installed on everything so I can remote into them from the modern box. The 7100 is still ticking and I occasionally use it (most often to open and convert positively ancient files-- such as MacWrite word processing files, SuperPaint graphic/art files, etc-- or to access data on a floppy disk (I can even read those old 400K floppies if I boot into System 7). The “wallstreet” PowerBook was my favorite of all of them. Man, that was one sweet box for its time.
I like using a phone that is fairly current, so I get a new one when my battery is starting to fade, roughly every two years. We have a desktop at home and it’s only a year old. It will be replaced one day by a laptop.
My laptop at work gets abused pretty hard. Food and drink spills are common. My parrot has done some damage as well. I watch Woot for deals and replace as needed.
