I currently am using an iMac from mid 2011. It has been totally dependable, except for running slower and slower.
Recently I upgraded the original 4G of memory (RAM) to 12 G by installing two additional 4 G flash memory RAM. The results have been great, saving me from a purchase in the immediate future.
Hopefully my next computer will be totally chip memory based, both RAM and the replacement for the traditional spinning disk hard drive. BTW, I am open to suggestions as to what to get for my next computer.
So how about your old computer? Either currently running or one you had in the past would be interesting.
My main laptop (which, honestly, I actually don’t use much anymore. I’m either on my desktop or my iPad) is a 2011 MacBook Pro. My only Windows computer is a 2009 MacBook Pro running Windows 7. My main desktop is a Late-2013 MacPro, but I have no reason to upgrade it or trade it in anytime soon. My old desktop was an original MacPro (1,1) 2007 or late 2006, I think. That one I swapped out the CPU for a newer one and upgraded the graphics card and Ram, so it lasted me from 2007 until 2014. It’s still in use in the basement as a server of sorts. I just have it networked and use the four drive bays as long-term storage for the MacPro I have running upstairs.
They’ve all treated me well, and I have no current plans to upgrade anything any time soon.
I have two old ones I currently use.
An early 2008 MacBook which is because obsolete because I can’t upgrade the OS any further and Macs development system strong arms developers into very little retro compatibility. Otherwise I use it for all but the most resource intensive 3d design stuff and it’s a beater I take with me to use during art projects.
I also have a Dell optiplex 760 ( I think) that is used primarily as a workstation for CNC machining.
The parallel port is still standrd for cheapish home CNC setups and even with adapters for USB operation , software is still far better on win 7 then the 1 ( I think ) available buggy 10 compatible program. It’s been heavily upgraded and I do play around with design on it occasionally. I may soon make it dual boot for win 10 just to use fusion 360 while at the workstation for minor tweaks.
I have a gateway 2000 that runs on win 98 …we keep it because all of our old games from the 90s and nid 2000s run on it ……like diablo1 dark forces 1 and 2 ect …… its worse than a toaster spec wise tho
I have an iMac I bought in 2005. I use it everyday. It slowed a bit a couple of years ago so I worked with Apple to update the OS and did to a degree. There’s stuff it won’t do but it has an old version of Photoshop that’s I would hate to live without.
Replace the HDD in your iMac with a SSD if it’s possible. You’ll be very pleased at the difference it makes.
My spare PC is 2007 vintage and works just fine.
As for your next computer, you’d need to tell us what you do with it. Unless you play games or do video processing or heavy computational work then you really don’t need much by today’s standards. For web browsing and MS Office work you could look at the Intel NUC or the refreshed Mac Mini (which is huge compared to the NUC) or the Zotac ZBox.
I have a Mac Pro I bought in 2012, with 16G of RAM. It has served me well, but sometimes runs a little slow or gets hung up. It’s a toss-up as to who will die first, me or the computer.
I have never owned a computer that wasn’t a Mac. The only Apple product I’ve ever disliked was that horribly designed Apple Mouse 2. I spit on its memory.
“This axe is sixty years old, it’s only needed two new heads and three new handles.”
The PC I am using right now I got in 2011, and was a top-of-the-line one for the most part, deigned to cope with heavy graphics intensive work, so was mighty. That gave it a long lifespan. About 18 months ago I upgraded the graphics card, just to run a few modern games a bit smoother, but if I hadn’t it still would’ve coped pretty well. But that extra boost of GPU will give it another few years of life.
Eventually I will have to upgrade from Win7 to Win10 but I really don’t want to.
I’ve got a lot 2014 iMac 27" Retina with 32 GB and 1TB SSD. It was a replacement for my non-Retina 2011, with SSD via Thunderbolt. I believe it had 16 GB of RAM.
I’ve also got a Retina MacBook Pro (some 2013 model), 13" model, max retail spec because I didn’t BTO.
The MacBook is still fine. Heck, the 2011 iMac was fine, but I wanted Retina.
Our oldest computer still in use is an 8-9 year old Windows 7 laptop that’s permanently hooked up to our TV/home theater system, where it functions as a DVR and digital media server. Sticking with Win7 was deliberate because Microsoft removed Windows Media Center from Windows 10, which we use for recording and as our TV tuner interface for our projector.
I’ve been an “incrementalist” PC upgrader. Add this, replace that, etc.
It also applies to software: started with MS-DOS 3.0 (on an XT clone) and just kept upgrading to MS-Windows 7. Never a wipe and fresh install on my main computer.
But I wanted to go 64-bit, etc. So time for the big upgrade.
Old: AMD FX-4100 CPU that came out over 7 years ago. 4 gigs of RAM (a lot unused), etc. (It’s going into my server box in the basement. That has just an Athlon.)
New: AMD Ryzen 5 1400. 8 gigs of RAM, 500 GB M.2 drive, etc. The old one wasn’t technically slow, but still the speed increase in quite noticeable.
Still working on the software transition. Want a VM to run old stuff and nothing works right. (Or it works and then permanently fails.) Uninstall, reinstall, etc. Googling error messages gives me no hits of use at all. So weird stuff.
The next coolest upgrade was a 23" monitor a year+ ago. Wow. Easy on the eyes.
Currently use a new Macbook Air and a high-end PC gaming laptop.
I have a stack of old Macbooks. There’s a couple of the old all-white “Core Duo” Macbooks circa 2006-2009, an “aluminum” Macbook circa 2010 maybe, and a Macbook Pro from 2012.
I also have an older Windows 10 laptop that I game with from about 5 years ago. I primarily use the new machine but I still use the old one. I use them as “upstairs” and “downstairs” computers so I don’t have to move them around.
Looks like I have everyone beat so far. I have a stock Macintosh 7500 purchased slightly used in 1994. Everything still works and for those Mac folks out there I’m running System 7.5. I use it once a week for some statistical analysis work and less frequently as an architectural drafting tool. I could migrate the statistical effort but not the drafting.
My “real” workstation is a 2010 PC running Windows 7. Plenty of horsepower to do everything I need.
No plans to mothball the Mac or upgrade the workstation.
a) My current still-latest and still-greatest is a MacBook Pro vintage 2011, the last version that can natively boot MacOS 10.6.8 (“snow leopard”), one of the last with 17" screen. The internal HD has been swapped out for a 2 TB SSD. I see zero reason to upgrade any time soon.
b) Two other copies of the same box in active deployment / backup machines in case this one has a hardware failure.
c) Still in active deployment for video digitizing (has a Canopus card attached), iMovie HD box (the PPC / MacOS 10.4 era which was much nicer than later versions thereof), Photoshop box (PS 2 is/was available for free download and it’s PPC-native): a 17" G4 PowerBook, the last of its breed
d) Also still in deployment as a FileMaker server and web server, a second copy of the above, running 10.5.8
e) Only in operation when I boot it: A 1998-vintage “WallStreet” PowerBook, accelerated to 500 MHz G4, with 512 MB RAM, sporting [i[two* internal 60 gig 7200 RPM Toshibas, running MacOS 10.3.8 (“Panther”) courtesy of XPostFacto. Extremely fond of this machine, probably my all-time favorite. Still gets used as a slide scanner (I have a slide scanner for which no OS X driver exists).
f) Only in operation when I boot it: A 1996-vintage Power Mac 7100, accelerated to 300 MHz G3, with 2 internal HDs each partitioned and set up to boot my choice of MacOS 8.6 (default), 8.1, or 7.6. It was once set up to run 3 monitors, the first box I had to support multiple displays. Mostly a hobby box at this point.
g) Only in operation when I boot it: a 1988-vintage Macintosh SE with a 40 MHz '030 accelerator and 16 MB RAM. Boots System 6.0.8 and I have it on the network using a SCSI-to-ethernet adapter.
I have an NEC AT clone from **1989 **that still runs. I have not used it continuously but unboxed it last year to see if it would power up. It has an 8086 CPU, runs at 12MHz (turbo mode 16Mhz), 8MB of memory, and an 80MB hard disk, 5.25 floppy drive and 3.5 floppy drive. No network connectivity. It has Hercules graphics, and I have the CRT monitor I bought at the same time. I also have the Epson dot matrix printer (16 dots) but haven’t powered it up to see if it still works.
I have an i7-860 system (released 2009) still running as the family computer. Has 12GB of RAM and an R9 290X GPU in it and can still play a lot of modern games although I haven’t tried any truly recent titles in it. Ran stuff up until early 2018 anyway and with Steam family sharing, it’s the PC my kid uses to leech off my Steam game account.
So not as old as vintage systems but pretty old for a system being used in a modern sense.
I’m using a Lenovo laptop from about five years ago, Windows 7. And I just ordered another one just like it.
Why? Because I have no desire for a new operating system to screw up everything. All of my software runs fine and I have no desire for “improvements” which will likely render much of it unusable. I’m also very opposed to this idea of Windows as a “service”, which from what I’ve read here on the boards is the main “feature” of Windows 10. F&*&^ that.
I mostly use a POS (NOT Point of Sale) Android tablet w/detachable keyboard but I have a TRS-80 Model 100 within reach that is handy when I need to feel a proper keyboard.