Survey: How Old Is Your Computer?

mine is less than a year, but not because I like shiny new - because my old computer went to computer heaven. And then my husband recycled it to be a server...or something.

mine's less than a year not because I wouldn't own an older one but because this is the first one i have ever purchased. every other pc i've had was handed down to me by my dad or siblings.

5 years but upgraded several time for more memory and more CPU speed. it's still a fast windows XP computer but since last year, I made it twice as fast by dual-booting on a light weight linux OS.

the other "portable" computer is a Nokia N800 that fit in my pocket and is not a phone.

The answers are kinda biased. Just because someone uses a newer computer doesn't mean it's because they don't want to use an old one. I have friends that have brand new computers because their company supplies them, my computer is personally about four years old, but I have another computer that I'm working on as a project. This is also biased against PC gamers, where being outdated isn't much of an option. Not to mention people who have computers break down, such as a power supply blowing up.

The energy to manufacture a computer is MUCH higher than the energy required to run it.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/4183/Energy-Intensity-of-Computer-Manufacturing

A 3-year computer life-cycle is more energy intensive than your refrigerator's 10-year life-cycle.

Pieter:

all/none of the above, I bought my computer ten years ago, but since then I replaced every part of it at least once (except for the 3 1/2" disk unit, which is there only for backward compatibility), and added new parts such as a firewire card.

The oldest part of my cmoputer is my 23 year old IBM keyboard. My aluminium case has been with me since 2000 or so, as has one of my harddisks. My DVD burner is two years old, my graphics card is 4, my motherboard and processor are new. So, erhm, this is a bit hard to quantify.

I upgrade what's needed, when it's needed. I buy my components based on two criteria only: energy efficiency and noise levels. My most recent upgrade took my PC's power consumption down by another 20watts or so. I need to get my hands on a power meter sometimes.

I still get good use out of a 6 year old IBM T22 which is amazingly quick when running Puppy Linux on it rather than XP.

My main computer is an Athlon XP built back at 2003, upgraded and added some components over time (memory, bigger hard disk) and still works very nice. Yes, I use CPU frequency scaling provided by the motherboard chipset and a very efficient power supply.

There is a 24x7 always on computer (I really need it), that uses a very low power VIA C3 processor, the whole system uses less than 15w and has no monitor attached nor peripherals attached.

And a two year old 14.1 notebook with memory upgrades.

All of them uses some Unix like operating system, ArchLinux (Very fast and lightweight) in the notebook and main PC, and NetBSD in the always on computer.

I only buy new when I really need to. That is, when my hardware dies. The Athlon XP computer I'm using is a substitute to a Pentium III that died the same year due to a bad capacitor in the motherboard.

As a previous comment says, I also buy based only in energy efficiency and silent parts. (When will the Western Digital Green Power hard disk be available?!? I'm running out of disk space!)

The periperals are very old, my main PC keyboard is like 10 years old (Original MS Natural Keyboard), an old Logitech mouse, a one-use-per-month Epson Stylus 660 printer that is like 9 years old.

While it works, it's ok for me. I'm a software engineer, and don't have time to play games, just programming, researching, the occasional RSS read and net browsing. You can do all that with hardware from the previous century (or millenium to make it sound more dramatic) and the proper software.

Newer software always try to force you to use the newest hardware. The key question is: Do I really need that software? Do cheesy graphics will make more productive? A slimmer notebook will make me a better person?

Greetings from Costa Rica!

Which computer?

My Mac Mini, which runs all the time as a backup server, BitTorrent client, print server and Climateprediction.net client, is two years old, though I expect it to last for at least another eight years in its current capacity.

My Powerbook is three years old, as is my wife's iBook. We're probably going to be replacing these next year before she finishes grad school and we lose the significant discounts. I might be keeping these old machines or donating them, but I will certainly not let these perfectly good machines go to waste.

My work computer is a MacBook Pro, which is less than a year old. I got it because it consumes a lot less power than the Windows machine they were going to buy me, and it allows me to telecommute.

The last option sounds good, but...

there is no security for personal information (no privacy either *ahem*).

It's a disease vector; keyboards are nasty. Bring your own keyboard cover, seriously!

might not be available (closed, broken or crowded)

It can cost more than owning a computer, 25 cents a minute a Kinkos; some places are cheaper, but likely they don't pay the proper license fees for popular non-opensource software. Thats $15/hr, what does a lease cost with broadband these days?

I work in IT and therefore basically require more than one computer. I have my own home lab. Having said this:

My two domain controllers are P100 machines from maybe 1995.

My email server is a P2/300 from about 1998.

My file server is a P2/300 from 1998 but in an older case (modified AT case from the digital stone age).

My main machine is from 2003 (constantly upgraded) and is a P4/2.4 (same for the wife's main machine).

I have two laptops. An A31 (used for surfing and watching movies) from around 2002-2003 ish. and I have a Thinkpad 755 from 1994? I use to play music through my stereo I bought in 1987 that still works and sounds great.

I also have a stockpile of old computer parts, and at work I'm one of the guys that gets called upon to bring old machines back to life.

In healthcare it isn't uncommon to have to keep a system running for 10+ years... we actually had a request recently for a Pentium 4 class server with 2 gigs of RAM and 4 ISA slots. For those of you without technical knowledge, that would be like going to General Electric's Locomotive division and asking to see their latest locomotive... powered by steam.

Many computers get thrown away these days not because they are broken (physically) but they are trashed from virus, malware, and other things internet and people don't want to spend $85/hr to have them fixed. I probably get 2-4 PCs a year out my alley (we are talking 1 city block, with no apartment buildings here) and most either still work, or only have minor issues (granted some are more than 10 years old).

Oh, if you have an older computer that you might want to start over with, get a Linux 'LIVECD' and pop it in and see what happens. The nice thing about old computers is that they are usually supported on these Live CD releases, many don't even require a functional hard drive.

-Lego

A fun thing about computers now is that you can pick and choose what pieces to replace as needed. My home compy is made of a 2 year mother board and spare parts i've acquired. The keyboard and one hard drive (40Gb is fine for Linux) is 8 or 9 years old. The DVD and MP3 hard disk is salvaged from a G3 Mac. The DVD burner is 5 years old. The Wacom tablet i found in the trash! The LCD monitor i did buy new only after the CRT fizzled out after 7 years and was recycled.
I'm no engineer, mind you. I went to art school.
I feel as though computers now are at a point where they are not obsolete in months, but they are serviceable like an old car or power tool. As parts wear out, you replace them.
It simply takes a little initiative.

The last option sounds good, but...

there is no security for personal information (no privacy either *ahem*).

It's a disease vector; keyboards are nasty. Bring your own keyboard cover, seriously!

might not be available (closed, broken or crowded)

It can cost more than owning a computer, 25 cents a minute a Kinkos; some places are cheaper, but likely they don't pay the proper license fees for popular non-opensource software. Thats $15/hr, what does a lease cost with broadband these days?

I think we have to start moving the separating the use of computers beyond the technology of computers (and it's really difficult to describe what exactly I mean by that). I am greatly taken in by the latest technology (Apple does not even have to advertise anything to me; I'm just automatically keen on the next big thing). However, if I sit down and critically assess my actual needs for a computer, they are far far less than what the latest model provides.

Unfortunately, Apple does not really provide support for prior generations of machines (though they are better in this regard than many manufacturers). Though my 10 year old PowerBook runs well, I'm on my own for service and support.

We can stretch this out a bit and gradually upgrade things; however, until the manufacturers commit to long-term service, we are sort of stuck having to occasionally upgrade.

Some further thoughts here. (Far to long to post in the discussion here.)

Does the fact that I have the Kaypro II I used in high school in my basement count?

I don't even know if it works.

LA: I have one in my basement too, and it still does work. If you have the 300 baud modem lets talk.

Got a Dell from 2003 and still running like a champ. It has imprints from where my hands go, though. About to wear through the cover and might need something new altogether.

My Mac G4 tower is 7 years old, and runs almost the latest OS. It is reliable and fast enough to still do medium heavy Photoshop and graphics work. It's now my fiance's machine, and I do have a new Mac Pro. But I expect that machine to last 6-7 years as well, given Apple's pretty decent track record of reliability and allowing many machines to continue to run newer OS releases. If the machine physically keeps running, there is no reason it won't last another 7 years, assuming things like 'net access don't require something significantly different than the current browsers.

Mike, ha ha, I remember a computer store in my town that had those back when I was in grade 6 or 7, way too long ago. I answered 4 years but I forgot the Apple 2C (the one people had to drop to reseat the chips) in the basement. I think it still works.

I got a new computer (a MacBook) in May as a birthday/graduation present. I'd had my old computer for four years, as I'd got it as a high-school graduation present. It's now my little sister's computer. So yeah, it's a little misleading to say that I have my newer computer because I like new shiny things. Not that I don't, but that's not why I bought it.

Mine is just a few months old - I built a new machine specifically to save power. My old circa 2002 2.4Ghz P4 machine was "top of the line" at the time and used 150 to 175 watts continuously. The new machine is a 2.4Ghz Core2Duo machine which high efficiency PSU and integrated graphics that is many times as fast as the old machine and yet uses only 70 to 90 watts continuously. It will pay for itself in saved power in just a couple of years.

Eventually I plan to build a super low power machine using below 20watts and turn my other home machine off as much as possible - that sould save me another 50 watts average. It should also allow me to turn off some of my other peripheral routers and Wifi boxes that eat up extra power all the time.

Oh and all the part from my old machine have been recycled/reused so they aren't going to waste.

I hope some day Apple will start leasing their Macs and reusing/recycling the parts. I know they recycle now, but you don't get anything back so its not viable for most people except with their really old computers.

I said 6 but maybe I am wrong there; my desktop is for the kids to play on and it is at least 6 years old, I have had it for 3 years and it was recycled from a school that had it for 3 years before that. I also have a laptop that is almost 3 years old, which I use for my business.

My computer is about six months old, but I was using an old 2001 HP laptop hand-me-down for several years. The blasted thing needed a full-sized fan blowing on it to keep it from over heating. I think the year and a half that I squeezed out of it AFTER I had the money to buy a new computer has to mean something!

Two computers in my house - one that is from 1996 and one that is only a few weeks old. But the new one replaced one from 2001.

Surprised how many people have computers always on!
I'm typing this on a 2 year old desktop with a Penruim m cpu. Uses less juice than my old p3, but much higher performance, so I felt I deserved it...hmmmm...actually the main spec aim was that it could run batlefield 2. Watch your consumption double as the graphic card kicks in!

As a mechanical engineer I am in awe of the reliability of electronic components. Billions and billions of cycles, working perfectly every time. That's what bugs me about the rapid obsolesence. Yes we're all on the wonderful journey of progress, and loving the latest gadgets has become mainstream, but when we laugh at yesterday's products we forget that they can still work perfectly. It's just we deem what they can do to be irrelevant to the new, improved, more modern 'us'.

I have a lot of very poor family. That means the only way they will ever get a computer, is if I upgrade. That means my computers are usually in the 1-2 year old range, and I upgrade as I can, so that I can hand it down. I have three, soon to be four nieces and nephews that need computers, so that means this mac book pro, will go to one of them when I upgrade in a year.

If that wasn't the case, I would probably not upgrade for ages.

My four year old laptop still gets me by, I bought a desktop replacement model, not a thin and light, so it still has adequate power for everything I need it to do. Power consumption is an issue, but 99.9% of the time there is a power outlet within reach of the cord, so it isn't really a big problem. If I needed something for say, a 7 hour flight to Europe, then I would have to consider something with a lower power draw.

My four year old laptop still gets me by, I bought a desktop replacement model, not a thin and light, so it still has adequate power for everything I need it to do. Power consumption is an issue, but 99.9% of the time there is a power outlet within reach of the cord, so it isn't really a big problem. If I needed something for say, a 7 hour flight to Europe, then I would have to consider something with a lower power draw.

My Sony Vaio has lasted for 5 years already. And it also still runs Vista very well!

I so recommend Vaios, really. I have several friends lucky enough to get one, and their build qualities are very fine. Even Apple has taken a few cues from them. :)

Funny thing though, is that I tried out a MacBook Pro one time, but it wouldn't work well at all with my programs, and hate to say it, but it would crash a lot too. Got fed up and hammered it.

So I suggest a Vaio if you want long-lasting durability.

I'm on board with Legodragon.

The original hardware for my comp arrived in late 1999 (yeah!!). Since then the CRT has bit the dust and been recycled in favor of LCD (in 2003 when they were still pretty expensive); the harddrive has been replaced entirely for something wayyy bigger (in 2004); the graphics was updated (in 2005); and its been through three OS versions.

I'm seriously considering switching to a laptop for writing and power consumption, but my computer is a chopshop composite and I'm proud its gone so long.

And like Lego.. I'm not really computer savvy. Heck I'm a biologist.

For those who not only want a computer to run for many years - but also want one that uses much less power and generates no noise (or virtually no noise) then look into the chipmaker "VIA" who makes processor called C7.
It uses average 1 watt and doesnt require fan due to its low powerdraw. The motherboard is also much smaller than Intel and AMD motherboards.

The biggest problem today is probably that Microsoft is keen on selling the latest and greatest and that lots of things (printers) can be difficult to find compatible drivers for if you plan to run on Windows 95 or similar.

It is interesting to note that Windows 3.1 used so little RAM - but also missed some of the nice features that we all like such as plug and play etc.

My computer is 3 years old and will need to last another 1-2 years. Its a notebook with centrino processor 1.6 Ghz clocked down to only 200 mhz so it uses 80% less energy than normal so it only uses about 4 watt or so. Of course, a VIA C7 processor only uses about 1 watt.

Generally, laptops use much less energy than desktops. However, desktops are easier and cheaper to replace individual parts than in a laptop.

Vaio notebook has worked for 4 years already.

It's awesome...

Well, I still have my Commodore 64 :)

I am currently using a 2000 dell optiplex gx150, which i got for free from a business. a couple weeks ago, i bought a used gx240 motherboard on ebay for fifteen bucks which works with the case perfectly, so it is now running at 2 ghz p4. i also bought a used 15in LCD for 40, otherwise i am using the original hardware. so im reusing the case, psu, drives, etc... and i gave the old mobo and monitor to a friend whos still using them. the setup prolly draws alot of power, but i feel its better using it than throwing it away ; )

Flawed Survey... It should be how often do you buy a new computer, rather than how old is your computer.

Case in point, my computer is only 6 months old. My last computer lasted me 7 years. So if I fill in a survey that says less than a year, that is some flawed data.

Incidentally my new computers is also refurb too.

Surveys/Polls need to make sense otherwise they are useless.

I'm REALLY due for a new computer. I run Windows XP on a 7 year old HP. It's got about 400 MB of RAM and an old Celeron processor 1200 MHz. It's 3 generations old since it's basically a stripped down Pentium 3, and we have Quad cores now!!! I did make some slight modifications to make it run faster but I think it's maxed out now. Funny thing is that my grandparents were throwing the computer out to get a new one because they thought it was broken- and to my surprise, I got it to work after it sat our basement for a year.

I bought a dell laptop 3 years ago when I went off to college. The thing has crashed countless times. I have had to have dell replace the screen, keyboard, touchpad, cd drive, and hard drive already. I've had to reinstall windows xp 4 times. And this last spring (2008), the battery crapped out and now lasts about 15 minutes.

So last summer (2007) I bought an HP desktop. I wanted to build one myself but my parents offered to pay if I bought an OEM one. As soon as I got it I wanted to replace the PSU with an energy star one (80+ efficiency), but when I opened the case the HP PSU was riveted to the case... so unless I buy a new case also, no can do.

As it is now, I use my laptop whenever I'm just reading stuff online, typing, and such. For computation-intensive things like image and video processing or gaming, I use the desktop. As it gets colder out I start to use both computers to run folding@home- for my dorm room this is more than enough heat, so I can leave the decades-old radiator off and get double use out of the electricity. It does science, then heats my room.

My computer was free - someone else had owned it for seven years and wanted to get rid of it, a couple years ago. The one I used before that was almost free - a friend wanted $30 for it, but it was given to him from his former workplace when they upgraded. The one I used before that was a gift from my brother, for my birthday, something he assembled from parts, back in '98. I have never paid more than $30 for a box, and my monitors have never cost me more than $20. My keyboards and mouses came free.

Am I cheap? I prefer to call it "thrifty", and I also don't have disposable income and refuse to go out and put a new PC on credit. Bad move, that. I do fine, running Windows '98 into this 21st century. Why fix what's not broken???

Like some others, I replaced my original bondi-blue imac when I accidentally wiped out the hard drive using Alladins Spring Cleaning program (trying to clear up more hard drive space) - I still miss my bondi-blue! Then I bought two of the Apple Imac G-5's, one for me, one for my mom - that last of the ones with the Motorola chip. However, mine kept powering down after a couple of years, Apple said the wait for the part was too long (logic board I believe) so they replaced it with a new Intel machine - however, the RAM I had maxed out on my old G-5 would not transfer to the new machine - so I got a newer machine, running Leopard - more hard drive, but less RAM - still, a decent deal, under the AppleCare extended warranty.

Im starting to tip the scales at 7 years now, its been fun ive burnt 2 power supplies, had 2 hard drives die... working on my 3rd. Im on my second Monitor and speakers...and my 12th or so mouse.
Its a P4 2.53 single, i bought it with a Raedon 9000 pro series card, then upgraded a couple years back to a 9800 pro but then that went up in smoke and they were replacing them, i wasnt spending $300 more to upgrade to the next card at the time... so yea i went back to my 9000 Pro. Sense then ive pretty much stuck to my consouls. However im lookin into buyin new...ive read http://www.yougamers.com/articles/16583_the_2008_guide_to_gaming_pc_specs/ im thinking dual core... but ive always had a nack for being able to wait

Back to my P4 2.53... im curious into if its better to just buy two new... do the CPU's have to be twin pairs.. or some thing like that... or can they be random chips of the same speed and brand..?

I guessed seven years but thinking on it realize it is closer to nine. Had to replace the power supply couple of years ago and doubled the RAM recently. I have two Macs sitting on a table unused for a while. (an LCIII and a 425) The waste in that is the nice printer sitting with them. If I could figure a way to hook it up to the current eMachine life would be great again. I am not the techy type but can generally figure out where the wall socket is.

Vaio notebook has worked for 4 years already.

Yes, yes, yes. I, too, took pleasure in standing in line and in exchanging pleasantries and greetings with the amazingly courteous staff at my polling station and the many citizens of my delightfully diverse Washington neighborhood. I, too, am still wearing my lapel sticker, with the jaunty words “I Voted.” And I found it pretty easy to cast a vote that told the Republican Party, for which I recommended a vote last time, not to try any of this shit again. No more McCarthy tactics; no more stumblebum quitting of the campaign trail and attempting to pull out of the first presidential debate in order to wind up voting to save Lehman Bros.; no more driveling Christian fundamentalism; no more insinuation that only those silly enough to endorse them are “real Americans.” No more sneers at San Francisco as if it weren't a real American city. McCain and his preposterous running mate will just have to believe in an afterlife in which they can live down the shame of what they attempted this year.
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 3:19 PM • 4 Comments

Yes, yes, yes. I, too, took pleasure in standing in line and in exchanging pleasantries and greetings with the amazingly courteous staff at my polling station and the many citizens of my delightfully diverse Washington neighborhood. I, too, am still wearing my lapel sticker, with the jaunty words “I Voted.” And I found it pretty easy to cast a vote that told the Republican Party, for which I recommended a vote last time, not to try any of this shit again. No more McCarthy tactics; no more stumblebum quitting of the campaign trail and attempting to pull out of the first presidential debate in order to wind up voting to save Lehman Bros.; no more driveling Christian fundamentalism; no more insinuation that only those silly enough to endorse them are “real Americans.” No more sneers at San Francisco as if it weren't a real American city. McCain and his preposterous running mate will just have to believe in an afterlife in which they can live down the shame of what they attempted this year.

Main computer: less than a year.
The backup (for if this one breaks): 2.5 years.
The one I got second-hand and am fixing up to give away: 4 years.
The desktop at mom's: 7 years
The desktop my siblings use at dad's: 6 years.
The desktop I use at dad's: 10 years

Yeah, a lot of computers.

Like some others, I replaced my original bondi-blue imac when I accidentally wiped out the hard drive using Alladins Spring Cleaning program (trying to clear up more hard drive space) - I still miss my bondi-blue! Then I bought two of the Apple Imac G-5's, one for me, one for my mom - that last of the ones with the Motorola chip. However, mine kept powering down after a couple of years, Apple said the wait for the part was too long (logic board I believe) so they replaced it with a new Intel machine - however, the RAM I had maxed out on my old G-5 would not transfer to the new machine - so I got a newer machine, running Leopard - more hard drive, but less RAM - still, a decent deal, under the AppleCare extended warranty.

Like some others, I replaced my original bondi-blue imac when I accidentally wiped out the hard drive using Alladins Spring Cleaning program (trying to clear up more hard drive space) - I still miss my bondi-blue! Then I bought two of the Apple Imac G-5's, one for me, one for my mom - that last of the ones with the Motorola chip. However, mine kept powering down after a couple of years, Apple said the wait for the part was too long (logic board I believe) so they replaced it with a new Intel machine - however, the RAM I had maxed out on my old G-5 would not transfer to the new machine - so I got a newer machine, running Leopard - more hard drive, but less RAM - still, a decent deal, under the AppleCare extended warranty.

Mine is new, had to get it for a job. My other PC that I kept is 5 years old and another is in the car shed acting as a server for media. All pc's are using Linux which saves energy, the OS is actually very good at that. The server in the garage is an old laptop and is 100% solar powered. This serves up Media and Music and is also a storage vault.

I guess mine is shiney new because I just rebuilt it and replaced the case. My husband and I build our computers which is the greenest option for us. We pass componets back and forth to each other and can upgrade hardware components as needed instead of "chucking" a whole laptop when we have a hardware failure or need an upgrade for work.

My old case was a 6 year old mid tower, which I outgrew so I replaced it with a full tower that should last me a long time even if I have to replace the power supply in the future. The old motherboard died so I replaced that and the sound card (compatablitity issues) The hard drives got an upgrade too but the old ones are now used as backup drives. all of the other internal & external hardware transfered from the old build to the new. The old dead componets will be recyled with a local charity that takes used & dead computer components.

While this isn't a solution for everyone, this is what works best for us.