Useable Life of a PC

Since I am fairly new to PC's (Mac user) - I am curious what kind of useable life time you guys have seen with your PC's.

Excluding gaming or high end applications - Typically I have seen my Mac’s last me about 3-4 years before I start seeing some programs, OS's etc requiring system requirements beyond what I have - or the Mac slowing down unreasonably using the latest versions.

Typical programs for me would be the latest web browsers, OS versions, office suites, music/photo software, and maybe some low/medium level video stuff.

I tried to choose an E1505 with some guts that would allow me to "future proof" it for a while, but not sure.

Just curious what you long time PC users have seen.

 

Well I have a PC from 2003 and I'm still using it. Not playing many games though... Actually none since 2004. But thats because I got a budget Compaq PC.

 

I'm currently using a thinkpad T22 bought (I think) in 2001. The thing just won't die! For basic office tasks and internet browsing it's still perfectly fine. I even play the odd older game on it (currently warcraft 3). It all depends on your needs of course.

 

My 'main' computer at home is from 2002. It's still going strong. My dad's notebook is from end 2002 and is still fine.

For what you mention, a computer can run for a loooong time

 

My brother uses a HP desktop in his room from 1999, all I did was stick in an extra 512mb RAM on top of the oriingla 64mb, and it runs XP Pro quire easily on the low performance desktop (ie no stupid animations etc)

If you look after a pc they are bulletproof.

 

Keep in mind Apple recently switched over to the intel platform, which is FAR more efficient and powerful, so even the iMac G5 right now would feel slow if you were using a mac mini. I'm sure if you were to buy a new intel Mac right now, you wouldn't have any problem using it for the next 5 years.

Me personally, the oldest computer i have, thats actually used, is a dell from 2002. Pentium 4 2.4ghz, 512 megs of ram and a 9700pro. It was a $3000cnd computer when i bought it, and its still working fine. I can hear the optical drive, and hard drive starting to strain when being used though, so i figure its only a matter of time till those go, and when that happens it wont really be worth repairing.

 

It depends on your needs--with what you've listed as tasks, a computer can last a very long time. In your case I'd recommend that you think about a business class notebook--the e1505 may satisfy you hardware-wise, but it may fall apart before you need to upgrade. Looking at a Latitude or other laptop that contains more metal would probably be a good idea.

 

I am using a 1ghz G4 Emac from early 2004. It runs "a bit slow", but I can run all the latest iStuff from apple, MS office, firefox, etc.... and will be able to run the next major Mac OS due in June with no upgrades. The only slow down is that we have started to do some basic imovie and idvd video stuff which is a major drain on any system. I will probably not need to replace it until 2008 - hopefully with a SR intel imac.

My E1505 is my first PC/windows and hope to be satisifed with it running most things decently for at least 4 years (2010) with only an addition gig of ram added maybe later.

 

As others have said above, for your needs (office work and some multimedia stuff) a Core 2 Duo based notebook will last for another 4 years, however you might not be able to upgrade to the next Microsoft OS when it comes out in about another 3 or 4 years, because MS OS are very hardware intensive. However, with current generation operating systems (Vista or even XP) it should last quite a while.
If you bought the notebook in your signature then it seems ok, except for RAM. You can manage with 1GB for now, but I highly recommend 2GB especially if you are using or plan to use Vista.

 

Sorry to thread hijack here, but can the Inspiron 6400's be upgraded to 4GB if I wanted to later on? I ordered 2GB with mine,.. just curious is all. I don't think you can ever have too much ram these days.. especially with Vista.

crazy, i would also suggest you upgrade to 2GB if you can.. buy it from a 3rd party like newegg.com and you'll save a tonne compared to getting it from Dell. You should be good with that setup for years. I have a Dell 4550 (desktop) P4 2Ghz from 2001 and it's still running strong. Have upgraded memory to 1GB, HD to 250GB, Video to Ati 9800, Audio to SB Audigy, and PS to 480W. This was all over time and didn't cost me too much, but I think it was worth it to keep her running strong. I don't game so a powerful processor isn't required for now. But I do photo/sound editing, and a/v compression so that's why my laptop will come in handy. Eventually I will move my current rig to a backup PC/web server and build a new desktop.

 

According to DELL documentation Inspiron 6400/E1505 can only support a maximum of 2GB. As I remember only XPS series notebooks can go upto 4. However they might release a firmware upgrade to increase the limit, anyways I think 2GB should be enough for for several years.