laptop upgrade cycle?

I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations as to what's a good timeframe to upgrade laptops. I have a 2yr old Acer 8920G, which works fine, however with about two generations newer laptops coming out now it got me thinking:

If I sell my laptop now, I can still get a somewhat decent price for it, and I can use that money towards getting a new model. However if I wait longer I won't be able to sell it for much - for example, I have two 6+ year old laptops that nobody would buy now, so I'll just donate it away.

What's the consensus here? Are two years good time to upgrade, or what's recommended generally?

 

It really depends on your uses for the laptop. If you want to keep playing the latest games that were just released, you gotta upgrade every 1.5-2 years (for max settings). If you're just word processing, well I would say 3-4 years (well you always have to buy a new battery probably)

 

i'd just get a new one... and as for ur 5-6 year old notebooks , if they stilll have pentium M , then u can get $200 maybe so don't donate them.

 

The easiest way to answer your question is to ask yourself this...
What would you replace it with? Is it worth the money?

That laptop wasn't a bad laptop, I would say throw an SSD and Windows7 on it and run it for another 2 years because even if you go very high end, other than the (I-Series) CPU, things haven't progressed much since you bought that.

 

What I really meant is not so much whether I need to upgrade (I know I don't), but more about what's the 'sweet spot' in the laptop's life when I can still sell it for decent money

For example if I wait for two more years, I won't be able to get much for it, yet new laptops will still be in the same price range, relatively speaking. However if I upgrade after only 6 months, the benefits will be minimal, etc...

 

When your current notebook stops meeting your needs.

 

Well, when you think of it, 2 years is a long time, that's roughly 730 days. If you use it day in, day out, that laptop is getting 730 days of use, powering through what ever you do. Laptops do become outdated quickly, for example, a few years back, I bought a notebook with a Celeron M, I payed close to $1000 for that; I know, ridiculous. But a few months after, I could have gotten a Dual Core for less then that, I tried to sell it to buy one, but no luck. If you are happy with how your notebook is going; speed wise, then there is no real point in selling it. Upgrading for the sake of upgrading is something I have never quite understood, as I upgrade when and if my laptop dies I personally think you can get a good 5 years out of notebook use. People may say that's a little stretched, but that is just my take. May last a lot less, who knows.

 

While it is true that Intel has a fairly regular refresh cycle, for most typical notebook usage i.e. Office, Media and Internet, a notebook bought three years ago, like my ThinkPad for example, is just as good as a new Core i based notebook. Now if you are a power user who needs all the CPU power you can get, a more frequent upgrade schedule is probably warranted. Most people are not power users in my experience. And remember the CPU is only part of the overall system performance chain. Memory and hard drives will also play a substantial role.

 

Laptop prices tend to bottom out around 200-300 dollars as long as they can still do more than a netbook. The value retained over time really depends on what's in it.
I wouldn't sell a 2-yr old laptop just yet unless it was a junker to begin with, you're doing something intensive that demands new parts, it's a daily carry that's beat to hell, or you just have cash to burn. I'm still using a 4-yr old laptop as my main that still works perfectly fine, I probably won't replace it til it's totally dead since it satisfies my needs. Then again, I tend towards annual reformats and originally purchased 4yr completecare that I've used to swap out everything but the original display panel, so my wear and tear is practically nil.

 

We tell a lot of our clients a laptop will last you 3-4 years, but for gamers I honestly purchase one 1-2 years.

 

I'm intent on keeping my 6920G as my main system until its 3-year warranty runs out in May 2011, and then probably turning it into a media center PC beyond that.

 

What you use it for and who makes it makes the difference as to when to upgrade.

Some Intel generations are not a significant step up and sometimes it's unnecessary. I don't need I-series power for my notebook, my nice dual core works perfectly well. I did stick more ram, a faster HD and Win7, but that is also part of the problem. Nothing out there is significantly faster for what I need so why spend the money.

I seem to be on a 3-4 year cycle for notebooks and I often buy them on closeout but, I buy high end and then upgrade them, but I don't expect hardcore gaming on them. They play the games I want and I keep my expectations within reason. Is it slow? Heck no! But I do reserve my more hardcore computing to my desktop, which I keep quite up to date.

 

I think a 3-yr cycle for a decent laptop is the most appropriate. It may be extended up to 4 years if you are somewhat short on the budget.


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I waited 2 years after getting my HP and then getting the Toshiba. Then I went 4 years after that before getting the Sony. All of them still work fine at 7, 5, and 1 year old.

 

Thanks for the comments, I was basically thinking that if I stick to a 2/3-yr cycle, I'll end up spending roughly $350-400 every yr to keep 'current' a $1,500 (assuming 35% annual price decrease on the old one)

Looks like 3 years is a good time for upgrades, 2 maybe a little too soon.

 

The laptop in my signature is about a year and 5 months old now.
Before that one, I was using a DELL Inspiron 1300 for about 3 and a half years.

For most of my needs ... 3d art (creation of images, animations and the likes) and some gaming, my current Acer is serving me just fine.

I am projecting that I might replace my Acer in about 3 years ... if I will be financially able to do so and of course, and should the laptop in question stop meeting my needs.

 

The price decrease isn't tied so much to time as it is to the tech becoming obsolete and your willingness to deal with it. My old E1505 is still going strong, but I'm definitely feeling the hurt of an obsolete GPU holding back an otherwise perfectly capable laptop.
I've "only" got a Core Duo (first generation of dual-core Intels) with a very old ATI Mobility Radeon X1400, but it's more than capable of running the vast bulk of software I need to, including streaming 1080p to an external monitor (freaking 1050 vertical resolution). All I can't do is run very demanding games that I play on my 360 anyway. (note: it runs SC2 perfectly fine, huzzah!).
There really isn't a sweet spot for reselling laptops, most people I know use their laptops til they're dead. If there's some rigorous function they absolutely need to perform, there's almost always an upgradeable desktop machine dedicated to it.

 

If they do, they've got either deep pockets of great state-of-the-art expectations. I think of laptops (really any computer) like replacing your car: that is, make the update about every four years (which also means a laptop should take you through college.)

Keeping that analogy in mind, you certainly can choose to upgrade the parts after that time and keep right on "driving" your laptop past that for another year or so without any significant reduction in technological efficiency. After 5 years I think the average laptops start to lose structural integrity, so an update is most often mandatory at that point.

On the other hand, if you're the type that likes being the first one on the block (don't we all? ), and have deep pockets, then buy all means get a new laptop every 2-3 years. I certainly would if I could afford it.