When do you upgrade your Thinkpad?

I love hearing those stories where people just absolutely abuse their Thinkpads and hold on to them as long as possible. I unfortunately am not one of them. I always seem to upgrade every 2 to 3 years, I also baby my Thinkpads even though I know they can take much more.

So I'm curious when do you usually upgrade your notebook, doesn't have to be a Thinkpad?

Also, whats the longest you held out before buying a new notebook?

 

For me, it's usually what problem I need to solve. The T61p solved the problem of going beyond 4GB of memory. That and the dual core processing power.

The W510 again solved another problem. 8GB of memory was no longer enough. I also needed a quad core for HD video encoding while on the road.

So for me it's usually not related to time. I take really good care of my machines. My machines that are 3-4 years old are in better shape than a lot of 1 year olds I see in my company. Then again, most people don't take care of assets that aren't theirs. I am not one of them.

 

I can't stand disk drives anymore and adding a SSD can really bring the system to life.(In my experience.)

I can only make it about a year and some change before wanting a new laptop. Although most are rather "cheap" < $1,000.

 

2 to 3 years is a good time to upgrade your laptop. i usually upgrade every once a year or so.

 

last hp pavilion went for almost 5 years, and then I gave it to my mother who is still using it, lol. Then the T61 replaced it, pushing 3.5 years already. I've added RAM, replaced the HDD twice, and just upgraded the CPU due to a game that I play a lot. I can see putting an SSD in it as well but later.

speaking about taking care of my laptops - I can say that I've used its DVD less than 10 times (have faster external USB DVD), and the screen/keyboard/touchpad for like a month worth of working for all these 3 years - most of the time the laptop just sits on my desk where I got external monitor, KBD and mouse. In other words - the laptop is like new

I have the feeling that this T61 is going to last long time. In case of a need I'll probably just buy another laptop. It's important to me that every new laptop that I get is smaller than the one that it replaces. And more powerful of course. So I can not see myself buying anything bigger than 13.3" right now....

 

Till now I have upgraded my machine when it breaks down. This is what happened when I used to use a Compaq, Sony Vaio and the Acer. When the last broke down, I opted for the ThinkPad - variety of reasons. But now I am looking for a x201 simply because I think it would be helpful for me and I really like the form factor. So, this upgrade will not be because I NEED a new machine, but because I WANT one.

 

I know what you mean about the size. I'll definately move to 13" if Lenovo reintroduces the x3xx series. Maybe in another 5 years

 

When the power limitations start to get to me, I'll make an upgrade jump. I've always bought used Thinkpads in the past. My X41 replaced my T22 after 4 years of faithful service simply so I could surpass 1GHz. The X201 purchase was driven by my desire to work on my MCITP certs in a virtual environment, on the go, along with the demands of school. It's the first brand new, CTO Thinkpad I've ever had, and I didn't cut corners to save on costs this time. I still want to max the memory (going from 4 to 8gb) and toss in an SSD once reasonable capacities (500gb+) are below 300 bucks. The dual core+64 bit jump made it well worth the investment, and I think that the 1st gen I7 still has a bit of life left in it.

 

I usually replace them when they break or reveal new features. Otherwise I'd still use my old Dell XPS m1330. (In the case if it actually came with a non-defective GPU, hadn't produce more heat than a nuclear reactor and hadn't had the screen broken by my sister.)

I have a desktop I bought 3 years ago that just sits around and serves as a small home server (and backup for my files). I'd say upgrade or replace it when you feel its getting too slow and doesn't do what you want it to do.

I'm thinking the same as graycolor. Hopefully X200T will last for few (3-5) years. 11" is too small and cramped and anything bigger than 13" is just too big for me to open in the airplane, bus etc.

 

Before I got my T500, I used my Averatec 2155 for nearly 4 years. It's tempting to upgrade earlier though, with all the new-fangled tech that comes out so quickly

My Averatec is still working fine though, running Ubuntu and doing duty as a torrenting machine.

 

Btw I like your T500. After reading through that review, now I want it too.

 

Haha It really is a great machine with little compromise. Great screen resolution, pretty good GPU performance (in the market when it was first released), great battery life (even though my battery's down to 79% of its original capacity, I can still get ~7 hours of battery from my 9-cell), and ultra-quiet operation. Only thing that bothers me about it is that it's quite heavy, at 6.3 lbs.

 

To me, a new OS is one factor.

 

I usually don't replace notebooks until atleast 4+ years of service.
I do upgrade every 2 years to try and keep it up to date.
My T500 was purchased in the summer of 2008 and my upgrades were:
2009 - 2gb ram to 4gb ram
2010 - P8600 to T9900
And likely sometime this year, I will be upgrading to an SSD. My next system replacement will probably be sometime in 2012 to 2014.

My system is in flawless condition. No dents, cracks or deep scratches (other than the minor rubber coating on the lid). It is in meticulous condition and I plan to keep it that way. There are however quite a bit of keyboard shine since I game quite a bit on this pc. The T9900 cpu imo is still quite able to compete with cpus that are being sold today.