News Most computers replaced after 4.5 years

Research undertaken by Crucial shows that the average PC has a lifespan of 4.5 years.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2011/05/12/most-computers-replaced-after-4-5-years/1

 

Longest I've ever gone without touching ANYTHING in a PC I own is 9 years. The machine was still running everything I needed perfectly and all I was doing was dropping a fresh Windows install on it every 2-3 years.

 

I usually build/buy my systems for a lifetime of three years, after which it should still be able to function for at least another 1.5 years with other members of family etc, so 4.5 years lifetime is about right.

EDIT: Reply to Ph4lanx:

Would it be fair to assume that that would be your NAS/router/firewall/server system?

 

4.5 years sounds about right. My last PC was bought in 2006 and replaced with my current PC last year. The '06 PC did have GFX and RAM upgrades in its time though.

 

2-2.5 years for full upgrades.

 

Upgrade cpu-mobo-ram every 2-3 years, graphics get upgraded every year or so with a good 2nd hand card. Most people I know will upgrade their laptops after 2-3 years with desktops lasting around 5 years.

 

Oh i just remembered. My 2006 PC then went to replace the PII from 1998 that my dad used so that makes 12 years.

 

I had my first PC (486 DX266) in 1994-ish and before the year was out I stuck in an extra 4MB RAM. From that point on I have been upgrading PCs ever since on a continual basis although major/full upgrades would be at least 2 years apart.

That's all changed now as I've just bought my first iMac but I would imagine that's still going to be upgraded on a 4 year cycle.

It's going to be sad waving goodbye to the Q6600 that served me so well over the last few years

 

Nope, it was my gaming machine.

 

Bloody hell... Or did you upgrade a lot?

 

Max two years for me at the moment but six years back it was till the pc broke down

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

 

I'm guilty of prematurely discarding old tech.

I consider anything over 2.5 years worthy of a replacement tbh.

That said I've had my current laptop for about 5-6 years.

 

I have a policy of upgrading each type of machine I own every 2 years, but the results here will be screwed cause of gamers. My third full build from nearly 5 years ago still works, and would be fine for the basics. My old laptop is almost as old and I still lend it out to people when fixing theirs.

Vista will also adjust metrics quite a bit due to it being sold on machines that can't cope with it.

 

I try to keep everything in use.

Oldest computer I have is about 8 years old, running an old Celeron doing Paradox 7 work. Yes Paradox 7..

 

I'm still running my 7,5 years old pc and it still outperforms a lot of computers

 

Nope. As I mentioned in my first post, I didn't touch the machine hardware-wise for 9 years.

 

My first PC lasted about 6 years,

the second about 5 years,

the third lasted about 4 years (sub-standard parts causing early failure so ended up costing more than it should)

the fourth has lasted me 5 years with a HDD and a graphics upgrade. It is, however, stuck on AGP and a single core cpu.

it just isn't much use any more for games.

Expecting to get a new one soon and shouldn't need to upgrade for some time (I hope!)

 

Mine last longer than that, I strive to update every 3-4 years, but realisticly, they last longer.
If you buy a near-top-end gaming machine, it's going to last a while.
I Upgrade about a year after noticing I cannot run current games in decent settings anymore.

(and yes, looking at my sig, I'm overdue)

I also understand people buying a new machine instead of doing a fresh windows install.
Most ready-bought computers come without an install disk.
And saving all your data and setting and getting it to run again is a hell of a task if your not in practise

 

I regularly put new RAM into a pc to give it a bit of extra juice, but that is about it.

My current computer was sort of upgraded - sort of replaced using stuff I salvaged from my old pc, like the case, and graphics untill I can aford a new one.

The parts that were taken from that were then turned into a HTPC for my parents front room TV.

I think learning to upgrade your PC is a really useful and important skill, and better yet when to upgrade aswell.

 

My PC will be celebrating it's sixth birthday in a few months. It still works, though is quite slugish. I put that down to the old HHD's.