How long does a PC last?

[Brown and Boris]

How long have you had yours and how long do yopu expect it to live?

I have had my HP tower desk top for about 3 years. Turned on 16 hours a day 7 days a week and in use probably for 60 hours a week. I added more memory a few months ago and cleaned out the inside (full of dust probably from building work last year). Plenty of room on the hard drive still. No nasty noises fromm the hard drive.

How long has it got left?

I am not looking forward to the hassel of a new one frankly but think I should before this goes t1t5 up.

[kambites]

They usually last until they suffer death-by-bloatware. I've never actually had a PC fail on me except one hard drive at work, and that was after six years of being turned on (and used quite hard) 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

MTBF of a modern computer should be about ten solid years of typical usage.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 1st January 10:58

[Munter]

Well I've had the CD writer for 10 years. The Case for 9, the main board and processor for about 5 or 6. The HDDs have been replaced several times, the graphics card is quite new and a cast off from a mate.

And now it often just reboots. No BSOD, nothing to indicate it's unhappy. Just suddenly looking at the white text of the PC booting up.

So I'd say around 8 years....

[NiceCupOfTea]

How long's a piece of string?

My laptop is a Thinkpad T42 - I've had it a year and it was probably 2 years old then, hoping it'll go on a while yet!

My desktop is an ebay bitsa and some if it is probably 5 years old.

TBH the only bits that are likely to fail are the hard disk, PSU & monitor. As long as the PSU doesn't take anything out you should be OK for a while!

[groomi]

I bought a Mesh PC in 2001 when I started the business. It was used up to about 6 months ago when the fan failed. I'm intending to replace the fan and use it as a print server for however long it lasts.

[kit80]

I seem to go through 1 laptop a year.

Usually because I throw them out the fking window.

[V8mate]

kit80 said:

I seem to go through 1 laptop a year.

Usually because I throw them out the fking window.

Ah. So that's why you're single. Prone to sudden aggressive swings.

[NDA]

kambites said:

They usually last until they suffer death-by-bloatware.

Ain't that the truth!

[Brown and Boris]

Sounds like it has a bit of life yet.

[kit80]

V8mate said:

kit80 said:

I seem to go through 1 laptop a year.

Usually because I throw them out the fking window.

Ah. So that's why you're single. Prone to sudden aggressive swings.

Yes...all my exes died of laptop related injuries. I got off in court due to PMT.

[NDA]

Brown and Boris said:

Sounds like it has a bit of life yet.

It should do. It's worth buying a couple of flash drives (Freecom are very good/reliable/cheap) from Amazon and putting your C drive on there as a back up. Then remove some of the stuff you never use that's memory intensive and try not to visit too many dodgy web sites!

The PC in my study has been going for about ten years, very reliable so far!

[Pesty]

Just built a new PC.

Last one was still ok after 8 years but I did need to replace the PSU in it twice.


Once Ive formated it and put software back on it will continue life at me mums

[ApexJimi]

kambites said:

being turned on (and used quite hard)]

<snigger>

[bishbash]

My PC's are a bit like triggers broom, I just swap bits out occasionally, it only when I need a new case due to motherboard changes that I actually feel I have a 'new' PC.

[Zumbruk]

kit80 said:

I seem to go through 1 laptop a year.

Usually because I throw them out the fking window.

Ahh, a fellow soul. Except it's inkjet printers in my case. Satisfying, isn't it?

And to answer the OP; I don't know. I give mine away when they become unusably slow. But then, I don't run SmallNFloppy rubbish on them.

[Tim-D]

Mine has just clocked up 7 years - but would acho the "trigger's broom" comment has had new PSU (twice) extra HDD's new mobo,case & CPU - plus some upgrades as and when I come across others cast offs - only remaining original components are some cabling and windows.....
It's worked very hard though - has only had BSOD twice, a clean install keeps it fresh & fast and theres no substitute for a blast withe an air can every month or two...

[grumbledoak]

Untouched, I'd say about five years. You can "eek" a little more life out of them by re-installing the O/S or changing/upgrading a few components. But, eventually, you'll go and buy something that won't plug in/work, and it all starts again.

[Hut49]

Until I got this Thinkpad X61, my notebooks usually last a couple of years before they start on the slippery slope of unrecoverable performance and get the big heave-ho. This X61 is unlikely to make it that far - a combination of Vista and Diskeeper that keep the hard drive chattering all the time, Vista and IE8 that crashes every time it starts and an unbelievably noisy fan that's driving me mad (even on energy star setting), means that this one will be outahere in less than 18 months. Shame really as I'm on the road most of the time and the keypad is close to perfect. Might look at a solid state X300 next....

[ManicMushroom]

I like the 'howlongs a peice of string'

if you the type to buy from pc world or the like, you computer wont last very long.

my pc is like triggers broom.

doing different things will make its life longer or shorter.

take 3D rendering, if you do that alot your GFX card and HDD will not last long atall, same forplaying WOW loads.

whereas if you just web surf and email, it will last forever.

[That Daddy]

kit80 said:

I seem to go through 1 laptop a year.

Usually because I throw them out the fking window.

my kind of computer owner thats not a chat up line by the way