How often do you get a new computer?

[elektra]

Our home iMac is running really slow, and has no disc space left. DH has purchased several external drives, and is seemingly trying to free up space so we can make this computer keep working as opposed to buying something new. It as the latest Mountain Lion OS, lastest iphone etc..

I think we have had it about 5 years. I feel like that is on the longer side for a computer but I really do not want to have to purchase a new one. We use it mainly for storing music, pictures, and movies, surfing the internet and basic word processing and excel.

But then my work computer has been replaced probably 3 times in the past 5 years. The usually send me Dell PCs.

What is the norm?

[Smillow]

New laptop purchases:
July 2007 (HP - still functioning - replaced the hard drive in 2010)
November 2009 (HP - has a ridiculous power jack issue - replaced once already, could work if I could keep the battery charged)
February 2012 (Asus)
DH purchased a Mac Powerbook last summer.

[Nooknookmom]

My tower is like 8-9 yrs old, gasp. It's been repaired many many times!

I have replaced the screen to a nice one....but it is slowly going down the electronic tube.

I wanted to use my ee pad as a mini laptop. But the office program it came with stinks and it drives me crazy. So sometime I will need a new one and I'm going laptop. DH just needs something to surf the web and post annoying remarks on FB.

[AnnieW625]

My iMac is 3 yrs. old. The computer we had prior, a PC from Micro Center we had for 5 yrs. . DH has had his work PC laptop since 2009.

[ladysoapmaker]

The tower was bought sometime in 2010 maybe late 2009. The laptop was purchased last spring. The previous laptop was purchased in 2006 and it finally died. (won't keep a charge and the power adapter slot is loose so won't charge unless you stand there holding it.

I'd say the computers we have for about 5 years and then replace but we stagger them...

Jen

[WatchingThemGrow]

When we were getting Dell laptops, I'd say every 18-24 mos we needed a new one. I've had the Macbook 16 mos and it's still feeling new. DH gets a new laptop at work every year, I'm pretty sure.

[Philly Mom]

My MacBook is from 2006. It is still going strong. Have you talked to the apple store? They may be able to help. I find macs last forever. My brother's Mac is older than mine.

[Mommy_Mea]

We have had our Dell laptop for over 5 years. Replaced the battery about a year ago, but doing okay other than that. we mostly use it for email and web, so it is just fine.

The general depreciation duration is 3 years for a computer, that is when my work will replace, rather than repair, a computer. That said, my work computer is nearly 5 years old and still going strong as well.

[sunshine873]

We've had Dell Computers in the past and if I remember correctly we would suffer through the last 12-18 months to eek out 5 yrs or so. Now we have Mac Books. This fall will be the 5 yr mark. They could stand to be cleaned up and get a new operating system, but I'm hoping they have quite a bit of life left in them...

[larig]

Our home iMac is running really slow, and has no disc space left. DH has purchased several external drives, and is seemingly trying to free up space so we can make this computer keep working as opposed to buying something new. It as the latest Mountain Lion OS, lastest iphone etc..

I think we have had it about 5 years. I feel like that is on the longer side for a computer but I really do not want to have to purchase a new one. We use it mainly for storing music, pictures, and movies, surfing the internet and basic word processing and excel.

But then my work computer has been replaced probably 3 times in the past 5 years. The usually send me Dell PCs.

What is the norm?

I get a new laptop about every 3 years, although the one I had before my current one is still running (albeit, it is not used for anything other than a media server--it's an old black macbook, which can't even run mt. lion). My current machine is a 2010 macbook pro, but it runs great, so I dont anticipate getting a new one for myself until it is no longer able to run apple's OSX upgrades. I have replaced the harddrive in it recently, because I wanted a bigger drive, not because it failed. We plan to get a new iMac in June (we haven't had a desktop machine in about 3 years, because DH hasn't wanted one for himself--he's the primary user of the desktop, but he's become a big ipad guy, so hasn't wanted one).

PM the specs of your old one--there may be more you can do to upgrade it before buying a new one. New iMacs you can't open and upgrade, but depending on how old yours is, you might be able to. (go to the apple menu->about this mac->more info and tell me what is on that screen.)

[marymoo86]

Used to be frequently as DH and I worked for the same company and one of the perks was a stipend for home use technology. We were on different schedules so for a while we got a new computer of some kind every other year as it was free. Our computers are about 2 years old right now.

[hillview]

we got our family imac about 4 years ago and no plans to get a new one. work gives me a new one every 2 years or so

[mommylamb]

My Macbook turned 3 in December. Fingers crossed, but it seems to work perfectly fine and I have no intention of getting another anytime soon. Love it still. We have macs at work, and usually replace them every 3 years or thereabout.

[kbud]

We just replaced our desktop 2 weeks ago. We had the previous one for about 5 years. It was dying a slow death and things were not compatible with it anymore. We use it to store music, pictures, it backs up all our important stuff to a remote server daily, and it is our home server.

My laptop I replace about every 2 years as I use it for my contracting job so I need it to perform well.

[ahisma]

Our (rarely used) iMac is pushing 11 years old now. My Macbook Pro is 6 months old, it replaced one that lasted 5 1/2 years. DH's MacBook is 4 years old, no replacement planned.

We keep them until they need a repair that we can't justify the cost of.

[Twoboos]

Not sure how long we've had my iMac. Probably the 3-5 year range.

Mine was running really slowly, too. DH got some add'l memory (I think? really this is not my realm ;)) and upgraded it himself. It's been running really well every since.

Those movies and pictures and music take up a LOT of space!!

[o_mom]

We just retired our 7 yo Dell desktop (it still runs fine, but the OS can't upgrade, so we decided to update). My HP laptop is almost 5 years old and still going. I had a few issues in the past month, but after upgrading the BIOS and drivers it seems to be back to 100%. The battery could use a replacement, but I rarely work unplugged on it, so I haven't bothered. I'm hoping we get another year out of it.

[crl]

I think five years is a long time for a computer. I don't have one anymore as I just use my iPad, which is three years old. Last time I replaced a laptop with a laptop, my old one was about five years old and the apple store people were surprised I still had it.

Dh gets a tech allowance to buy a new laptop every three years--that's what we use for our home computer.

Catherine

[123LuckyMom]

I keep my Macs for about 5 years. They'll run forever if you take care of them, but memory, speed, and software compatibility becomes an issue.

[BabyBearsMom]

We have an iMac that is about 5 years old and DH is itching for a new one, but we use it so rarely that I am opposed. Our Mac Book pro is 3 years old and still going strong. Why not get an iPad for web surfing so you don't need to use the old computer much?

[MommyAllison]

Our Mac laptops have generally lasted 5-6 years, and then start having one issue after another (won't power up, screen backlight goes out, running so slow it becomes unusable because RAM goes bad, etc). We've had each of them looked at, and the cost to repair is more than they're worth each time.

[TwinFoxes]

My iMac was bought in June 08 while I was on bedrest in the hospital. DH used it to send me videos of the dogs. :) We probably would have bought a new one by now, but we have iPads. It doesn't run slow. I would run a program to see what's using up your memory, you never know. sometimes there are hidden memory sucks.

[edurnemk]

When we had PC's I feel we needed to upgrade ever 2 years, 3 was pushing it to the max (if you use it for more than email, pictures and internet browsing), since we'd start having lots of issues at that point. For a Mac I think you can definitely get to 5 years.

[codex57]

With PCs, it's once every 2-3 years.

For Apple.

iMac - 2006 (first Intel one when it first came out).
Macbook Pro - 2009
iMac - 2013

Considering our first iMac lasted about 7 years, that's pretty darn good. And I'm going to take it to be fixed later this week so I can hand it down to my nephew. The only reason it's "dead" is cuz the hard drive is finally failing. They're only supposed to last about 5-7 years anyways so we did really well. You did too.

I've seen the directions on how to "open" up my old iMac and upgrade. Yeah, I'm not doing it myself. I can build my own tower PC, but I'm not touching a sealed Mac. I suppose you could just take it to a shop to get it fixed. I was quoted $100 for labor and then whatever the parts cost. Prolly about $200 total.

[nrp]

Our iMac is 2007 vintage. We ran out of storage space so moved our itunes library to an external drive. It helped a lot. We also upgraded our memory about a year ago from 2GB to 4GB. I expect this computer might eventually be handed down to be the kids computer and we'll upgrade to a new iMac.

[dogmom]

You can definitely make a PC last 5 or 6 years, although having said that the ones we have that long has needed video card upgrades or fan/power source replaced, which my DH does for living. (they are not that expensive) Apples can last that long, but they are much harder to fix hardware wise if they do go and about twice the cost. So it's all what you need. Also depends a lot of what you are doing with your PC. We have several in our house, and a server, so it tends to go DH gaming machine is the newest then the trickle down effect. The oldest one is currently in the family room as entertainment unit/Minecraft box/experimental Windows 8 box. That's six years old. It replaced our 6 year old mini mac that was still working, but we were pushing the graphic limits with the existing video card. I feel like I live in computer lab.

[elektra]

Our iMac is 2007 vintage. We ran out of storage space so moved our itunes library to an external drive. It helped a lot. We also upgraded our memory about a year ago from 2GB to 4GB. I expect this computer might eventually be handed down to be the kids computer and we'll upgrade to a new iMac.

Hmmm. Looks like we got ours in 2007. We ran out of space too and DH tried to move our itunes to an external drive but for some reason, our Apple TV was not working well that way.
It kept not recognizing the external drive (?)

Dang, do I need to admit that DH may be right on this one? And then shell out $$$ for a new computer? :(

We have so many electronic devices that it seems crazy to have to get yet another thing. But it is taking me 3+ minutes just to open a simple excel doc or do something online.

[Mali]

We replace our PC gaming rigs every 3.5-4 years. By that point the hardware usually isn't able to keep up with the newer games.

They're still fine for simple Internet/ms office type things, we just need more powerful machines.

[abh5e8]

our desktop is old...7 yrs, i think. dh built it and has upgraded some things on it (i think?) it still runs great, but we just use it for movies/internet/word processing.

[khm]

Our laptops (windows) are all purchased from the Small Biz sections of either Dell or HP (generally refurbs), I think that makes a huge difference in quality vs. the $250 Best Buy or black friday specials. I've never had a cheapy windows machine, mine and the ones I've bought for my husband's employees are all HP "desktop replacements".

Mine is still rockin' XP, and no issues at all. I run recent photoshop, CAD and InDesign. No prob. Have also run Revit, which is a huge resource hog. It was purchased in 2007. I have no plans or need to replace it right now.

My husband's last one lasted 6 years, and he does CAD, BlueBeam and other high need programs. The motherboard went out, and that was that. His current one is 2 years old.

In our den resides the Dell laptop circa 2003 or 04. It did need a new fan circa 2008, and that repair SUCKED. I had no idea what I was getting into, but thought "hey $12 new fan, cool". But, it now runs internet for the kids. Thing won't die. In our basement, we use a small form factor HP as a DVR / TV tuner. Also refurb from the small biz section of HP.

I do expect things to last, and purchase accordingly, if I'm forking out several hundred to a thousand it should last long enough to pencil out to a couple hundred per year of use.