[sgmuser]

Even though I chose 4-5 years, that is my perspective, a techie and always has a thing for the latest gadgets! So, I may not have given the answer for others, rather, what I would do.

So, the right answer actually should be "it depends!". There are two types of PC users generally, at least from percentage perspective. The simple, casual browsing/word/ppt users and heavy workload (photo/video editing/graphic design, IT techies who run VMs etc.)

The first ones can keep running their laptops as longs it just runs. Even 8 years plus. If needed, upgrade the stuff which is possible like faster SSDs like NVMEs, RAMs, battery etc. and even replace keyboard/screen if it is broken which are usually cheap to do. Suggestion is to maintain a clean back up process with an external HDD and you are good to go.

The second category, they might require (like me) to keep upgrading once in 3-4 years to a complete new setup to exploit the speed of the processors, RAMs, Video cards and over all performance. For ex. CPUs had a big jump with AMD's recent resurgence and Intel had to do the same (all the while we were simply cheated with peanut speed increase). So, if you see the speed bump we got between 6 to 10th gen Intel CPUs, it is a considerable jump, because of AMD 2nd, 3rd and 4th Gen CPUs started to compete progressively with Intel. So, there was a big realistic benefit for those upgrades during the last two years onwards. So, you might want to break the rule now and upgrade to a laptop with latest gen CPUs/GPUs (I would prefer an AMD) so that we realize the benefits of these massive performance upgrades. I had a Dell Precision laptop purchased refurbished from ebay with a 69xx CPU. It clearly struggled for what I was trying to do after few years. I did a long research and I found that the time is ripe to upgrade. Refer the below which shows clearly the upgrade is worth every penny and this will last longer than the previous laptop in terms of lifecycle.

Both are same 45w TDP. So, at this situation, a 5-6 year old laptop can be replaced and one can notice great performance jump for mid-heavy users.



The second one clearly shows how we were abused by Intel all these years with peanut performance increase and then the giant woke up once there was a decent threat in the shape of AMD. Competition is good for us! So, I went for AMD this time.

Thanks to cpubenchmark.com for the information and charts.



So, if you have 5 plus year old CPU, you should go for the upgrade now and enjoy the Windows 11 as well as it is a real update from OS perspective as well.

[Malyaj]

Voted 6-7 but that is only because of recent experience with Mac. Previous Windows based machines provided by office used to get terribly slow after 3-4 years.

Macs last longer than Windows based machines. My current MacBook is 5 years old and running good as new. I believe it will last another 3 years easily if I don't update the OS. My ipad 3rd gen still works but crawls because I kept updating the OS to accommodate new apps. No such problem in laptops.

Unless it becomes very difficult to use, or some applications do not work and require an update to the OS, which will kill the performance, I do not feel any need to upgrade. It helps that the Macbook looks very nice even after all these years and one doesn't feel like updating even for cosmetic reasons.

Ok, I have done enough promo for Apple now

[ashokabs]

So long as you have a backup of your data and the speed of the computer is satisfactory then keep it till it packs up. If the SSD is showing more errors then it can be replaced - usually quite easily and if one has some DIY experience at home.

[Jangra]

My Vote was for 8 plus years
My ownership as of Feb-2022 -
2013 Apple Macbook Air, processor i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD
2014 Microsoft Surface pro - i5, 4GB RAM, 128 SSD

Few days back, I had the need to upgrade my windows laptop but Macbook is still going strong. Lesson learnt is go a notch up on the processor, RAM and storage.

[casnov]

Originally Posted by GTO

My sister works with a Big 4 firm and in their office, as a rule, laptops are changed every 3 years which I feel is quite a waste.

Most of the big firms actually do not buy these resources but are rented and are replaced after 3-4 years as per their service agreements.
I have used my personal PCs and Macs like we use our cars, till they give up or our technical requirements have exceeded the machine's capability. For normal day to day work of surfing the net and editing docs or posting on team-bhp I don't believe we need to upgrade even at 5 years.

[PaddleShifter]

Till it runs should have been a separate option.

In general, most laptops work well only for 4-5 years. Hence I have voted for 4-5 years.

[Transmission]

Voted 8+ years or till it runs

In my view for most of us (me included) the laptop is a tool. Just like how I generally use my pens till they run out of ink (or I lose them), My screw drivers for however long they last (or I give them away or I lose them), I tend to use my laptops till they serve the purspose or I have new usecases where they fail to perform acceptably.

There has been a stagnation in CPU performances (which only some recent releases address) so if you have a 4-year old laptop chances are any new one is going to be only a marginal improvement.

For now, replace if something breaks down or upgrade parts if you are stuck with an old laptop thats got - say too little RAM for your needs, or a slow HDD (in which case an ugrade to SSD is going to feel ridiculously good) - but otherwise, no real gains for most users.

Originally Posted by GTO

My sister works with a Big 4 firm and in their office, as a rule, laptops are changed every 3 years which I feel is quite a waste.

As for why many IT departments replace laptops around the 4 year mark - thats because thats when many service/repair agreements run out and then the repair expenses of any parts shoots up since these are "business" (aka expensive) laptops. So it makes much more sense for them to improve the employee experience (no laptop breakdowns and related frustration) and they can also resell these laptops out (although not at the rates one might find an equivalent laptop at used-retail - meaning olx/quickr). So its not such a big new expense for them - its all planned reasonably well, and funds earmarked well in advance. Those factors dont apply to a regular individual.

[WanderinNomad]

Originally Posted by @og_adi

Voted for 4-5 years.
For me it depends on the specs of the laptop/PC too. A low and mid range laptop might come with specs which might not suffice for needs in the future. Sure, a few things can be upgraded (like RAM or SSD) but in my opinion, such laptops with inferior CPU performance, display and other features lead to frequent changing. I went overboard this time to buy myself a Dell Inspiron 5410 with 16GB RAM which may be good enough for the near 6-7 years in terms of requirements and can only hope problems don't crop up. Battery life too is another reason, once one weakens over time, replacements don't last long too in my experiences with various laptops and require changing in a couple of years again. My last laptop was a mess and had to be replaced in its third year itself.
OT: Attaching few pics of the 5410.
Attachment 2283506

Attachment 2283507

Attachment 2283508

I have a similar Dell Inspiron 2 in 1 with an i5 7th gen. I bought it in 2017 for 72000 from Canada. In India, it was close to 90000. It has 8 GB ram and an SSD and I had also stretched my budget at that time.

The laptop lasted till 2020 mid, and since then, it is counting its last breath. I am still stretching it somehow. After 3.5 years, hardware components start failing one by one. Currently, the screen has weird patterns, the i5 7th gen processor cannot even handle 50 chrome tabs.,the cpu is always at 100% Etc. After 3.5 years I had to replace the battery, adapter, power button and the screen which is on its way out since last 1.5 years is available nowhere except dell, where it’s exorbitantly priced.
Have tried factory reset and it doesn’t help.

Before this I had a dell studio 15 from 2010-2014, and then it suffered a similar fate till it complete gave up in 2015.

So basically, I am forced to upgrade every 4 years by Dell. I seriously think that it’s a case of planned obsolescence because these machines start failing as soon as the warranty period expires. My experience with smartphones like one plus and even a 12000rs redmi note 3 is so much better than these expensive laptops.

Fed up with dell, I read the GTO’s thread where he chooses a MacBook Pro in the end. I am looking for a reliable laptop that will last me 8-10 years. The only pointers I have from GTO’s thread is to go with a Thinkpad or a MacBook Air M1. Any suggestions would be helpful.

[Gannu_1]

I guess it has more to do with the performance/utility of the laptop than the timeline. I replaced my 8+ year old Lenovo laptop with an iPad 9th gen. 256 GB WiFi model last month.



The laptop wasn’t having much use based on my current usage pattern and it was gathering dust - at one point I used it extensively for CAD drawings and torrent downloads. Ever since OTT platforms picked up, I was subscribed to most of them so there goes torrent downloads. Then comes CAD drawings - ever since my work profile switched to a managerial role, I’m not doing drawings anymore; I relegate it to juniors. So there does Autocad application use. Mind you, this laptop was fast - 8 GB RAM and a Samsung 840 series 256 GB SSD. I’m a big proponent of SSDs and one of the early adopters too.

As with the iPad, with the Logitech keyboard dock that cost me Rs 2400 and the Lightning to USB OTG adapter, I can plug in most USB peripherals including a simple optical mouse and a hard drive. This made things much simpler. Not to mention the increased portability. The newer iPads have multitasking too unlike the first gens. And Apple’s own suite for the office apps like word processor, spreadsheets and presentations work decently. I’m used to MS Office all this while that’s taking me time to switch.

I’m glad I made the switch now. Wish I had the budget for the iPad Pro which has a faster processor. Offloaded the laptop to my wife.

[Transmission]

Originally Posted by WanderinNomad

Fed up with dell, I read the GTO’s thread where he chooses a MacBook Pro in the end. I am looking for a reliable laptop that will last me 8-10 years. The only pointers I have from GTO’s thread is to go with a Thinkpad or a MacBook Air M1. Any suggestions would be helpful.

The choice should largely depend on what you want to do with this laptop. If its just browse the internet and maybe edit a few spreadsheets/ppts online then it really doesnt matter what you buy - so just buy the one that provides the best specs within your budget - be it a Macbook air or a Windows or Linux laptop. Note that specs doenst just refer to the processor or the RAM or SSD - battery life and software compatiblity is a very important spec too, the way I see it.

On the other hand if you are expecting to do some specialised heavy lifting work - say programming or video/photo editing or running VMs or use specific software for any purpose then your choice of OS isnt really all that free.

If you're already in the mac ecosystem - integration with your iphone, icloud usage etc I guess you'll have something similar in terms of complains on how you cant find good equivalents in the Windows world.
But if you're into video editing, often you have to re-buy software if you switch OSes and if you are into original artwork then you'd absolutely love good pen-based touchscreens which is essentially the domain of windows laptops.

For my needs I have always stuck to a windows laptop. My needs are generally - a good keyboard, reasonably large spread of open-source/free software for various needs (one of the hardest ones to replace being a fast local file search engine named Everything), acceptable commandline experience, ability to run random programs from the internet (that I occasionally find adding value to my uses) without the mess that is (often) dealing with a centralised package manager (and now I can tell that all Linux, Mac folks are upset at me), ability to run some games, and some level of upgradability on SSDs and RAM. Nowhere else can I find a good mix except in the windows world. My first windows laptop will be 10 years old now. Its still on its original battery and still used (by my mother). I guess I am a bit of an outlier in that respect.

So again, buy based on what you want to do with the laptop - dont choose Windows vs Mac vs Linux just because you last laptop failed earlier than expected.

(Source: Been working with all sorts of PCs for ages now, started kind of like a tech support guy for my mother's school computer-lab when I was about 10 years old and then was the local tech support guy at college for friends' laptops. I have used plenty of Windows, Linix and recently, Macs too)

[anoopelias]

My Macbook Air 2013 (128GB bought in May 2013), used for all my personal purposes, has been running ~9 years strong. Its keyboard gets a bit hot when my kid play Minecraft, but hey, he's not complaining. Just to compare, for the same level of care and handling, my 2008 Lenovo Thinkpad didn't last 5 years!

It was a big boon during lockdown times for video classes, can't imagine buying a brand new laptop just for that - the kid handles it a bit rough.

[groom]

It needs to be replaced after 5yrs, that's how i voted for 6 to 7 years.
It is just not about the speed alone, the technology changes significantly every five years or so and offers leaps of bounds in features that makes it compelling to change. The newer software is written which is more compatible with the newer hardware.

I had a laptop with SSD, Intel Gen 2 i5, 8gigs ram, weighed a bit bought in 2012.
After 7 yrs i decided to change although it was working very well. Both laptops literally costed me the same amount 1000USD. But the upgrade was super worth it. Why ?

1) Its lighter by 600gms
2) The 8th gen i7 is super fast compared to 2nd gen --> Biggest value for the same money
3) there is no fan and wow smooth, noiseless and heatless.
4) Battery is way better and so is the way it is extending the life of it. More hrs too.
5) Display is really cool, upgrade from 720P to 4K & edge to edge
6) Connectivity get a big upgrade - wireless display, wifi 5Gh support, seamless BLE4+
7) Boots super fast, although both are SSD, the newer ones transfer rate is way too fast. 5+ yrs makes you feel it easily.
8) Butterfly keys are leaps better than older ones & auto back-lits
9) Glass tracks pads are awesome to use
10) In the cloud era, we dont need card readers anymore
11) Ports get upgraded too, FAST display adaptors and no more many USBs, U2U3
12) Graphics : integrated ones are already way good compared to the previous ones.
13) Newer brushed aluminum ones are nice to hold, feel and looks cool, durable


As you see, there is a whole lot of experiences that are associated around the upgrade and not just the speed of the laptop alone. This particular technology area is not worth the last option, "until it runs out". No way unless its desktop or upgradable machines.

So what I do ? I donate my previous device that still has an useful life left, to people who are in need.

Old device: HP Envy 14
New device: Lenovo 730S

[aaggoswami]

This question comes up at a nice time actually.
My desktop is Core i5 3450 that is a 3rd generation Core i50 mounted on Intel DB75EN motherboard and stuffed with 16GB RAM. However, the PC has slowed down, and MS office 2016 isnt flying either. I have to many a times process excel files well over 100 MB. Still I expect I5 to fly through, it itsnt.

My dad's PC is lying idle, that rig was also assembled by me. Its got AMD A8 Kaveri series but motherboard has got only two RAM slots. Wondering what to do. It was slightly offset for me to buy laptop 1.5 years ago without graphic card, but I managed to get hold of Core i5 10th generation processor. This laptop with 8GB RAM can do better work on MS excel than my desktop.

Wondering what should I do next. Time for my desktop to retire, may be. Its around 9 years old, cant upgrade to Windows 11 and slowly things will get obsolete. A reliable rig, but really confused if I should invest in updating my laptop or getting a new desktop parts.

[xrules]

Originally Posted by sundarsarma

Having been using PC's and Laptops Since 1998, I have experienced MAC's last longer than Windows based devices, be it Mac book's or Mac Mini's. The current Mac Book Air i am typing this post is with me since May 2014 and works flawlessly

Awesome. The sony viao Z that I am using right now was purchased in Feb 2011 ..While Vaio SZ that I purchased in June 2008 is still going strong (upgraded to ssd)

Originally Posted by GTO

My sister works with a Big 4 firm and in their office, as a rule, laptops are changed every 3 years which I feel is quite a waste.

Many a times big firms lease their hardware which after 3 years show up by bulk sellers on ebay. Second part is warranty which is key for office laptops and last but not the least is that I have seen work laptops take a lot of abuse in commute, usage (running nearly24/7) and company scanning and monitoring software which at times deteriorates them faster. My work laptop starts to scream for a change nearly 2.5 years onwards.

[Vitruvius]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

This question comes up at a nice time actually.


Wondering what should I do next. Time for my desktop to retire, may be. Its around 9 years old, cant upgrade to Windows 11 and slowly things will get obsolete. A reliable rig, but really confused if I should invest in updating my laptop or getting a new desktop parts.

I would suggest you to upgrade your hard drive, if you haven't yet done it. A 9 years old HDD will severely affect performance. Swap it out for a new SSD, and you will see a significant performance boost. One of the perks of owning a desktop is its extremely modular nature, and more often than not, an SSD upgrade is all your system needed to find its long lost youth.