How long do you use/keep a laptop?

[v-600]

General question - How old is your laptop? How long do you use your laptop as your main machine?

I currently have a samsung laptop that's coming up on 3 years old. Its starting to show a bit of wear and tear in places and the DVD drive has got a bit intermittent, but the apu+discrete graphics are still capable of everything I need. I just bought a surface pro 3 (which has died after 2 months) so found myself back on the old laptop. If I hadn't bought the surface I guess I'd probably be happy using this for the next couple of years before it started showing problems with games.

http://www.techradar.com/news/mobil...h-in-on-the-age-of-upgradable-laptops-1287066

This made interesting reading, so I thought I'd see what other people thought.

 

[corkyg]

My Lenovo T510, now with 2 SSDs, performs better than when I bought it in 2010. It is over 4 years old and in the prime. There's nothing I need to do that it can't do, and it is proven very reliable. Maybe a replacement next year? Quien sabe.

 

[crashtech]

T510 with twin SSDs here, too. Weird coincidence! I wish I had a reason to replace it, but it works great.

 

[ggadrian]

Macbook a little over 5 years here. With 8GB of RAM and a SSHD it's actually faster than most current 400€ laptops people buy. I've been wanting to replace it for one year now, but I'm still waiting for a non-bezel 15 inch macbook or a quad core 13inch.

This little guy has been in my backpack almost every day and is on 24h a day and it's been in many countries. I'm kind to going to miss it the day it gets replaced.

 

[ninaholic37]

11 year laptops only for me

 

[gmaster456]

I keep mine until they die or no longer perform to the levels I deem acceptable. So it could be 1 year it could be 5.

 

[crashtech]

So, you have bought crap, and you have bought quality? Any difference in the overall experience other than elapsed time?

 

[ninaholic37]

My Lenovo T510, now with 2 SSDs, performs better than when I bought it in 2010. It is over 4 years old and in the prime. There's nothing I need to do that it can't do, and it is proven very reliable. Maybe a replacement next year? Quien sabe.

T510 with twin SSDs here, too. Weird coincidence! I wish I had a reason to replace it, but it works great.

That T510 sounds nice from the reviews. Maybe this will be my next upgrade, whenever my Thinkpad T42 dies (very similar model)... but I think mine still has about 10 years left in it. I'll be back in 2025 to see if you guys are selling

 

[Valantar]

My ThinkPad X201 is going on five years, still working perfectly. The last couple of years it's been used as an HTPC, but I'll be building a dedicated one soon, returning the laptop to portable duties. Love that machine, amazing quality in a tiny package. Just a shame that the display sucks.

 

[HOSED]

I do a lot of research before I buy. The most reliable machine i have ever had and still have is a Dell D610 (circa 2007) running Bodhi linux now (was Vista) & it was FREE from work. I have a Sager NP2740 (~2 years) and a Asus G73-JH gamer (5 years already) .. will keep win 7 on both and keep them until they expire because of my light usage.

 

[Arcanedeath]

I had an Emachines M6805 w/ 2gb of ram and a 250gb 7200 rpm ide laptop drive it lasted 8 years before it gave up the ghost, it was mainly used as a portable internet surfing and movie watching machine it had a single core athlon 64 mobile chip at 1.8 ghz, I'm amazed at how long it lasted was well worth the around $1400 in total I put into it over it's lifetime.

I've since "upgraded" to a nexus 7 2013 tablet to do the functions the laptop used to do.

 

[Dufus]

I try to buy something cost effective with decent performance for my needs so 5 to 6 years hopefully.

For instance my old HP Compaq Core2 laptop lasted about 6 years before upgrading to HSW and 5 years of that was helped with a permanent CPU hardware overclock of over 30% to help give better performance. Some problems with battery, ODD and adapter needing replacement during that time, somehow ants got into the power brick, but CPU and other hardware all good.

 

[Fred B]

My laptop acer aspire 9420 is 5+ years and performance is better with ssd and os Vista to 8.1 upgrade. That the point with this kind of hardware it often need some upgrades to perform up to date.

 

[podspi]

My Gateway C140X is 7.5yrs. Still going strong but just replaced it with a ThinkPad S1 two days ago. With the integrated battery I doubt this one will last as long (been through 4 with the gateway), but oh well.

 

[crashtech]

I would like to mention that I buy my laptops used, and then keep them 2-4 years. So far this has worked well for me since I can upgrade them and repair them as needed.

 

[Herr Kutz]

Bought mine summer of 06 and still using it as my main machine. Popped a Plextor SSD in it back in summer of 2012, and it's pretty snappy. I thought the screen was starting to go last week, but it's been working fine so no reason to pick up a new one just yet. I still get about 45 minutes of use on the battery too.

t2500 core duo 2 ghz
2gb ram

Honesty, the reason I haven't upgraded yet is that I cannot find THE ONE. They all have some major flaw (imo). Oh, and I'm cheap.

 

[Emulex]

2008 macbook pro 128gb SSD 2gb ram - still use it daily!
2010 macbook white 8gb ram - hard drive 5400rpm - still use it daily!

now if it wasn't apple, It probably would be shitcanned by these many years but these guys are on original battery with plenty of life left!

 

[ArisVer]

This is a hypothetical answer. I only recently got a notebook (a few weeks ago) a used 2.5 years old Pentium B980 with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD. I am planning for it to last me until 2020 at least, so that's 5 years. Ordered a disk caddy to replace the DVD with a disk. The only other upgrade might be an SSD.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Had a 2006 MacBook through late 2011. Purchased a 2011 MacBook Pro and it's still going strong. Both had/have daily, heavy use (8hr+) and have been all over the world, and are true portables (i.e. they are not stuck on the same desk all day every day).

I just replaced the WiFi card in my MBP. It started getting pretty flaky. Fortunately, it was a cheap and easy fix. Original battery still easily lasts over 3 hours. I upgraded the RAM the day I bought it, to 16GB. I upgraded the HDD (to a 750GB hybrid SSD/HDD) a couple of years ago. I will put a 512GB SSD in it within the next 6-12 months. The hi-res (non-Retina) matte screen is still fantastic, and I haven't had any of the video corruption issues (although I might take it in for a free motherboard replacement just to give it extra life down the road). I dare say it will easily make 5 years.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Using an X200s here. I love it, except for the screen. Really wish there were IPS panels out there for this model. I believe it was built in 2008 or 2009 - I bought it used. The only thing I might need to replace is the keyboard, which is getting a bit shiny and mushy in its old age. And I've replaced the battery with a new 9-cell since I got it - it gets 6-8 hours on a charge these days.

I'm a college instructor, and my X200s travels around campus with me, always getting hooked up to projectors and thrown in my bag. When it dies, my next laptop will definitely be a Thinkpad, maybe an X220 since it had the IPS screen and was the last one to include the old school keyboard.

C2D SL9400, 4GB of DDR3, 160GB Intel G2 SSD.

 

[crashtech]

X220 would be a great upgrade, imo.

 

[Dimicron]

I still use a Gateway P-6860fx... It's my only laptop. It runs Civ5 and SWTOR still, plus the classics like KOTOR and PS:T.

 

[Yuriman]

Still have and use a Core2 Duo based Macbook (2007?) running Windows, though it's falling apart. The WiFi antennas failed by fraying and breaking at the hinge, so I drilled holes in the side and installed two RP-SMA antennas. CD drive failed, so I took it out. Hard drive failed, so I replaced with a SSD. Every few years I clean the heat sinks out when it starts to overheat. Charge port is funky. Some of the keys quit working so I replaced the keyboard + trackpad. Battery has died twice from age, haven't bothered to replace it. Even with all of this, it has been a fraction of the cost of a replacement laptop.

Recently supplemented with a Chromebook for when I actually need battery life.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Hmmm... I don't know what qualifies as "main" laptop, seeing that I have various uses for my equipment, but here goes:

1) I have a Toshiba Satellite A110 (Celeron M410, 3GB RAM, 60GB HDD) bought in 2004, which is used exclusively for desktop publishing (QuarkXPress & Photoshop), when I work on a newsletter in my community.

2) I have an Acer 1410, (Core2Solo [!], 4GB RAM, 120GB SSD) bought in 2009, which I still carry with me everytime/everywhere I need something more than a tablet.

3) Last year, I got a repaired a HP 2540p (Core i7-640LM, 4 GB RAM, 120GB SSD), which I occasionally carry as an alternative to the Acer machine (since it has an optical drive). It's also five years old...

4) Finally, I also keep a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 in my house (PIII-900 MHz, 256MB RAM, 60GB HDD) for some old-school Windows 98 gaming (yeah, baby!)

 

[DragonBorn]

I usually keep laptops for 2-4 years. The thing is, I wanted to keep them more but they usually have issues for one reason or another...

On one laptop my GPU died and on another the battery died and then the screen died.... Maybe because I am not buying high laptops? Who knows...