How often to upgrade your PC?

Discussion in 'The Lounge - Off Topic' started by Hally, Dec 6, 2012.

  1. Hally

    Hally Bit Poster

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    My work PCs are now 3 years old.

    I think it is time to upgrade and get a new ones but I am put off by the amount of software and add ons that need installing and all the options I will have to customise again!!

    How often do you think PCs should be changed to keep everything running smoothly and fast?

    There's that much software on this one that is takes about 20 minutes to boot up and is OK to use after all the security software has done its business!!
     
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  2. dales

    dales Terabyte Poster

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    Depends on how many pc's you have, sounds like you should be looking at WDS or similiar to push out custom pc images over the network. Generally where I've worked previously pc's have mostly been replaced as they break or after 5 years of life (though only a few made it to 5 years).
     
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  3. ade1982

    ade1982 Megabyte Poster

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    As we are having a bit of a crisis in work, these computers (including the one I am typing from) have been in since March 2006! All have had a RAM upgrade, and I've had to change a handful of power supplies (a known Dell problem) and a few HDDs but other than that, they are running smoothly.
     
  4. nXPLOSi

    nXPLOSi Terabyte Poster

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    Sounds like our place there Ade!

    We have pretty much had the same Dell's in place for 5-6 years now, all upgraded to 2Gb RAM. To be fair they work perfectly fine for us, no problems really. When I took over about 7 years ago the state of the machines was unreal, we're only 50 staff strong but at least one PC a month died on me!
     
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  5. shadowwebs

    shadowwebs Megabyte Poster

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    If your PC is only 3 years old and is taking over 20 minutes to load then it is either a low spec, or is in desperate need for a defrag.

    What is the spec of the machine?
     
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  6. Beerbaron

    Beerbaron Megabyte Poster

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    i upgrade my pc as and when needed. i recently purchased a larger ssd so good for a while now.
     
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  7. reverb

    reverb Byte Poster

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    I tend upgrade every few years or so.

    Yes I agree about reinstalling and customising things to the way you had it, which I really hate! :D
     
  8. SimonD
    Honorary Member

    SimonD Terabyte Poster

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    It depends on whether you're talking personally or professionally.

    Personally speaking I usually upgrade various components yearly but businesses can't do that because they would soon go out of business so a 3 year refresh is fairly common.

    There are cheaper alternatives to fully replacing your hardware tho, a decent spring clean and ram upgrade can work wonders, when I say spring clean I do mean both opening up the case to remove the buildup of dust from the inside of the case as well as running a cleanup of the OS (orphaned files and a defrag of the OS can work wonders) but I also recommend a refresh of the OS every year or so (both at home and the office), yes installing software can be a bitch but that's where a base image comes in useful (Acronis for home, WDS\SCCM for the office), automate the installation of various applications and using WPI can also help.
     
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  9. andylad9

    andylad9 Byte Poster

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    installing an SSD made a huge difference to my machine and boot time. it's a really good upgrade.
     
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  10. simongrahamuk
    Honorary Member

    simongrahamuk Hmmmmmmm?

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    Personally, I don't bother. I run a Mac at home and it meets my needs for what I put it through. Every 5 years or so I'll buy a new one. I may look to get a HP Microserver in the future, but again, it'll be bought and never upgraded until its replaced.

    At work I try to get PC's to last around 5 years before they get replaced. I have a rolling replacement system of around 60 pc's per year that get replaced so there is no massive unplanned outlay when its their turn.
     

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