Just wondering, on average when do you buy a new computer (after how many months/years)?

I'm averaging around 3 years.

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openoffice + gimp + sketch ...

I've only bought one in my life - it was about a year ago

I bought a PII 450 beginning of 1999.

Replaced it with a PIV 1.3 beginning of this year...

--
Matt G

I've never borught a computer. I get them passed onto me and I build them up from there.

- wil

My first computer was a hand-me-down Commordore 64 my dad bought for $200 when he was in college 20-something years ago. (still runs decent, I might add.) After that I talked my dad into getting us a Pentium 75 with 8MB ram and a 850MB HD back in '95 for about $1200. I bought my own AMD 300, 96MB ram, and 8GB HD system in '98 for about the same price. Earlier this summer I had a nasty virus on my hard drive and went to a little computer shop downtown to buy a replacement. That's when I decided to spend $400 and replace the whole system with a AMD Duron 900, 20GB HD, 1GB ram. I could have cost more, but I have plenty of spare PCI cards lying around (sound cards, usb cards, etc.).

--Philip
Links 2.0 moderator

I've only owned four computers in my lifetime:

1) Commadore 64 - (10 years)
2) Texas Instrument - (2 years)
3) Toshiba 2100 - (7 years)
4) Computer Rennaisannce Custom - (4 years)

========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me

Im trying to force my dad to buy mine from me because I've seen such a cool deal:

1.7ghz
512MB RAM
80GB HD
64MB Video Card
19" Monitor
WinXP

...for about $1350

I do a major upgrade on my PC about ever 18 - 24 months. I do a lot of small things in between like add more ram or change the video card, stuff like that. I don't think I have ever bought a complete packaged PC for myself since I got my first 386 a few years ago.

Regards,
Charlie

That's not that cheap, Paul. Go out and buy the parts yourself. Should shave £400 or so off the costs.

- wil

It is cheap and no I don't want to buy parts.

Where did you see that offer?

I've seen very cheap offers from "Time" computers recently.

They are the ones that do those hot deals that only last 3 or 4 days.

- wil

That was Time

You'd be hard pushed to find a 1.7ghz PIIII with that much RAM, WinXP and a powerful video/sound card for less than £900

I'd never buy it though because Time are crap

Aha. I misread your first post. I didn't see the dollar sign!!

But why buy XP when you can download KDE for free? A much more powerful alternative.

- wil

4 words.

Because I don't want to.

I'm not going to buy a PC and then start screwing around with OS's that I don't want or like.

Hey hey! Don't knock it until you've tried it. That's what I say.

You've alwayse used Windows, you're used to it and comftarble with it. Fair enough.

Why not create a tiny little partition, installa a flavour of Linux and KDE or some other graphical desktop interface. They are graphicly very similar to Windows, you'll hadly notice the visual difference.

Just try it for a few weeks. It won't hurt you, and you might, just might, never go back to Windows.

In fact, after you've had a taste, there wouldn't be any need for you to go back to Windows.

And you won't need that new machine, either. Linux runs on half the RAM of Windows, and so does most of the major applications on it.

What are you afraid of son? :-)

- wil

Well how do you know I haven't tried it?

FYI I already have Linux installed on a seperate partition

Because I'm confident that you wouldn't go back.

Have you tried KDE?

- wil

Yes

..and I don't like Mandrake and that's why it sits happily on the other partition.

When I say "don't like" I'm referring to the GUI

Then try something that's a lot more like Windows. Or a winodws clone (only better); KDE.

- wil

First computer 1984: Texas Inst 994A ($100) used cassette tapes to save data
Next computer 1990: IBM Displaywriter (used $60) it used like 12" floppies - the floppy drives were external and we called them "toaters" because that's what they looked like
Next computer 1991: Clone 8086 (free) (40mb hd, 256k RAM - that's "kilobytes" not megs) 5 1/4 floppy drive.
Next computer 1995: P133, 16mb RAM ($800)
Next computer 1998: P266, 48mb RAM ($500)
still got it.

My next upgrade will be a new motherboard, chip & RAM - I'll recycle my DVD player, TV tuner/video card (that's cool), floppy drive, case, etc.

I wanted a next so bad in college !!! (errr circa 1988) !!!

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My dad got me a apple IIc way back in 85' ??? and then in college used school computers, and then finally after 5 years of no computers, I got a 520c powerbook, 5250 performa, 5300 powerbook, 8500 tower (during a 2 year period about 6 years ago). I made the mistake of buying cheap ... I ended up learning what missed in those 5 years and now for the past 2 have been using a G4 400 pci.

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After moving to OS X I've realized the power and usefulness of a *nix system. Sure, it took close to a month getting used to it all but dammmmm it's sweet. Plus having OS X is even nicer since I can still run ... Mac OS apps and use virtual PC to run M$ stuff ... errr ... for my clie pda ...

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KDE isn't bad either ... I had it running on Xwindows for a bit ... The only problem I see with other *nix based systems is a lack of standard software ... aka ... adobe / M$ (office/powerpoint) and such. Alas, once again Apple has opened doors for people again. If Office is portable to OS X then it means that it is portable to other *nixes ... too bad M$ isn't a true software company anymore.

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I wonder if Wil is getting sponsoring from M$

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openoffice + gimp + sketch ...

My first computer was a Kaypro 4-84 in 1984. It had a Z-80 processor running either 6 or 8 mhz, 64 k ram and two 5.25 floppies. I also had the +88 option, which meant it could also run an 8088 processor. About the only thing I used the 8088 setup for was as a ramdisk when I was playing Adventure in collosal cave. And that was pretty cool.

It also had a built in 300 baud modem, a 9 inch green monochrome monitor, the keyboard detached and it had serial and parallel ports. It also came with tons of software.

I have it stored right now and it still runs. Was a nice computer. Only trouble I ever had with it was when I zapped the keyboard with static and blew a chip on the mother board. It was socketed, so it was easy to replace.
--
Rob

SW Montana's Online Community
Modular Model Railroading

I never have bought a whole out-of-the-box computer. My first was a 286 hand-me-down and I have just kept upgrading it myself. Come to think about it... I have probably upgraded enough hardware and memory in my box to have a about 5 or 6 computers by now

About KDE.... tried the new Red Hat... liked it but... couldn't get my DSL configured (BTW my connection speed stays around 1050- love it).. so back to windows. I decided I have enough to do - I don't need to fight with my OS.

Just to be fair to all you M$ folks I decided to build a M$ machine ... gotta really give it a go to be fair when I pick on you all

Here goes -- I got 2 machines for free (1 nec piece of shit ... errrr their propriety version... old mmx 133 and another no name AT A4 size box) problem was ram is limited to how much and lack of compatibility. Besides the nec junker has a blown mother board ???

After reading all the replies above I figured ahhh why not ... I went to buy a new mother ... haha ... my mini tower is sooo old that the folks just smiled at me both boxes are probably 95' or something like that.

So I decided to forgo the bigger drive for my machine and went slightly overboard.

I got a cheapy $50 ATX A4 case (couldn't find anyting used and small ... gotta keep this covert from the wife ) a Abit BE6 440BX/Slot1/ATX mother for $50 -- used, why buy new , P3 500 with cooling fan for ... akkk $60 ... the other used CPUs didn't have fans or probably spend more on a fan that fit than on a CPU, and finally 128 PC100 ram for $9 -- total $176 ... the video card (unknown), FD, CD (errr 1x -- probably) and 3 gig HD are from both the above parasited machines. I also got a lan card for $10 and the SCSI was from the NEC piece of shit.

I'm in the middle of building it! Once again can't let the wife know too much the case is really shiny and new ...

hmmm ... I spent 2 days digging at the used shops and figured this was the best alternative for future use ...

What surprised me was that building a new machine compared to buying a new pre-built ... didn't seem that far different in price except that if you start from close to zero a pre-built with M$ included seemed a slightly better overall deal. Expansion cards surprisingly are pretty close in price for what's available for Macs. CD/DVD for M$ had better deals. The only thing that I really liked is the relative ease of upgrading the CPU for a M$ box.

the word on XP at the shops is ... too much necessary ram and the P4 isn't much better than a P3 ... stick with w2000 you're better off!!! <-- they actually said this! OS X runs pretty happily on a G4 400 and 128 ram!!!

Without finishing the Frankenstein Box ... I really can't say but I still prefer a Mac ... too bad you can get a nice VAIO with a flat panel screen for the same price as a regular G4 tower ...

Now before I end my diary ... How did I do on the parts? I wonder if I got it royally or not???

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openoffice + gimp + sketch ...

Yeah, there's a review of Win XP in Computer Shopper or Computer Buyer this month.

It absoluetly slates it. It just keeps going on about a pointless new release with no upgrades or nothing new, just another gimick. The only thing it does, as you mentioned is eat away at your RAM. You have to have a super computer to start off with, it's so hungry on RAM.

The article actually tells the user it's time to try Linux as a serious alternative, or stick to Windows 98/2000. Don't bother with that ME business.

It does try and push Linux through though, saying that it is time to stop paying £200 for the same OS that comes in a different box. It does make you wonder. Linux is free, and all the software on it. Imagine all the money I could have saved over the years...

And I'm starting to agree with them. £200 for a new name for the same system is rather expensive. I'd rather download my OS, and all my applications for free and still have a more powerful and reliable system. Oh yeah, I like that idea :-)

- wil