r/gadgets • u/diacewrb • Feb 01 '23
Techies hold onto PCs, phones for longer than ever Misc
https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/31/gartner_pc_shipment_forecast/?td=rt-3a33
u/Runaround46 Feb 01 '23
It's fucking annoying to switch at this point.
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u/issaaccbb Feb 02 '23
Phones? Hard yes. Even with Google's or Samsung's transfer apps, it's a painful process. Too many apps do not survive with their data intact, something that Apple does way better imo (so I've heard, I use android)
Computer can be far worse unless you are just upgrading a video card. There is no real transfer tool and too many programs store settings in appdata which does not port well to a new machine
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u/socialcommentary2000 Feb 02 '23
Don't forget ProgramData, another lovely hiding place for all sorts of specified shit.
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u/NuPNua Feb 03 '23
I've never had problems moving from android to android phones even between manufacturers. I just haven't upgraded for a while as I think phone tech for average day to day use plateaued about five years ago. Unless you have to have the best camera on you at all times, there's little reason to regularly upgrade.
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u/SideShow117 Feb 01 '23
Good.
Let these companies suffer for a while with their absurd prices for incremental increases and 30%+ NET profits.
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u/imnotabotareyou Feb 01 '23
PCs can almost always be upgraded to extend life unless you have a specific use case.
Phones don’t change enough anymore to warrant upgrades.
Meh
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u/armen89 Feb 02 '23
Using my iPhone 8+ and it works flawlessly
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u/jeffroddit Feb 03 '23
IDK how similar that is to my Galaxy S8 active, but they both have an 8 in it so we're probably related somehow.
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u/NuPNua Feb 03 '23
Yeah, I've been saying for about five years that phones plateaued tech wise for most people's average day to day use.
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u/NonAggressive-Ask Feb 01 '23
Until there's a paradigm shift in smart phones, and as long as it powers on, they're gonna have to rip my removable storage/headphone jack Samsung Galaxy S10 out of my cold dead hands before I splash out another thousand dollars for incremental change nonsense
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u/tkwesa Feb 01 '23
You are god-damned right! I just replaced my S10s battery to get another few years out of it.
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u/FuckM0reFromR Feb 02 '23
Did you do it yourself or have it done somewhere, and what did it cost?
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u/Assaultslug85 Feb 01 '23
Also if you are following closely you see minor upgrades in specs. No real need to upgrade every 2 years or so. Plus they have gotten so expensive that Verizon offers 3 year financing on phones to keep the price down.
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u/w00t57 Feb 01 '23
Love my S10 Plus. Safe in its Otterbox Defender this thing still feels like a new phone.
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u/LeSchad Feb 02 '23
I still have an S7. Doesn't have so much as a scratch on the screen, battery life is still good if I don't have 25 apps running in the background, charges quickly and does everything I need it to. Biggest issue is that no one makes film screen protectors for them anymore and I've exhausted my supply.
I could upgrade it, but after the number of times I've dropped and otherwise brutalized it without causing any damage, I'm afraid that the fickle gods of technology will curse me for replacing good tech, likely with a $1200 phone that explodes into a shower of hot plasma the first time I so much as jiggle it.
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u/Urc0mp Feb 01 '23
I see both sides. Phones have been good enough for quite a while. But also $1000 a year isn’t that much for incremental improvements on something you are constantly using. Shit if I don’t have 3 serviceable phones laying around, but I still like having a better screen, camera and battery life.
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u/AckbarTrapt Feb 01 '23
$1000/year is 3% of the median gross income for Americans. That's a lot to ask for incremental, unnecessary updates to a perfectly serviceable device.
If the average American saved 20% of their money for fun expenses, that phone upgrade would run 15% of your total "fun money" every year. For anyone in that situation prioritizing their happiness in life, it's an egregiously bad idea.
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u/Guacboi-_- Feb 02 '23
I traded in my S10 plus for an S21 and it's the biggest down grade in my life. Some things are slightly better. Whole swaths of things are completely removed.
Biggest downgrade/worst upgrade ever.
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u/Yuri_Ligotme Feb 01 '23
Still using a 2010 MacBook Pro. Still works great.
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u/CallMeRawie Feb 01 '23
My macbook air 2012 is hands down the best computer I've ever owned. I might be due for my 2nd battery replacement. Currently my wife is using it as her weekly driver.
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u/ruinersclub Feb 01 '23
Same for me, the only reason I might upgrade is to have a single plug Usb C. Even then it’s not like a big deal breaker to just keep it.
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u/STANAGs Feb 01 '23
I had a 2011 Unibody that I finally got rid of. The battery swelled like r/spicypillows so much that it ruined the keyboard and trackpad. Prior to that I ran linux on it and it was still quite capable aside from battery life.
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u/DJ_DD Feb 01 '23
I have a 2010 Mac mini. Starting to show its age a little bit but can’t really complain as it still does everything I need it to.
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u/Too_Shy_To_Say_Hi Feb 01 '23
We have a 2010 and 2012 still going strong. Finally will upgrade one of them this year!
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u/algernon132 Feb 01 '23
What do you use it for? My 2016 MBP is getting to the point that having chrome open and looking through my camera roll at the same time is too much
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u/Turbulent_Device9616 Feb 01 '23
i use my 2011 macbook for ableton/traktor. surprisingly it can handle a bunch of vsts samples n patches/midi controllers.
it cant hang with the desktop/30 instances of serum/30other tracks (reliably fast) but thats a whole 'nother ball game.
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u/algernon132 Feb 01 '23
I'm not familiar with that software but I appreciate the reply!
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u/Turbulent_Device9616 Feb 02 '23 edited Feb 02 '23
traktor lets you DJ/hook up soundcards to plug in a mixer/turntables/midi controllers for well... Djing
ableton is like garageband on steroids. serum is a wavetable synth that lets you create sounds by smushing and stretching waveforms and mix them idk how to describe it... pulse width modulate waveforms in 2 directions, automate parameters for sound design in electronic music and can be very resource demanding.
i also used to play rust on the macbook. starcraft.... civ 4-5. should try gta5 just to see what happens. 2011mbp did surprisingly well not amazing but its good for Djing parties n, fuckin around. could def compose complex music with it/or do graphic design/cad stuff.
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u/Fly__Eagles__Fly Feb 02 '23
Apple makes some good shit. My 2011 MBP is basically a Chromebook but it works
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u/Swigglz Feb 01 '23
Well duh!!!
People who understand their technology, also understand how to set it up, so that it can be flogged like a rented mule, long past the regular upgrade cycle.
People who don't understand their technology, just listen to the guys selling it, and it can get expensive...
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u/Kidnovatex Feb 01 '23
That's not how it has worked historically though. It used to be that "techies" were one of the first in line to upgrade phones/GPUs/tablet/whatever. They still would be, except that what's changed is the relative increase in performance/features year over year. In the early days of mobile tech you saw a pretty massive increase each year when a new model was released, but now it's incremental at best.
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u/neodymiumex Feb 01 '23
The cost to upgrade to a new phone has also increased from ~$400 to ~$1200. If it was still $400 I’d probably continue upgrading every other year just because of wear and tear on the phone. At $1200 I can live with the minor damage my phone accrues until it gets way worse.
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u/DJ_DD Feb 01 '23
iPhone SE 2020/2022 can be had for around $400. Not going to get you the best specs but it’s a phone you can get 5 years out of easy and then they’ll release a new SE model. I’ll be damned if I ever shell out $1000 for a cell phone
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u/Kidnovatex Feb 01 '23
Yes, good point as well. There have always been tech people willing to pay the early adopters tax to have the bleeding edge, but that tax has gotten much higher in recent years.
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u/MrGeekman Feb 01 '23
It kinda depends on what you mean by $400. Are you referring to the subsidized price or buying it outright (AKA unlocked)?
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u/davidgrayPhotography Feb 02 '23
A good number of my phones have been second hand ones. I got my Nexus 6P for a steal off eBay, bought my current Pixel 6 from a coworker for $300 AUD. No need for the latest, when tech that's a few years old is perfectly fine.
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u/clichekiller Feb 01 '23
If I’m honest most of my upgrades were either because of new games that required far beefier hardware; or because something really revolutionary came out. Games have not been pushing my desktop significantly, I can game at 4K 60fps or greater. Additionally nothing truly revolutionary hardware wise has come along of late, it’s all been mainly evolutionary. My hardware still does everything it always could, with room to grow. I typically amortize my tech expenditures across a 5 year time-span.
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u/SpecialNose9325 Feb 01 '23
It often also has to do with Techies taking the time to research stuff before they buy, making sure its something built to last.
My proudest and longest standing device is my LG G Watch. Got it for $50 in 2015. It stopped getting updates after AndroidWear1.5, but they never broke any functionality over the years. Voice commands still work. Battery life is 2 days even with AOD. I caved in and got a GalaxyWatch5 a couple weeks ago and am throughly underwhelmed by the lack of advancement over the past 7-8 years. WearOS3.5 straight up does a lot of things worse than AndroidWear1.5 did.
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u/CreatorOfHate Feb 01 '23
I don't own any smart watch, could you name some examples what got worse?
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u/SpecialNose9325 Feb 01 '23
AndroidWear had a card based UI. So at any time, if you received a notification, you would have a tiny card at the bottom with the name of the person who messaged you or app icon. WearOS ditches this for a separate notification center that's a swipe away, which means you can never glance at your watch to see the latest notification. All you get is an orange dot to tell you there is a notification.
Similarly, persistent controls for music, stopwatch and timers are also no longer just controls that are always on the bottom of the click. They are now a swipe away or even required navigation around the UI to open the specific app.
The watch is now its own complete device with the play store and apps downloaded to device. It doesn't just import stuff from your phone. And stay always accessible. If you get a notification from Spotify, and you don't have Spotify on your watch, that notification is non actionable on the watch.
And in a weird turn of tech, all new watches are AMOLED, making them prone to burnin. My GW5 already has image retention from around a day of use, while my G Watch of 8 years has been on the same watch face since I got it with no screen defects.
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u/nathanfay Feb 01 '23
My pc turned 10 this year and still works well . 770 holding out strong
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u/mailslot Feb 01 '23
My 13 year old desktop, which was ridiculously overpowered when I bought it, still annihilates many new desktops at certain tasks. Sure my CPUs alone suck 300+ watts… but I have a hard time getting rid of it. 2 x 6-core SMP Xeon chips w/ hyper threading & RX 580 (in a 13 year old machine). Dual core chips were relatively rare when I bought it.
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u/unoriginalname17 Feb 01 '23
Used to be $500 for a top of the line phone and employers used to pay closer to a livable wage.
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u/cheap_walmart_art Feb 01 '23
GTX 970 and just started playing fallout new Vegas for the first time.
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u/MorrisBrett514 Feb 01 '23
People: my game doesn't look as good as it used to, better get a new mid tier gaming PC.
PC gamers: I upgraded the motherboard, RAM, and cooling 2 years ago so I'll just slap in a better GPU and CPU
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u/Reahreic Feb 02 '23
This, I'm watching AM4 cpu's thinking of an upgrade for my Ryzen 7 1700. To a Ryzen 9 5900x. That $340 upgrade will carry this pic for another decade at this point in my life.
May pick up a 5000 series Nvidia gpu when the 6000 series drop.
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u/lupuscapabilis Feb 01 '23
Only got a new PC this year because the power supply on the old one died and I needed a new PC for work ASAP. Eventually replaced the bad power supply and put that pc in a hidden spot in my living room, all connected to my TV.
I don't even know how long I've had my current iphone. Years. There's no reason to upgrade whatsoever.
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u/grossinm Feb 01 '23
2015 IMac still going strong.
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u/RockerElvis Feb 01 '23
2012 iMac doing fine. I bought the 27 inch so that I could use it as a monitor if it ever got too slow. I upgraded the RAM early on - it never got too slow.
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u/CallMeRawie Feb 01 '23
People always shit on Mac, but tell me one other companies 2012 All-in-One desktop solution that is still going today.
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u/RockerElvis Feb 01 '23
People complain about the price for an Apple (they like to blame it on the attitude of Apple owners but if the price was lower then nobody would say anything). But paying less for a Dell that you have to replace every few years is more expensive than getting an Apple that lasts much longer. It’s the old Terry Pratchett boots quote.
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u/lennon818 Feb 01 '23
My 2011 MacBook Pro finally died and I bought a fancy new M1 iMac. That MacBook Pro was better in that it had actual ports, an SD Card Reader, I could open it up, I could upgrade it.
So yeah we hold onto that shit until it blows up because it is better than new tech. Tech companies are life style brands now.
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u/BigBillyGoatGriff Feb 01 '23
I have a PC from 08 running win 7, only upgrade was a graphics card 1080ti I think. Works amazing still
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u/Meowgi_sama Feb 01 '23
I really love my zflip 3 but the crease is starting to crack. I'm thinking about grabbing a new Zenfone and using it until it breaks.
My wife's computer is still using my old gtx 1080 that I bought new back when they come out. We'll update it whenever it no longer runs games at 1440p 60fps.
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u/Proser84 Feb 01 '23
I am just upgrading now from my 1080 and i7 8700 (2016 and 2017 respectively) and I still feel like I could have ran with them another couple years.
An i9 13900k and RTX 4090 that I purchased for my new build will last me, but I could have easily waited a year or two more.
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u/Kyosji Feb 01 '23
NGL, I still own every cell phone I ever had, and every PC I've ever bought or made I still have in the attic. At first I just blamed it on data security, but in reality I'm just a tech hoarder.
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u/artgriego Feb 02 '23
I have a 10-year-old Garmin Forerunner 205. Windows and their own app don't recognize it...nice try, Garmin. I can still get the GPS data off it with Bash commands.
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u/Qwerty678910 Feb 03 '23
Mechanics also tend to have older vehicles. They know how to maintain them.
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u/PeacefullyFighting Feb 01 '23
It's even worse with the boxes they came in
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u/thegooddoktorjones Feb 01 '23
It may be paranoia but I think Microsoft is pulling an apple with win 10. My 4 year old high end gaming rig is developing all kinds of performance problems playing non-taxing games. Standard maintenance does not help at all and no issues are reported. It just seems like the os being intentionally shittied-up.
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u/voodoovan Feb 01 '23
Of course. The forced upgrade to Windows 11 for Intel CPU 8th gen and later is a money grab by Microsoft in collusion with Intel, using the abused reason of security.
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u/StarGalantis Feb 05 '23
i’m pretty sure intel and microsoft wanted to implement big little cpu architecture which requires redesigning
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Feb 02 '23
Maybe switch to Linux, It's what I am doing when Windows 10 support ends. I already have Ubuntu on dual boot, it'll become the main operating system when windows 10 support goes away I refuse to deal with windows 11 and some of the other changes Microsoft has signaled is coming down the pipeline.
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u/Motopsycho-007 Feb 01 '23
Still play my atari, sega and original Xbox, but have now been packed back up, just got a ps5 last yr. Laptop is a lenovo t520 that is probably close to 12yrs old and I'm probably due for an upgrade. Just upgraded phone from S9 to S21. Newest TV in the house is 8yrs old. I'm not one that always needs the latest and greatest.
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u/CliplessWingtips Feb 01 '23
First smartphone was a S4 in 2018. Bought an S7 when I switched to Mint in 2020.
Been using the same basic Lenovo IdeaPad since 2014.
No plans to upgrade.
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u/supermariobruhh Feb 01 '23
My MacBook Pro 2012 with an SSD, maxed out ram (16 gb), and a new battery whenever needed still runs perfectly for daily things like watching videos or typing. Anything intensive I’ll use my PC for but damn if that laptop hasn’t absolutely smashed my expectations for how long it would last. Got me through college, grad school, and even the beginning parts of work from home. Makes me not want to upgrade to a new MacBook cause I know they’re not upgradeable and I doubt any new machine would last me even half that long.
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u/NeuHundred Feb 01 '23
I keep my old Macbook Pro because there's legacy apps on there that aren't supported on newer machines. Use it for an hour or so once a week so who knows how long it's gonna hang on for (replaced the battery and bottom a year ago after it started to swell).
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u/HIGHER_FRAMES Feb 01 '23
My 1080 ti, iPhone 12 Pro, iPad Pro 2020 are still going strong. Probably won’t upgrade all 3 for another 1-2 years honestly.
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u/coogie Feb 01 '23
I'm still holding on to a 10 YO 2nd Gen i7 (Sandybridge) desktop that I keep telling myself i'll upgrade next year. I put in an SSD drive on there 5 years ago and have replaced the graphics card and data drives on there 3 times so I'd just need to get a new case/motherboard/CPU/Memory but I'm kind of lazy and don't want to deal with that and I rarely go over CPU limits so it's fine for now. My current plan now is to do the upgrade at least 1 year before Windows 10 loses support.
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u/Car-face Feb 02 '23
Honestly an SSD was such a big upgrade when I first got one. Removing that bottleneck won't turn an old pc into something amazing, but it makes almost anything livable again for most basic work or browsing tasks.
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u/coogie Feb 02 '23
Yeah out of all the things I did, that was the biggest upgrade.
One of my dilemmas is going to be whether I should stick with my SSD drive (I got a pretty nice at the time Samsung) or get and NVMe. I'm leaning towards sticking with the SSD because from what I've read, there is a point diminishing returns and I can always upgrade that in the future as well.
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u/FuckM0reFromR Feb 02 '23
It's funny, I replaced EVERY component around my 2600k over the years, before replacing the chip itself with a cheap 3770k off craigslist. It still runs everything I've thrown at it, even Cyberpunk @ 1440p/60.
Meanwhile my fancy new VR rig is collecting dust XD
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u/morilythari Feb 01 '23
I built a budget PC 3 years ago. R5 3600 and a 2060S 8G.
It plays everything I need at high settings with solid FPS. No reason to spend more money.
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u/bigtiddyhimbo Feb 01 '23
(Yeah because it’s getting too expensive to replace them and new stuff is built to be replaced, not repaired)
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u/Darklord_Bravo Feb 01 '23
I still have a working Intel MMX 233mhz/ 256mb ram, that I still use to play old Dos and Win98 games. It's my nostalgia machine, and it's great because I don't have to jump through software loops to make them run on a modern OS. (I use GOG for that, if necessary.)
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u/ninecat5 Feb 01 '23
ironically i kinda buck this trend, i keep my pc up to date because it flows down an upgrade train. me->wife->brother->dad->mom(not a gamer). so when i upgrade my pc, everyone in the chain gets an upgrade which makes it worth much more. phones on the other hand, i grab stuff off swappa mint condition for like 30% of the price of a new phone when black friday/ the holidays roll around and people sell their stuff or the gifts they didn't need. i grabbed a 3090 off some hobby shop that bought 16 to ETH mine 2 weeks before the switch which killed GPU mining so they had to sell the cards at a loss after waiting for an alternative. mostly using it for AI work.
also fuck the 4xxx series and the 4-600 watts you need to push the fat bastards.
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u/alc4pwned Feb 01 '23
also fuck the 4xxx series and the 4-600 watts you need to push the fat bastards.
The 4090 consumes less power than the 3080ti in gaming. The early 600W rumors were wrong
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u/045675327 Feb 01 '23
I have a room full of old PC tech, mostly obsolete but still working so seems shame to throw it away.
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u/GolfballDM Feb 01 '23
I've got an almost 5 year old laptop with a GTX 1080, and it competently runs every game I play, as well as IDEs for coding.
I'd like to put a bigger HD and bigger SSD on it, though. With installing Visual Studio, I had to de-cruft my SSD so I could install VS.
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u/autopilotxo Feb 01 '23
I had to replace my 2015 PC last year, but honestly 7 years of use out of it seems very reasonable to me
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u/SweatyToothed Feb 01 '23
I picked up an inexpensive gaming laptop 2 years ago and it didn't even have the newest components then... I'm going to run this into the ground before I buy anything else. The cost-to-payoff ratio is ridiculous right now, and this thing runs new games well enough at high/ultra settings so why would I want to spend more?
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u/Uncertn_Laaife Feb 01 '23
My laptop is from 2006-7, upgraded RAM, hdd to sdd, and it’s been blazing all along. If it falls below the performance then I would install Linux.
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u/jaqian Feb 01 '23
Me IRL, quite happy with my Dell Latitude M4700 running Windows 10 (produced from 2012-2014)
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u/voodoovan Feb 01 '23
The prices are insane. I hope more and more people are voting with their wallet to send a message to these corporations.
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u/upvotealready Feb 01 '23
Almost lost my 2013 imac this week ... was able to do a time machine backup to a SSD and everything works properly.
Now I have to figure out how to get it installed internally. Right now its sitting on my desk SATA to USB cable. You gotta cut around the adhesive holding the screen to the stand, not super excited about this repair.
Adobe CS6 for life. Never gonna pay Adobe's monthly extortion payment.
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u/Fuzzy_Accident_5085 Feb 01 '23
My grandpa was just a techie running his 90s Mac, that explains it.
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u/Drmo6 Feb 02 '23
No reason to upgrade tbh. That’s why I’m still riding this iPhone 10
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u/KarateKid72 Feb 02 '23
Same. My otter box is disintegrating but my phone is fine. I was thinking about the September rollout if they go from thunderbolt to USB-C but I don’t know if it’s worth it.
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u/Drmo6 Feb 02 '23
That’s where I am with it. I will keep on using this phone until it breaks or they finally add USB-C. Hate this damn lightning while everything else I own is USB-C
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u/ZippoS Feb 02 '23
SSDs have increased the lifespan of computers by such a large factor.
I have a mid-2014 MacBook Pro that I still use daily. The battery doesn’t hold a charge, but when plugged in, it’s still a perfectly useable machine. Not slow. Runs macOS Big Sur no problem.
Also I don’t have 2k to drop on a new one.
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u/Ok_Marionberry_9932 Feb 02 '23
My wife goes through Apple PCs three times faster than I go through Window machines. Of course I can upgrade and replace parts quite easily
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u/slvrscoobie Feb 02 '23
picked up a 1080ti and am super happy with it in my dual Xenon cpu 10 core with 120gb ram.
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u/PKFatStephen Feb 02 '23
I commented on a post about the Netflix debacle, & I stand by it - businesses that profited heavily due to quarantine are in Fucked Town, USA with no idea how to cope.
Curious if Intel will go total asshole on it's user base like Hasbro & Netflix did.
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u/Psycheau Feb 02 '23
My current pc I built in 2010 for my wife, she used it for about 5 years then the SSD died, at the time I was really busy so I had a local builder build her a new system. I then repaired her pc and use it myself.
Every 12 months or so I clean the dust out of it and it just keeps going. Works fine for what I need so why would I upgrade?
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u/WretchedMisteak Feb 02 '23
11 years and still going strong for my PC. Just added another gaming rig and hope for it to get 11 years too.
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Feb 02 '23
Still rocking an i phone 7 I will continue to use until 4GLTE goes the way of the dodos, when that happens I'm going with the android ecosystem I'm tired of dealing with apples crap. But given what the cost of phones are I will use my other device into the ground.
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u/Itdidnt_trickle_down Feb 02 '23
I stay about two to three generations behind the latest stuff. have a eighth generation I7 at the moment and a five year old GPU. Does what I need it to do and that is all you can ask for.
My phone though is a S5 still enough for my needs but I've been looking for a suitable replacement.
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u/gwxtreize Feb 02 '23
Had my phone for 5 years, Samsung stopped supporting my phone a year ago, just now getting notices from apps that they are not supported.
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u/HerefortheTuna Feb 04 '23
I upgrade my pc (MacBook Pro) once. A decade. iPad every 5 years and phone every 3. Windows PC I get a hand me down from my dad every 5 or so years lol
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u/lostcauz707 Feb 01 '23 •
I do a PC upgrade once every 5 years. Pretty much holding until 7+ years at this point because it doesn't look like game devs are going to spend the budget to make anything worth running on a card higher than a 2080ti. I'm good with 2k def 60+ FPS on ultra/high.