h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A new computer will set you back about EUR500 these days and if you factor that over a two year lifespan it is far cheaper than trying to overclock this and plug and play that. It's like with cars - you could get that extra few years by stripping down and rebuilding the engine or fitting ultra large air filters or whatever but why bother?

This from a man who owns a car that is very nearly as old as he is!

Yeah - it doesn't work though, does it?

The point is that as a computer ages the failure rate goes up. Things like dust clogging the fan causing it top overheat and the constant vibration of the hard drive cracking solder joints means that at some point a 4 year old computer will just die. It will die when you need it most and you probably won't have a backup (even us CS graduates forget to backup as regularily as we should). That failure will probably cost you more than buying a new PC and migrating the stuff you need over on a two yearly cycle would.

But its FUN to play with widgets inside your PC. And there's a serious side too. It teaches you more about them, and you will be better equipped to do some rudimentary repairs/upgrades if you need to. Just like cars, if you want a new one every year or so, go ahead. But your old one will be useful to someone, and if they can fiddle with it and make it more useful, so much the better. I've recently had great fun trying to reconfigure three ancient ex-office PCs to make one functional one out of the lot. When it finally booted up I had something to give to a deserving cause - a family across the road who couldn't afford a PC, in my case. They were very pleased. Many people don't need or want the superduper top performing high reliability PC that we all covet, and a bit of technical know-how will put a sustainable gloss of the very resource-hungry process of buying disposable PCs.

Also, if you actually buy a new computer, I suggest you put it together yourself. It's far cheaper, at least here in Norway, and you get the "know how". Also, if you plan carefuylly, you should have a PC that is freely upgradeable for a few years, which can expand the lifespan of the computer greatly, compared to the corporate bundles that tend to become obsolete a lot faster.

The problem you get is that if you buy a whole PC your efectivly buying a scoda, unless you buy a Mac (Talking Rolls there) building your own you can get at least a good people carrier for less than the scoda and if you want a sports PC, well nothing but building it yourself.

The fact is, companies use cheap crappy components, and use tricks like on boards video/sound to save money, and don't get me started on cases.

Have you people never heard of the Bathtub effect when it comes to mass produced products? after the product is made there's a high failer rate as all the items that had small defecs die, then you get a lot of years with low amounts of failers, when the life time of the product is reached the failer rate shoots up. now this is exactly why I have an IBM 8086 cast iron keyboard, well no infact I have two but the point is that it's not likly to break any time soon. same with my P133, all the components have been running together for years.

-- DoctorMO --

Bit flighty with a P133. I'm sat here at a 486 still. It's OK for email and unlikely to fail any time soon. Also, the fact that it's running Win 3 and CompuServe 3 mean that few viruses touch it.

Oh yes, your secure because people make software for newer machines.

Anyway my friend still uses his 8088 for writing his books, wow DOS 3 with WP5.1

-- DoctorMO --

I think buying a whole new computer built and installed is the only thing to do.

At least you get a working computer and no good money is thrown after bad.

So your buying a Mac? at last someone with comon sense.

-- DoctorMO --

Can I get a Mac for 500 Euros?

You can get the keyboard for about that amount.

nah, corse you can, get an iBook.

-- DoctorMO --

You might be able to get a Mac for 500 Euros....There are lots of re-sellers out there with machines about the same age as my G3 (266-350 MHz) which are in that range. They'll all handle OS 9.2.2....though only the 300 and up will handle OS X.
As long as fast processing isn't an issue, that Mac will last you for years (mine is about five years old; yes, it can run most of the newest software, but takes ages to do it).

I've been saying for years that if your computer's been doing what you want it to, and speed is not an issue, keep it. That really annoys computer companies, though....so they do sneaky things like forcing upgrades by designing software that simply won't run on older machines.
The profit margin's so thin on the hardware that selling new machines constantly is the only way to keep computer companies going. That means forcing upgrades of hardware when they're not really necessary.
Software companies want this too, because (often unnecessary) upgrades keep the cash coming in.

Fruitbat

yes, well true that hardware is like that...

-- DoctorMO --

As somone who has just purchaised my new pride and joy due to busisnes making their ox the only operating system avalibility for media aplications. I have Moved away from the PC windows to Apple OS X.

What do I find I have a much more limited choice of upgrades and ad on hardware.

I agree that having nearly total controll of the machines makes it easer to aprove software / hardware making it more reliable.

Lightman

Apple OS X doesn't seem to have a spelling checker either

'The problem you get is that if you buy a whole PC your efectivly buying a scoda'

Funny that, I drive a Skoda. And it won Car of the Year award in Blighty. Cheap, excellent engineering and all designed wo work together in one package.

Speaking of which, any of you seen the specs of the new G5?
I went through quite a lot of trouble to stop myself from drooling all over the keyboard when i read the tchnical details on that one...
Dual 2ghz 64-bit prosessors with a 1Ghz frontbus each.. Oh man, If I could afford that...

I saw the keynote where the G5 was introduced. Ever since reading in MacUser that IBM's 64-bit chip was probably where Apple was going, I've half-expected something like this...what I wasn't expecting was the phenomenal increase of bandwidth in the architecture....having fat enough pipes to shoot all that data around so that the chip can really fly...

....yes, I'm drooling over one of those beasts; I'm due for an upgrade anyway, so getting something that's state-of-the-art now will last for probably another five or six years is ideal. (I'll also have to get into video and 3D to really justify it, too.)

I"m still laughing at Apple having to include a Fax button on the Print panel. That's probably the truest indication of what's happening with consumer-uptake of technology.

Fruitbat