Time to Replace a Computer

It seems like things have been breaking down a lot around my house. This morning I was putting away some of my skiing turtlenecks and noticed they are looking like they should be replaced. We also have been fighting with one of our cars that really wants to die. Most importantly there is my wife's laptop that can only run for fifteen minutes on the battery before it dies.

That got me thinking about how to know when it is time to replace your computer. I could always just buy a new battery for my wife's computer and it would continue to work for another six years. However it is SIX years old and really needs to be replaced.

I've written in the past that I try to replace one of my computers each year. This past year was my desktop and next year will be my laptop. That is probably overkill for most home computer users. My computers need to be replaced so often because I am constantly working with bleeding edge projects and sometimes those older computers don't have enough horsepower to run some of the newer software required. Besides, I put my old desktops into service as database or web servers and pass my laptops onto another member of the family.

The answer of when it is time to replace your computer really depends on how old it is and what class of machine it was when you purchased it. For instance, if you bought a $300 notebook computer, it might be time to replace it after one year. If it was a $3000 notebook, you might be able to use it for six (like my wife). It all boils down to what will run on the machine. Right now my wife's computer is so old, she can no longer update any software on it. Unfortunately that means that some of the websites she visits won't work because they require updated versions of Adobe Flash or newer versions of Microsoft Office.

Yesterday my oldest son came home from school and mentioned that a friend had recently purchased a computer from eBay for $100. His friend was excited to be getting a new machine and was showing it off to all his friends. After all it came with 128 megabytes of RAM and a 2 gigabyte hard drive. My son sort of burst his bubble when he pointed out that the friends iPhone came with more memory than the new computer at which point the friend realized he had just purchased a worthless computer. Yep, it's time to replace that one before it even arrives.