Yeah, like the title says, I was just wondering what the life span of computers is lately.
 
I've built a few desktops over the years. They generally only lasted about three years or so and then some new software, or even OS update or bit change would require an upgrade to keep up to speed.
 
I suppose it depends on what you are doing with them. For instance, I bought a basic Dell desktop for my wife a while back now. It came with Vista pre-installed so I'm guessing that Windows 7 was not around at the time, or, if it was, it was in its early days. So that should give you an idea of how old it is. It is only ever used for storing pictures and the odd internet/email stuff. Still going strong, and even stronger since upgrading to W10. Vista made it seem like and ancient POS and W10 was like a breath of fresh air.
 
Main reason for the question is, I bought my current DAW laptop nearly five years ago now. It has had a couple of larger SSD drives since then, but that's it.
 
I am finding that, other than a couple of CPU hungry VST effects, it is coping very well with SPlat and all I can throw at it.
 
Gaming wise might be a different matter, and I do indeed play games on it from time to time, but I'm not that bothered about it not keeping up because gaming isn't its main use. I generally find that if I use "Low" graphics settings then it copes okay.
 
Just bought a new battery... Hoping to get another couple of years out of it just yet

It depends on just how current you want to stay with software/plugins.
Developers will find new ways to use available processing (new heavy-duty synths, etc).
 
If you want to stay completely current, a good viable DAW life-span is ~5 years.
 
FWIW, we have many clients going on the 10-year mark.
If you're less concerned about staying absolutely current, the machines often last a decade or more.
At some point, if you want to maintain official support from software vendors/etc, you'll likely be forced to upgrade.

Our family PC is still going strong since 2007 and the only 2 things I had to replace was a bad stick of RAM and the video card. It started on a 4GB RAM, Win XP, built for DAW use, and is now running on Win8.1. Interestingly, the parts I used were from just a site I just Googled (without doing any research), and used practically the identical parts.
 
Apparently, those parts must've been solidly built at the time and the machine is on 24/7. I'm expecting it to blowup any day now and for general home use, I'm more than happy with it's life span. Hopefully, my main DAW I'm using now (built in 2013) will give me similar service as I spent a lot more time and money when building it. I suppose, 5-7 years wouldn't be too unreasonable.      

Thanks for your input here Jim
 
I think it's fair to say that, Sonar, for instance, doesn't seem to have demanded more computing power over the last five years. Would you expect it to in the next five?
 
That leaves VST software and, yes, there are some items, like 2CAudio's Kaleidoscope, that I simply can't run, no matter what I do. So I have to be happy with where I am and limit my "creativity" based on what I can use on my current set-up. As much as I like Kaleidoscope I don't consider it worth scrapping my laptop for.
 
Regarding Windows. I don't follow developments so I'm not entirely sure if, now that I am on Windows 10, that there will be any further significant steps in computing power requirements for that. After all, it's an OS and it is the software that runs on it that makes demands on you CPU. Am I understanding that correctly?
 
And then there's "bit" thing. That has certainly been one area where you have had to follow in order to keep up to speed. I've worked on 8, 16, 32 and now 64 bit computers. But is it likely that the next step change will come anytime soon? I get the impression that we have hit the wall with respect to the number of bits.
 
cheers,
 
andy

Mesh
Apparently, those parts must've been solidly built at the time and the machine is on 24/7. I'm expecting it to blowup any day now and for general home use, I'm more than happy with it's life span.

Good point that Mesh, and in all the years I have had a PC, in some form or other, not one has ever blown up as such. I managed to fry a hard drive once but that was it. They seem to just keep going and going in my experience.
 
One thing I do with my CLEVO laptop is, every so often, remove the cover and remove all the dust from the heatsinks. I'm hoping that is going to be enough to keep things "safe" for the next couple of years
 
cheers
 
andy

My DAW is going on 7 years (processor, mb and memory).  System drive is a bit newer (update to Win 7 on a new drive) but the original drive is still in the box.  The case, power supply and video card are all 10 years old.  Handles Sonar fine.

dwardzala
My DAW is going on 7 years (processor, mb and memory).  System drive is a bit newer (update to Win 7 on a new drive) but the original drive is still in the box.  The case, power supply and video card are all 10 years old.  Handles Sonar fine.

Nice one Dave,
 
I guess that, as long as what we are doing is being handled by the hardware, why upgrade?

My computers evolve rather than upgrade. Although the next time will be a complete overhaul. New RAM, new CPU, motherboard, new boot drive and Windows 7 if I can avoid 10. I'm not too keen on Windows 10 which I occasionally dual-boot into.
 
My currernt setup spans around 7 years I think which in technology terms is old. My PSU is modular and 750W so shouldn't need upgraded.
 

interpolated
My computers evolve rather than upgrade.
 

 
Haha! Yeah... Almost like Trigger's broom
 

interpolated
My computers evolve rather than upgrade. 
 
 

This is what I did too, for the longest time - evolved one system, a part at a time, until I pretty much turned over every original part (probably at least twice) over quite a few years (10+). The longest serving part was the case, an Antec Sonata that I picked up in (I think) 2004, and finally retired in 2015. Not all the parts swapping was done as an upgrade in power -- mostly, it was basic maintenance: replacing an aging power supply, or a dodgy MOBO, or swapping out a HD that had gotten unreliable, etc. My current system is the first brand new, everything-from-scratch system build I have done in a over a decade, and I expect it to be good for 5 or 6 years before it will need any significant upgrades.