December monthly poll

[Computer Hope Admin]

For the month of December we thought it would be interesting to see how old the computer you're currently using is. Feel free to share stories such as how much the computer was when you bought it, issues you've had with it, upgrades you've made to it, when you plan on buying a new computer, etc.

All past monthly polls and results can also be found on the Computer Hope poll page.

[kpac]

As some may know, just finished building my own PC just about a month ago.

Here are specs again:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965
Motherboard: Gigabyte MA790XT-UD4P
RAM: 6 GB OCZ DDR3 Tri-channel PC3-12800C8
HDD: 1 TB Samsung Spinpoint F3
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S223B DVD+/- Multi-rewriter
Case: Antec Nine Hundred
Monitor: 23" Acer v233Hb 1080p HD
Graphics: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5750 1 GB GDDR5 PCI-E, DirectX 11
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

[BC_Programmer]

fairly recent build for me as well- < 4 months or so.


CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33Ghz
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP43-UD3L
RAM: 8GB DDR2 Corsair PC2-6400
HDD: 750GB Seagate 7200RPM (forget the exact model#)
Optical Drive: LG +-R/RW +Lightscribe
Case: Cooler Master 500
Monitor: Acer E151H (1440x900)
Graphics: NVidia Geforce 9800GT 512MB GDDR3
PSU: Corsair TX750W
Network: On-board PCI-E Gigabit, as well as my Xtreme-N Wireless Card that I installed for no good reason.
Sound: RealTek HD- but I'm using my X-Fi XtremeGamer I installed in it instead
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate x64

PC before that was a Dell Dimension 4400; used it for around a year and a half.

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.6Ghz
Motherboard: Intel Pendleton 854PT
RAM: 1GB DDR (I believe it was either transcend or Corsair)
HDD: 500GB WD Caviar 7200 RPM
Optical Drive: Samsung WriteMaster DVD+-RW
Case: Stock
Monitor: Same as above
Graphics: NVidia Geforce 5500FX
PSU: stock- I think it's only 250W
Network: D-Link DGE-530TX Gigabit PCI
Sound: Same X-Fi card I'm now using in this build.
OS: Windows XP Pro SP3

And Before THAT: (Might I add that this is all from memory except my latest build?)

CPU: AMD K6-2 350Mhz (now a 500Mhz)
Motherboard: ePoX MVP3-G
RAM: 512MB PC133
HDD: 80GB WD Caviar (cylinder reduction jumper set, only 32.7GB usable)
Optical Drive: Samsung WriteMaster DVD+-RW
Case: some crappy ol' standard white case.
Monitor: whatever I could use! I was lucky if I got a monitor capable of more then 800x600 sometimes.
Graphics: Came with a ATI Rage Pro 8MB, upgraded to a Radeon 7000VE which failed, used a PCI Radeon 9250 for a while, up until I got the Dimension.
PSU: awful stock PSU until recently, when I replaced it with a much quieter Antec.
Network: D-Link 100mbps
Sound: Creative SB Audigy SE
OS: Windows XP SP2

Need I go on? I can remember all the way back to my 286 if I wanted to... 

[neelchauhan]

My computer is less then a year old, but still slow.
I may build a computer in late March which is FAST.

[alyoob]

My computer is 4 yeras old and i added more ram to it about 8 month ago other than heating up my computer runs fine.

[kaigun]

I answered "less than a year" because that's true for the motherboard, CPU, HDD. PSU and RAM after I rebuilt last spring. The tower case is about four years old from an earlier rebuild. The DVD and floppy drives and the monitor are all from the original configuration, a Compaq I bought in 2001.   

[Two-eyes]

We have two here.  My laptop is 4 years old...or 5.  Not bad.
PC is ancient....6-7 years old.  Super slow, and we (ie. mum) don't DARE buy more RAM or something .

Anyway, life goes on...

[TheUnixGuy]

Hello,

Most boxes retire in 4-5 years with modern and more powerful hardware. Built a 2 GB with a P4 9 years ago and was excited about it.

[rthompson80819]

It might have been interesting to have a further breakdown in years for older PC's.

Based on some of the compatibility problems posted here with Win 98, and even Win 95 sometimes, there are still a lot of older PC's out there.

[soybean]

It might have been interesting to have a further breakdown in years for older PC's.

Based on some of the compatibility problems posted here with Win 98, and even Win 95 sometimes, there are still a lot of older PC's out there.

I think you have a valid point.  Even computers 4 years old or older can run Windows 7.  I'm running Win 7 RC on a Compaq d530 CMT.  I did not buy this computer new, so I'm not sure how old it is.  But, as far as I can determine, it's at least 5 yrs. old. It's a Pentium IV, 2.66GHz.  The motherboard supports up to 4GB of RAM; I have 2GB in it.  With a video card upgrade, this runs Win 7 fairly well, with Aero effects enabled. 

Back in the days of 286, 386, 486, and first Pentiums, a 4 year old machine was getting closer to obsolescence than with more recent generations of processors and other hardware.  This is financially good for users; the replacement cycle has been lengthened. 

[computeruler]

The main guts of it (cpu, motherboard, ram) is around 1.3yr old.  The graphics card is about 6 months old.  The hard drive and case are a couple months old.  I just voted 1-2 yr though

[frostman32]

well mines quite old now, mostly built by myself,
maybe 2002 from already hard second hand stuff.

Dual boot XP&XP- one slim version other where all my apps are.
2x P3 xeon (i did say it was old)
20 gig hard disk
500 gig storage gd
768mb ram,
-plus some stuff for music production, e.g. fat emu card, scsi interface for an old sampler etc...

some may hate me for this, but a very old pci ati 2mb video card

[soybean]

a very old pci ati 2mb video card

Ouch!  That's painful.  I don't know how you can even run Win XP with that video card. 

[BC_Programmer]

Probably runs alright, I probably have a similar model card with 8MB of RAM, and it ran fine. The only limitation the VRAM gives is less resolution; for the most part the card (mine was an ATI 3d Rage Pro) could hardly handle much 3-d, Direct3d worked somewhat, but it had NO OpenGL support at all.

In this case, 2MB is capable of 800x600x24-bit colour, which is the XP default on first boot.

That being said the processor that I used was far less powerful then dual xeons; XP is FAR more dependent on Processor power then graphics capabilities, and in the case were the latter is true one can always simply use the classic theme.

[Cityscape]

I chose over 4 years, I have 2 PC's & use both about evenly. Both are 2001 or older.

   - PC #1 (year 1999)
CPU: AMD K6-2 350Mhz (just upgraded to 500Mhz but my PC still says I have a 350?)
Motherboard: still trying to figure it out
RAM: 512MB PC133
HDD: 30GB Maxtor HDD
Optical Drive: LG CD+-RW, LiteOn DVD reader, 2x 3.5 floppy drives
Case: standard ATX casing
Monitor: Samtron 76V 17" CRT.
Graphics: S3 ViRGE 2MB PCI card.
PSU: 150W Antec.
Network: standard ethernet and modem
Sound: Creative SoundBlaster 16 ISA card
OS: Windows 2000 with 98SE

   - PC #2 (year 2001)
CPU: Intel Celeron 667 Mhz
Motherboard: ?
RAM: 768MB PC133
HDD: 20GB Maxtor HDD
Optical Drive: LG DVD reader, 3.5 inch
Case: standard ATX casing
Monitor: Samtron 76V 17" CRT.
Graphics: ATI Rage 128 16MB AGP
PSU: ?
Network: standard ethernet
Sound: onboard
OS: Ubuntu 9.04 (main), XP (secondary)

[Cityscape]

a very old pci ati 2mb video card

Ouch!  That's painful.  I don't know how you can even run Win XP with that video card. 

I ran XP fine for a while with a 2MB card on my afore mentioned PC#1.

Probably runs alright, I probably have a similar model card with 8MB of RAM, and it ran fine. The only limitation the VRAM gives is less resolution; for the most part the card (mine was an ATI 3d Rage Pro) could hardly handle much 3-d, Direct3d worked somewhat, but it had NO OpenGL support at all.

Is the Rage Pro older then the Rage 128? My PC#2 (see above) has a 16MB Rage 128 and it has OpenGL support. I have run several OpenGL games on it.

[Cityscape]

It might have been interesting to have a further breakdown in years for older PC's.

Based on some of the compatibility problems posted here with Win 98, and even Win 95 sometimes, there are still a lot of older PC's out there.

Fully agree! Many people use older computers and versions of Windows. I know many people in my city who use computers running Windows 98. My brother's main computer runs Windows 95 even. We're talking P2's and P3's here.

[BC_Programmer]

I ran XP fine for a while with a 2MB card on my afore mentioned PC#1.Is the Rage Pro older then the Rage 128? My PC#2 (see above) has a 16MB Rage 128 and it has OpenGL support. I have run several OpenGL games on it.

I think the rage 128 is a generation newer then the ATI Rage Pro which is a generation newer then the ATI Rage II; I managed to get broken OpenGL to work with Quake 2, but it was slower than the Software Renderer and full of artifacts.

Video Memory is more or less used these days for 3d textures; early on it was used exclusively to determine exactly what resolutions and colour depths were possible. (of course, the actual circuitry itself had some say; you couldn't get a CGA to show 32768 colour by adding VRAM, for example).

[kaigun]

XP is FAR more dependent on Processor power then graphics capabilities, and in the case were the latter is true one can always simply use the classic theme.

I've always used the classic theme because I prefer the look. I didn't know it used less resources to run.

[BC_Programmer]

I've always used the classic theme because I prefer the look. I didn't know it used less resources to run.

sure does

fewer bitmaps to draw and keep in memory, not as many effects, stuff like that. the effect is more pronounced the older the PC; for the most part any video card capable of hardware alpha-blending should be able to run the Luna themes without too much of a performance hit, as long as they have enough System Memory (the services used usually need around 15-20 MB).

[harry 48]

my pc is 4/5 years old , not as fast as i would like but still working well

[Cityscape]

I've always used the classic theme because I prefer the look. I didn't know it used less resources to run.

Yes, with running the Classic theme you should notice a performance boost. I always run it anyway cause I like it.

[computeruler]

you dont really have a choice though do you?

[camerongray]

My PC is from 1999 and still going strong 

[pds]

medium
duocore processor
ram mem 2,5 gb
motherboard kotoda
4 harddrives
games 400 gb
programs and tools 3,1 terabyte
windows&dos 2,5 gb
photos and other documents 10 terabytes

OS (operating system) windows 7 + nintendo operating system
wireless mouse and key board
two sreens

thats all

[kpac]

games 400 gb
programs and tools 3,1 terabyte
windows&dos 2,5 gb
photos and other documents 10 terabytes

I think you're using the wrong terms there....

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

3000 gigabytes of programs? Riiiight......

[BC_Programmer]

OS (operating system) windows 7 + nintendo operating system

dare I ask?

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

I have two sreens too!











what's a sreen?

[patio]

Wankel Rotary Engine...

[frostman32]

Ouch!  That's painful.  I don't know how you can even run Win XP with that video card. 

well yea have to run windows with no visual extras at all. is quite irritating just never get round to replacing it.

[frostman32]

Probably runs alright, I probably have a similar model card with 8MB of RAM, and it ran fine. The only limitation the VRAM gives is less resolution; for the most part the card (mine was an ATI 3d Rage Pro) could hardly handle much 3-d, Direct3d worked somewhat, but it had NO OpenGL support at all.

In this case, 2MB is capable of 800x600x24-bit colour, which is the XP default on first boot.

That being said the processor that I used was far less powerful then dual xeons; XP is FAR more dependent on Processor power then graphics capabilities, and in the case were the latter is true one can always simply use the classic theme.

indeed. it does run fine, its the res that does my head in. promise ma self a slightly new card for Christmas, but agp's da best i've got so will be an ebay job

[frostman32]

I'm glad ur runnin 2000 on that machine, many choose 98 as there primary choice for old machines.
i've jst installed 2000 on a laptop that got given to me. some amd k6 400 but only has 32mb ram so extraaa slow

[frostman32]

Yes, with running the Classic theme you should notice a performance boost. I always run it anyway cause I like it.

i prefer the classic style too, just feels more, hmm... computery.

[frostman32]

medium
duocore processor
ram mem 2,5 gb
motherboard kotoda
4 harddrives
games 400 gb
programs and tools 3,1 terabyte
windows&dos 2,5 gb
photos and other documents 10 terabytes

OS (operating system) windows 7 + nintendo operating system
wireless mouse and key board
two sreens

thats all

i'm not to sure what u mean by windows&dos. theres no way dos would run on that.

[Sidewinder]

I have a Dell Desktop P3 running WinXP Pro - 9 years old; a Dell Laptop P4 running WinXP Home - 6 years old; and a 80286 IBM AT running PC-DOS 7 w/Windows 3.1 - 24 years old that I keep in a closet and haul out for special occasions.

The AT keeps me humble, it only has 512K memory.

[Cityscape]

I have a Dell Desktop P3 running WinXP Pro - 9 years old; a Dell Laptop P4 running WinXP Home - 6 years old; and a 80286 IBM AT running PC-DOS 7 w/Windows 3.1 - 24 years old that I keep in a closet and haul out for special occasions.

The AT keeps me humble, it only has 512K memory.

Nice 
I have an old XT computer that I want to get working, it need a 8-bit VGA ISA graphics card.

[Helpmeh]

i'm not to sure what u mean by windows&dos. theres no way dos would run on that.

pds doesn't know what he's talking about...also, please don't quintuple post...some people fine doubleposting rude...imagine the reaction to 5! (Lol, don't worry about deleting them, but try not to do it in the future. If you didn't know, you can insert quotes while at the "Post reply" page. Just click the "Insert Quote" link on the top right corner of any post while on the post reply page.)

[BC_Programmer]

And DOS WOULD run on that. Although it would kind of be silly to do so, since it cannot take advantage of multiple cores/CPU's and additionally Himem.sys might choke if you have that much RAM.

[stlbob]

it is about 3 years old ... a Dell Latitude D830 laptop.

Processor T7300
4 GB RAM
500 GB Harddrive
Quadro NVS 140M - 15.4 WUXGA Video (1920x1200)
Came with Vista, downgraded to XP and now has Windows 7 Professional (which works great)
Wireless, etc...

Works really well, I love it! Though 3 years, close to a time for a new one.

[frostman32]

And DOS WOULD run on that. Although it would kind of be silly to do so, since it cannot take advantage of multiple cores/CPU's and additionally Himem.sys might choke if you have that much RAM.

I don't think it would. you're right that amount of ram wouldn't be great but its to do with the technology in the cpu, even newish single core amd processors don't run dos.
i've tried to do it a few time to transfer files over interlink at work, and out of the newer machines e.g. dual core, amd 64 only the p3 would run correctly. has sumit to do with 64 bit cpu's i tink

[SysMan]

Hi,

My wife and I have identical PCs. They are 8 years old. Neither of us really wants to buy new ones yet. We run Windows XP and I just now joined the CH forum to see if I can get some of the old speed back in our machines with the help of this website/forum.

Well actually my wife started complaining that her computer was so slow, so I'm going to try doing mine first (it's also goes at snails pace a lot of the time) and if successful I'll give hers some of the same treatment  .

So now to start collecting the technical data etc., as a first step.

As I've only just joined, this message is also by way of a introduction... Looking forward to some fun in getting some zip back into our boxes and perhaps fixing one or two other things on the way! 

Richard Summerfield, (aka SysMan)
Eindhoven,
The Netherlands.

[BC_Programmer]

Welcome to the forum Sysman

[daveinaz]

Acer laptop about 4 years old....ram updated..still runs slow...probably some bugs in there somewhere....using bullguard as security software...


OS Name   Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version   5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer   Microsoft Corporation
System Name   ACER-3F05B2AF82
System Manufacturer   Acer
System Model   TravelMate 4500
System Type   X86-based PC
Processor   x86 Family 6 Model 13 Stepping 6 GenuineIntel ~1798 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date   ACER 3A06, 8/6/2004
SMBIOS Version   2.31
Windows Directory   C:\WINDOWS
System Directory   C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device   \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale   United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer   Version = "5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)"
User Name   ACER-3F05B2AF82\david mclaughlin
Time Zone   US Mountain Standard Time
Total Physical Memory   2,048.00 MB
Available Physical Memory   1.27 GB
Total Virtual Memory   2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory   1.96 GB
Page File Space   4.77 GB
Page File   C:\pagefile.sys

[Boozu]

The oldest part of my computer is the ipod nano that is attached to it. The square one not the skinny one. But really the oldest part is probably almost 2 years old. My Case, Video card, and power supply. I perchased them at the same time. Got 2 500Gb HDD about 7-8 months ago, my i5 parts ~4 months ago, and a VRaptor with Windows 7 a week after win7 was released.

[SaintSatinStain]

My computer is ancient in computer age. When I put it together -custom mishmash- it scored in the top ten percent at PCPitstop; it now scores in the bottom 35 or less, except in one category. 

It runs XP Professional (retail copy), SP3, AMD Athlon, 1.19 GHz, 768 MB RAM, 120 GB ST3120026A hard drive - Barracuda 7200.7, Maxtor One Touch II USB external hard drive 100 GB.

Security: Prevx, Online Armor Premium, Sandboxie, Trojan Remover, SpywareBlaster.

I uninstalled  Eset's NOD32, got a partial refund, and bought license for Prevx. It is lighter on RAM use, 15 MB versus NOD32's 45 MB. Prevx is more effective too, and that says something.  NOD32 is one of the best av products. So all of my real time security now has about the same RAM usage as NOD32 alone.               

[Buzzintx]

Built mine earlier this year and I still use my old one which is about 6 years old.

Windows 7 Home Premium
XION Solaris 450w ATX CASE
BIOSTAR Group A780X-A2 1.0
3.10 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core
320 GB Hard Drive
4 GB Memory
NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
HP DVD Writer 1040r
CD Writer 
HP 2159m 21.5-inch Diagonal 16:9 Full HD Widescreen Monitor
Zonet USB KVM Switch w/Audio and USB Hub

Windows XP Home Premium
HP Pavilion a330n
2.16 GHz AMD Athlon XP 3000+
120 GB Hard Drive
1 GB Memory
NVIDIA GeForce 6200
Hp 2159m 21.5-inch Diagonal 16:9 Full HD Widescreen Monitor
HP DVD Writer 300c
CD Writer
Zonet USB KVM Switch w/Audio and USB Hub

[maplealvon]

Bought it on the fly when my notebook broke down.

2.93GHz Dual Core Intel
3Gb RAM
500Gb HDD
128 Intel Gpu, it's the X5400 HD or something

Gonna put a 9800gt nvidia in soon.

[patio]

Good to seeya again Triple "S"......

[Lee888]

First computer - 1985 or so.  Leading Edge Model D.  Who remembers that?   The "specialty company" that sold it had three employees, and they barely knew how to use this computer.  The first program I fell in love with was Lotus 1-2-3, and it was spectacular!  Oh, the good old days....