Community poll forum: How old is your current main computer?

I have a DELL Dimension 8250; I think it's about 8 years old, more or less. Still works OK for me; I have a DSL internet provider. My son thinks I really need to get a new set-up. Any friendly suggestions are welcome.

I am using a Dell Demension 4700. It's the 2nd one . The 1st one broke and was replaced by Dell after over a month of hassel & 3 in house service calls. Wrong parts poor tech's. I lost track of exactly how many hours spent on the phone with tech support. I stopped counting after I hit 18 hours on the phone mostly on hold. My suggestion as to what to replace your 8 yr old computer with is simple ANY THING BUT DELL.

I haven't really actualy used Vista to give a clear opinion on it. However if you get better specs with the 6400 go with that I have two friends with vista one hates it and is considering buying an xp disc and the other has it on his computer with xp and never uses Vista. It's just to new right now to really use and its probably better to upgrade after they come out with service packs. However someone elses advice is probably better then mine.

i got a lenovo 3000 j in febuary with a AMD 64 Atholon Dual-core with Windows Vista Home Premuim. It goes really fast. Vista did not impress me.

My computer is 4 years old but then I keep it well upgraded and updated. Spending a little extra money when buying a MOBO that has features beyond the el cheapos pays off. They allow you to expand memory, add new and better video and sound cards, and with good BIO upgrades keeps you in the loop. Usually after 5 years i start looking at other MOBO's and yes I build my own computers and servers, use both Windows and Linux. Also, cleaning is very important. I still have a old COMPAQ that I use as a Linux server that is around 7 or 8 years old, works great, but with Linux you do not need the extra power to run a server like one would need running a windows server. I have 7 copies of Windows XP licenses because I would never upgrade or buy Vista. No OS is going to tell me what I can play on it specially with DRM and only windows has it on their operating systems specially in Vista. I copy DRM free music so i can play them in any cd environment and in my car. Windows Vista does not give me that opportunity.

As much as I detest it, I have an eMacHines W3118. At the time, it was what I could afford. I've had it less then a year. And I've fought with it every step of the way.

As usual, it came with all sorts of bundled software I had no use for. I finally managed to get MOST of it out, but I'm sure there are things lurking I haven't been able to find.

Next time, if I have the funds, I'll build one for myself!

My Main system (in age) is 2.5 years old. A P4 3.2, 2Gb DDR, 700GB HDD space, Win XP Pro, BFG Geforce 6800 GT OC. However, I just replaced the Mainboard 2 months ago as once of the capacitors began to fail causing a slew of grief. Lockups, no warm restarts, data corruption etc. After extensive tests, (memory, power supply and replacement of the ups), With a new MB in place its running fine.
My back up PC is a dual core athlon x4200 with 2Gb ddr, a pair of ati x1600 pro 512MB video cards in crossfire mode with 2 200GB sata HDD in raid along with a 300Gb ide drive for "storage" (mainly a gaming system).
Don't tell the P4, but its being replace with a Core2 duo in a few weeks along with Vista Ultimate.

I have a brand new notebook and my old PC has about 2 years

Dell Optiplex GX-620
2 GB RAM
Windows XP Professional (at work)
1 year old

I've got a homebuilt system with the following:

Gigsbyte GA-965P-S3 Motherboard
Intel P4 630 CPU
1Gb (2X512Mb) Corsair PC5300 DDR2 Ram
1Gb Kingston (2X512Mb) PC5300 DDR2 Ram
ATI X1650Pro PCI-e Video Card
Memorex 52X CD-RW
Memorex 16X DL DVD-RW
Antec SP-500 PSU
Cooler Master Centurion 5 Mid-tower case

Most of the system is about a year and a half old, except for the motherboard which is only 3 months old. I did the mobo swap so I could upgrade to C2D in the future.

hi,

I have a P4 1.8 GHz, with Mercury board, Intel 845G chipset, 512 Mb ram. Til late, my system never gave me any hardware issue, but off late, I am getting flickering on my monitor, then recently after formmating my system, on installing Display drivers the system hangs after booting up. Its working fine with thte default drivers that load normally, but I get videos clipped frame by frame on full screen mode. Now im also getting problem with my USB ports, which are not detecting the usb devices. Lastly, system has stopped booting up now, even upto bios screen also. Im in a big mess, unable to understand what to do next, pls dnt say recycle.... ny solutions will be welcome...

I bought a Gateway GM5266E first week in January. It has the 2 gigs of ram, Nvidia GS7600 vidie card and its a Intel Due Core 2.18. I feel it is a great computer. My next desktop will either be a Gateway or a Sony unless I build it myself.

I have a Dell XPS GEN 3. It's 3yrs old, it's a Pentium 4 CPU 3.40GHz, with a 4.00GB of RAM,and 160GB hard drive. It's currently using Windows XP Home Edition. Last month, i did installed Windows Vista Home Premium on my computer and i just recently uninstalled it (too much problems). I remember when i had an old computer with Windows 98 and i upgraded to Windows XP, no problems, but with Windows Vista, "WHAT A PIECE OF JUNK!!!" Microsoft or Bill Gates for that matter sucked alot of people (including me), and got paid doing it. My Desktop is being used "Wireless" with a Netgear WPN111 2.0 adapter,i also have a 20" flat panel Wide Screen LCD, a Dell wireless Keyboard and Mouse and i also have 5 Dell speakers and one Sub woofer. My PC is running "Great" again since i removed Windows Vista.

I built my PC from components sold and recommended by a local retail outlet. (Here's a plug for them) "The Discshop" is the outlet I choose , but I am sure there are others, look in the phone book! Be sure they employ salesmen and tech's who will discuss your needs and suggest the components you will need to fullfil those needs. Then you can either put it together yourself, my choice, or their tech's will assemble it for a nominal charge.
My machine is more than five years old and still runs as good as new, and the only changes I have made, I have increased my RAM and upgraded my monitor. Good "Housekeeping" is a priority. You need one or more good registry cleaners and you need to keep your temporary files and cookies cleaned out. There are lots of free programs such as "Cleenup" which you can download. You should defrag regularly and get rid of any programs you are no longer using. Don't throw away those programs because you may decide to reinstall at some future time.
I hope this might help. I don't have the resources to upgrade my PC too often so keeping this one in good order makes good sense!!!
Cheers.......Kubbin

My main desktop machine is a Mac Blue&White G3, at least about 6 years old. It was originally 300 or 350 MHz, but has been upgraded to 900 MHz. It originally had USB 1.1 but I have added a 4-port USB 2.0 card. I have upgraded the original ATI graphics with an ATI Radeon 9200 that I bought at a clearance sale for $40. I am getting by with 768 Mb of Ram. I also added a SCSI card so I can run a film scanner. It has seen its last update - but then I said that before I ran across the Radeon card!