#76 - How old is that in dog years?

My parents used to buy a new car every 4 years. It was like clockwork. I have a friend that gets a new car every 10 years(note its always a VERY nice new car!). Another friend never buys a car new and claims to not know what depreciation is! Frequent questions I get, "My computer is X years old, is that too old? Do I need to replace it?"

My answer depends on lots of factors. I have customers, that due to the programs they run, are doing fine with Windows 98 (now 9 year old). The computers are older, but they don't go on the Internet much and keep then on a good maintenance system. The software they have is customized and probably won't run under Windows XP, let alone Windows Vista. Another customer's business is totally based on computers. They require a high degree of uptime and can't stand to be bogged down on their PCs. They may need to have the latest and greatest PCs.

For the typical user a PC should last 4 to 5 years or through 1 operating system change. I don't recommend upgrading operating systems. Nothing good comes in that process and you end up spending more time then the value you receive. Monitors sometimes last longer and my wife is still using a HP LaserJet 4 (circa 1989). I will tell you that if you are using one of the old CRT type monitors, run don't walk it out to recycle and get a flat screen LCD monitor. There are so many bad things about CRT monitors that we'll just assume everyone has done so! If you are in the corporate world, you need to depreciate your PCs over no more then 3 years. Bad things happen when you try to stretch a PC through the depreciation period.

I got thinking about this after reading an editorial in PC Magazine on reviving dead gadgets. The point was why do we throw away perfectly good cell phones after 2 years? Shouldn't they last longer? Yes they should. But we want the latest gadget and the cellular phone companies don't seem to be able to say NO to consumers on new cellular phones. They consistently sell them for great discounts when you subscribe to their service. Just don't lose one or break it before the subscription period ends. Also if you think its broken, why not take the time to experiment with the supposedly "dead" phone and see if you can revive it.

Many of my customers are asking should I upgrade to Vista? My clear answer is NO, not on the PCs you have now. If you would like to move to Vista and are sure all your software and hardware will work with it, then buy a NEW PC that is designed to run Vista (2 GB memory, 120GB hard Drive, High end Graphics).