Just out of curiosity, how long do you keep a machine on average to use as a studio computer only? everybody knows that the knowledge one has of the tools he uses is more important that the processing power of a computers, but nowadays the latest computers are becoming increasingly powerful and I reckon that we have reached a point which most average users do not need to go beyond.

for the record, I always bought new computers because I needed more processing power...and so in the late 80's and early 90's I used to change (and later upgrade) my computer quite often, every year or so. But after 2k, less and less as I only bought 2 laptops, a toshiba tecra and a sony viao. The last but one was a vostro that I kept for 2 years and changed for one of the new Dell xps last year..and that one is more than enough for my needs! CPU wise I have so far not seen its limits! the only thing that I might do is to add more RAM ...but given my needs (I dont write film scores for Hollywood!), I guess I can keep that computer for at least 6 or 7 years CPU wise...which seems awfully long to me!

any thoughts?

 

Till it dies!

My main laptop isnt very powerful, but its running on a stripped down 7 OS and Ive disabled everything I can in the services etc. It does quite well.
If I can get my hands on a new machine, I still wouldnt retire it. Id probably spend a few months going through ALL the projects, exporting loops of good ones, copy the really good projects to the new machine and trash the rest.

After that id probably designate it as a mixdown/mastering machine or use it with my APC40 live.


Id love a beast of a PC that I would never be able to max out the CPU/RAM

 

2cents
Most home type computers will last about 3 years and up to 5 with up keep.(off the shelf) Laptops have a life span of 3 years, then your battery dies and the parts begin to seriously wear out. In 2006, most major companies started to build in obsolescence into the computers because of the landfill problems. 8088's and 286 computer have not even begun to dissolve in the land fills, that is why recycling computers is a big deal. For home computers the plastic starts to demolecularize after 1 to 2 years by the 3rd year you will need to replace parts if your motherboard is still working.

Work Stations and servers type computers have a longer life span, because most of the parts are not recycled material. However, there are exceptions.

A good server motherboard that holds at least 32gigs of ECC/non-ecc ram. The fastest or Best processor you can get,(today that is the one with the most cores) preferably one that does not over heat and a case that has good airflow and made out of "thick" metal. The Video Cards today run very hot and you will be lucky to get more than 3 years use, DVD/blu-ray, have a average spin time of 30k hours in a perfect world, LCD have an average life span of 20 to 60k hours before the lights go out. Hard drives have on average a 3 year life span with normal use, the enterprise hdd have about 5 years life span but they are expensive. There are a few lap tops that will last up to ten years but you will have to buy a new battery every 2 to 3 years. (IE: panasonic toughbooks)

I think Asus is the only company today that has a 5 year warranty on a select few of their motherboards IE: saber tooth. Most companies have life time warranties on their middle and high end ram. A decent case is by cooler master or Antec and just about any quad or six to 16 core processor (amd or intel). The optical drive, monitor, card reader, hard drive, video card and power supply will probably need to be replace after 3 years on average. On a desktop that is simple to do, on a laptop it can be a disaster.

 

i'll give you 1 cent...u need to have a powerful power supply if u r running many HDD about 1000 watts that would run about 8 no problem. ram 4 gig is damn plenty and cpu a good i5/7 is desirable but not essential. go for a good motherboard the $200 mark will get you what u need for music production. so is on board video card.

 

I dunno what world you live in but definitely not the same as mine! do you know that I still have my toshiba tecra (just use it for office work and other things like that once and a while when I take a small laptop on the plane).... 10 years now!! it's been used and abused and still works flawless ...should have vanished into thin air according to you!! still have my vostro...3 years and as good as new!......I reckon you never bought what I call a computer (though dell is quite cheap compared to pro toshiba and IBM)...a cheap and crappy medion (or whatever shit brand you wanna buy) at 300 or 500 euros is not my idea of a computer...you get what you pay for....dont draw hasty conclusions.

as to the battery life...I just get a new one...on my tecra I changed it after 5 or 6 years of intensive use and on the vostro (17") it still works for more than 3h after 3 years.... hilarious!

 

what version do you use? is it a retail version that you have customized or an already "skimmed and trimmed" one? cuz that might interest people here, especially if they dont have very powerful machines.

I use a 64bits pro edition with a few deactivated services but nothing spectacular! I didnt try any "light" version of 7 yet

 

Its called "Tiny 7". Theres a "Tiny XP" (very small when installed )

Both flawless, have used em for a long time.

No 64-bit that im aware of. I have a 64bit laptop aswell as a 32bit one. Couldnt get any of the Tinys to install. Searched and could not find a successful way to go from 64 -> 32.

 

I usually just keep going until i can't run the software i want to run, then change. i'm still on a PC system at the moment, but when i change next, i may well choose a MacBook Pro or something, but my computer has enough life in it to last a while yet *yes*