Quick Poll, how old is your computer.

On Thu, 13 Jul 2006 02:08:01 GMT, "Bazzer Smith"
wrote:


It would be utterly pointless repairing my old system now if it failed,
waste of time and money. (you can buy MP3 players with more memory!!!).

Not necessarily, old parts can be cheap or free. It'd take
more time to set up an entire new box in many situations,
and IF the role of the system doesn't require higher
performance, an entire new replacement system is almost
certain to cost a lot more than repairing the present one.

This is within the context of it being a secondary or
tertiary system, such that there is another to do the jobs
needing higher performance.




I think I have to conclude that computers are now disposable items,
if my new system failed I would probably just buy a new one!!
( I certaintly would pay to have it repaired, I would expect to do
that myself anway).
I think the truth is old systems only have a value as scrap metal,
as indeed is the case now.


Perhaps to you, but many people would be glad to get one
that worked. Put up a note on the local college campus
bulletin board, someone might easily pay the $20 or so a
repair part might cost so at least it doesn't clutter a
landfill just yet, gets the most use possible before
becoming trash.

"kony" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 23:54:56 GMT, "Bazzer Smith"
wrote:

This is you main computer.
I am particularly interested if anyone (truthfully) has a main
computer 10 years or more old. (relates to an earlier post).

To start the ball rolling my computer is in its first year ( ~3 months
old).



Why would it matter and how would you expect to get a good
sample of user's systems by polling in only a computer
hardware newsgroup?

What I mean is, for someone's main system we'd expect that
to be far newer than 10 years old in this group, but perhaps
more interesting would be the oldest system they use at
least once a year and what they use it for.



I keep a few older machines around just for the heck of it;

A Kaypro
a few 8088's
a 286, 386 and 486

i fire them up every once in a while just for the heck of it.

my 286 has a memory expansion card and had the full 16 megs of ram

the 386 has win95 on a 40 meg drive...
it was a fun project getting win95 on that 40 meg *uncompressed* drive!



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On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 23:54:56 GMT, "Bazzer Smith"
wrote:


This is you main computer.
I am particularly interested if anyone (truthfully) has a main
computer 10 years or more old. (relates to an earlier post).

To start the ball rolling my computer is in its first year ( ~3 months

Right behind me is my first AT 80486 33MHz (Dutch Fl 7059. ~3500$)
bought 06-08-1991.(including Fortran compiler and 80 MB disk)

Also still in use :ARC 310 RISC computer about 4 years older.

Also still in use:P2 200 MHz(about 1998).

In front of me: 2.7GHz celeron,80 and 200 GB Hd for this here
Internet stuff. (from 30-06-2004)

Rescued from the trash 3 BBC B, An XT(2 floppys) and assorted
186/286/386/486/586 for play,nostalgy and spare parts.

Bazzer Smith wrote:

As far as the net is concerned any system over about 5 year old
is not worth repairing.

Might be true in America, but the US is a pretty small percentage of
the world.

NT

wrote in message
oups.com...
Bazzer Smith wrote:

As far as the net is concerned any system over about 5 year old
is not worth repairing.

Might be true in America, but the US is a pretty small percentage of
the world.

Well I am in the UK, my 8 year old system was problematic for 2-3
years, I could not cope well with video and some java stuff.
But wherever you live you essentially live everywhere, one click
takes you to a different continent.



NT

I keep a few older machines around just for the heck of it;

A Kaypro
a few 8088's
a 286, 386 and 486

i fire them up every once in a while just for the heck of it.

my 286 has a memory expansion card and had the full 16 megs of ram

the 386 has win95 on a 40 meg drive...
it was a fun project getting win95 on that 40 meg *uncompressed* drive!

Wow 8088 lol!!! Thats 8 bit isn't it, not much more than a Z80
(lovely processor), take me back a bit.
Well maybe not full 8 bit but only 40 legs!!
Must have ripped along at 4.77MHz!!
My current machine is 377 times faster!!
Do you do much video work on it?

wrote in message
ups.com...
wrote:

Yes but be honest, what are you going to use those old systems for?
Yea a 1 gig system would be OK for a lot of stuff, but basically
switching it on is a waste of electricity!!!

Anything in the pentium 1 class is a perfecly good Internet/Word
processing machine. I should point out that the power consumption on
computers has risen over recent years, with better performing chips.
THe indirect evidence to this is the monster heat sinks we see on new
machines. Meaning that the 1 gig machine will waste less juice than the
latest p4. You'd have to run a statistical analysis to prove this, but
I suspect it's true.

As long as you have no need for the latest games, or whatever
mulitmedia stuff. There's no super pressing reason to replace a working
older system.

this seems a lot more realistic than some of the comments. It all
depends on the software, I've seen quite powerful machines run like a
slug, next to a P1 running several times as fast. Unfortunately most
users dont know enough to pick their software with a little care, and
end up with all sorts of leaden garbage on their machines. As it
progressively slows down they think a new faster one is the answer.
Such users, which are most people, are missing whats really going on.

This machine is late 90s, and performs as well on the net as the newer
ones I also use.

Unfortunately much of the content on the net forces you to upgrade,
on my old machine if someone had a video clip to share my PC
couldn't cope with it cos it was .wmv, it was fine with mgeg though
but they wouldn't make an mpeg just for me!!


NT

Bazzer Smith wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...
wrote:

Yes but be honest, what are you going to use those old systems for?
Yea a 1 gig system would be OK for a lot of stuff, but basically
switching it on is a waste of electricity!!!

Anything in the pentium 1 class is a perfecly good Internet/Word
processing machine. I should point out that the power consumption on
computers has risen over recent years, with better performing chips.
THe indirect evidence to this is the monster heat sinks we see on new
machines. Meaning that the 1 gig machine will waste less juice than the
latest p4. You'd have to run a statistical analysis to prove this, but
I suspect it's true.

As long as you have no need for the latest games, or whatever
mulitmedia stuff. There's no super pressing reason to replace a working
older system.

this seems a lot more realistic than some of the comments. It all
depends on the software, I've seen quite powerful machines run like a
slug, next to a P1 running several times as fast. Unfortunately most
users dont know enough to pick their software with a little care, and
end up with all sorts of leaden garbage on their machines. As it
progressively slows down they think a new faster one is the answer.
Such users, which are most people, are missing whats really going on.

This machine is late 90s, and performs as well on the net as the newer
ones I also use.

Unfortunately much of the content on the net forces you to upgrade,
on my old machine if someone had a video clip to share my PC
couldn't cope with it cos it was .wmv, it was fine with mgeg though
but they wouldn't make an mpeg just for me!!


Ah, Windows Media and other bloatware. That may force an upgrade.

But try here anyway: http://www.videolan.org/

Bazzer Smith wrote:
This is you main computer.
I am particularly interested if anyone (truthfully) has a main
computer 10 years or more old. (relates to an earlier post).

To start the ball rolling my computer is in its first year ( ~3 months old).



I have a pc/xt from 1980.

Maybe not my _MAIN_ computer, but...

My major computer is from about 99, has a coppermine 600 in it.

I have better computers, but not as my Main.

Onething I have found is that you can get a Gateway from about 98 in the
trash. I have 5 now.

poly-p man

"Bazzer Smith" wrote in message
...

I keep a few older machines around just for the heck of it;

A Kaypro
a few 8088's
a 286, 386 and 486

i fire them up every once in a while just for the heck of it.

my 286 has a memory expansion card and had the full 16 megs of ram

the 386 has win95 on a 40 meg drive...
it was a fun project getting win95 on that 40 meg *uncompressed* drive!

Wow 8088 lol!!! Thats 8 bit isn't it, not much more than a Z80
(lovely processor), take me back a bit.
Well maybe not full 8 bit but only 40 legs!!
Must have ripped along at 4.77MHz!!
My current machine is 377 times faster!!
Do you do much video work on it?




the 8088 is 16 bit at 4.77 mhz
i have three of them:
the original IBM XT
an IBM Eduquest
and the Compaq "Sewing machine" (two floppies and no HD) Runs Dos3.3 only!



the IBM's can run any 16bit version of DOS (AFAIK)
also can run windows up to version 3.0

btw: the company i work for manufactures indutrial battery chargers
and still has one in current production with a Z-80 based control unit...
it was designed in the early 80's and no need was seen to change anything...
it's a battery charger after all



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