[geeks] Q about older PC hardware retention

[Kurt Huhn]

On Jun 18, 2011, at 1:25 PM, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>
> 1) For personal use, how old a machine would you hold on to, as  
> defined by
> processor age/class/generation?
>

Until it stops being useful.  For instance, my primary workstation is  
a 2003 vintage G5.  I also make heavy use of an SGI Octane and O2.   
The x86 hardware doesn't stick around quite that long, but my main  
server is a Dell 2650 that is still impressively robust and quick.

> 2) For donation to an end-user charity (church, homeless group,  
> battered
> women's shelter, etc - NOT a tech recycling charity) how old a  
> machine would
> you consider donating?
>

If I was advising a company or my employer, I would suggest that 5  
years old would still be useful under most circumstances.  This also  
mates well typical hardware refresh periods in most environments.  To  
describe this in terms of processor or other hardware would be  
interesting, but I would agree that 2GHz/1GB would be a reasonable.

Personal use machines?  In my case they tend to get used far longer  
than I feel most places would feel comfortable accepting as a donation.

>
> Of course an older machine w/ unique attributes is always worth  
> keeping - I'm
> asking more about commodity Dell, HP systems...

Damn.  I read that last, after I typed the above.  Oh well....



--
Kurt Huhn
Renaissance Man, Malcontent, Oversized Ostrogoth