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Has Anyone Here Been Using the Same PC for 8 Years?

Emillio
On 9/19/2024 at 10:39 AM, SpookyCitrus said:

 

 

The way I see it, like most, "future-proofing" isn't real. And attempting to build a gaming PC that will last 10 years without a single upgrade is a fools errand. 

While “Future Proof” is impossible, with smart choices, expectations and anticipation of your future use case, and some element of luck, “Future Resistant” is achievable.
 

If your expectations don’t include maxing out the quality settings of every new game, you’ll find you can stretch a system for far longer. And generally, new console gens also tend to accompany sudden and sharp jumps in CPU and VRAM requirements, so one aiming for a long life span should be wary of this. 
 

Though if your use case dramatically changes after the fact, all bets are off. 

My eyes see the past…

My camera lens sees the present…

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On 9/19/2024 at 6:14 AM, Emillio said:

Hello, I'm just curious. Is anybody here in this forum still using the same PC from 8 years ago? This means, you build or buy your PC 8 years ago and are still using it with no upgrades whatsoever. So, the same specs 8 years ago up until now and you didn't change anything. If there is, what are your specs and how does it perform in gaming? The reason that I ask this is because I want to build a PC that is still good even 10 years from now with no upgrades. So, I need some proof or story from some of you guys who owned a PC 8-10 years ago and still use it up until now with no upgrades.

i kinda do (7.5 years) but there where "some" (ahem) upgrades..

 its very difficult to do without upgrading, but definitely possible... 

 

buy fastest 3d chip available right now, a 4090, high end mobo / storage, like 128GB of fast DDR5 ram, high end 1200w PSU, a good case with front mesh, like a 4k 240hz monitor... and you're good to go for 10 years... (probably) 

 

High upfront cost, high returns (maximum returns actually) 

 

totally doable. 

 

How much $$$ do you have? xD

 

 

The direction tells you... the direction

-Scott Manley, 2021

 

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On 9/20/2024 at 12:31 AM, starsmine said:

2025 is going to be an absolute massacre. Many of those PCs will just have to be converted to linux. Thats what I ended up doing with the pentium (core 2) PC anyways as windows 10 was to heavy for it. The thing was built for vista. 

I dont blame MS though. 

riding win 10 until win 12 here ~ \m/

 

 

well, or i just install linux steam OS... 

 

 

*btw if you think that's far fetched, you're wrong about that,  I've been on Vista from 2007-2017 (on the same PC with no upgrades lol) ...

 

 

This is nothing for me (+_+)

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-Scott Manley, 2021

 

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1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

*btw if you think that's far fetched, you're wrong about that,  I've been on Vista from 2007-2017 (on the same PC with no upgrades lol) ...

There comes a point where getting security updates is worth the upgrade. 

 

Performance penalties and telemetry be danged... telemetry from microsoft is less bad than a key logger or a root kit. Imagine your credit card info and government information leaking onto the dark web. 

3900x | 32GB RAM | RTX 2080

1.5TB Optane P4800X | 2TB Micron 1100 SSD | 16TB NAS w/ 10Gbe
QN90A | Polk R200, ELAC OW4.2, PB12-NSD, SB1000, HD800
 

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12 hours ago, cmndr said:

There comes a point where getting security updates is worth the upgrade. 

 

Performance penalties and telemetry be danged... telemetry from microsoft is less bad than a key logger or a root kit. Imagine your credit card info and government information leaking onto the dark web. 

yeah... but i only got a "virus" once like in 2014 iirc, easily fixed with my "recovery cd" (remember those?) so the real reason i got a new pc was the dumb asus board giving up the ghost ,otherwise I'd probably still be riding...! LOVE VISTA so much...

 

12 hours ago, cmndr said:

telemetry

telemetry isn't actually the issue people think it is, "waasmedic" is what's mostly responsible for poor performance and weird "calling home" calls... easily "fixed" tho:

 

https://m.majorgeeks.com/files/details/wumt_wrapper_script.html

 

works also on 11! (literally removes that service, and the best part is you can get it back if for whatever reason you need it, with a single click) 

The direction tells you... the direction

-Scott Manley, 2021

 

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I did!

First PC I used was a Dell from 2003 to 2009, nothing special. Bought a Prebuilt that I used from 2009 to 2018 before replacing it with my current PC I still use today and have no plans to replace in 2025 or 2026.

 

However I did upgrade the graphics card at least once in all these PCs. The Dell had one upgraded, the prebuilt had two (I think) and the current PC used the same GPU that was in the prebuilt last until last year, when I upgraded.

i5 8600 - RX 6600 - Fractal Nano S - 1080p 144Hz

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On 9/19/2024 at 2:14 PM, Emillio said:

Hello, I'm just curious. Is anybody here in this forum still using the same PC from 8 years ago? This means, you build or buy your PC 8 years ago and are still using it with no upgrades whatsoever. So, the same specs 8 years ago up until now and you didn't change anything.

I'm still using the 6700k system I bought 8-9 years ago, but I've made a few upgrades to the system in that time. By this point the CPU, motherboard, and case are pretty much the only original parts. The original GPU the system had was a carry over from my previous system but I did use it for about a year before upgrading it.

 

Upgraded GPU HD7970 > GTX 1080 Ti

Replaced Corsair RM750x Power Supply (died) > Corsair CS750M

Replaced Corsair H100 AIO cooler (died) > Arctic Freezer eSports 34

Upgraded SSD Samsung 840 Evo > Samsung 970 Evo

Upgraded RAM 16GB (2x8GB) > 32GB (2x16GB)

and various peripheral changes

 

Trying to "future proof" is pretty pointless when it comes to DIY desktop computers. The beauty of DIY desktop computers is you can easily drop in replacements as needed. It's also not like it was in the 90s and early 2000s where computers would be outdated pretty quickly or there were lots of new capabilities being added.

Most stuff I do these days on a computer seems to just be in a web browser. I don't game that often these days, and when I do it's normally older games or indie games. I can't say there's many games where I've felt that the system was underperforming.

CPU: Intel i7 6700k  | Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170x Gaming 5 | RAM: 2x16GB 3000MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX | GPU: Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080ti | PSU: Corsair RM750x (2018) | Case: BeQuiet SilentBase 800 | Cooler: Arctic Freezer 34 eSports | SSD: Samsung 970 Evo 500GB + Samsung 840 500GB + Crucial MX500 2TB | Monitor: Acer Predator XB271HU + Samsung BX2450

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10 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

yeah... but i only got a "virus" once like in 2014 iirc, easily fixed with my "recovery cd" (remember those?) so the real reason i got a new pc was the dumb asus board giving up the ghost ,otherwise I'd probably still be riding...! LOVE VISTA so much...

You're only AWARE of getting one virus. I'm willing to bet there's a dozen more where that came from. 

There is VERY real value in being on top of security. 

3900x | 32GB RAM | RTX 2080

1.5TB Optane P4800X | 2TB Micron 1100 SSD | 16TB NAS w/ 10Gbe
QN90A | Polk R200, ELAC OW4.2, PB12-NSD, SB1000, HD800
 

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In the house we have a 2015 macbook pro and a 2017 iMac still working daily.

 

All the PCs (windows gaming box and linux server) are newer(3ish years old).  The server will continue to live on if it makes it to 8 years, and the gaming box will become another server if it does get that old.

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18 minutes ago, cmndr said:

You're only AWARE of getting one virus. I'm willing to bet there's a dozen more where that came from. 

There is VERY real value in being on top of security. 

nonsense... defender is a thing, you know? it found that one it would have found others too. never been hacked either,  so what kind of viruses would that have been?

 

Stop the fearmongering, as long you have a proper AV and a good browser and don't randomly download sketchy stuff you're mostly safe...

 

 

The direction tells you... the direction

-Scott Manley, 2021

 

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You have to define what no upgrade means. Do you mean literally still the same SSD, or even HDD? No PSU failed and it literally is still the same PSU and every fan etc.? 

 

If you make exceptions (i.e. install larger SSD), you easily slip into it being a new PC or a gray zone.

 

Most my older PC basically still are the same CPU/MB, and RAM (don't use dGPU). But I shuffle around which case/PSU they are in. Are those the same PC? 

 

And do you use the same PC for the very same tasks? I have PCs in my house that were my main rig. But now they are just living room PCs or PCs to remote into work. Mostly the same hardware, but a lesser use. The main rig itself, got upgraded. But are those physically 8+ year old PCs still the same? One could argue my main rig isn't the same PC anymore. But one also could argue that specific PC, still is the same PC. I just moved it from my desk to my living room. 

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2 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

nonsense... defender is a thing, you know? it found that one it would have found others too. never been hacked either,  so what kind of viruses would that have been?

 

Stop the fearmongering, as long you have a proper AV and a good browser and don't randomly download sketchy stuff you're mostly safe...

Vista went EOL in 2012. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-vista

You discovered you had at least one virus 2 years after Microsoft stopped supporting Windows Vista. 

Defender isn't perfect, it's unlikely that MS focused Defender on supporting vista after support for vista officially ended. 
Viruses slipping past defender on an unsupported configuration wouldn't be surprising and it's to be expected if you had at least one virus get through. 

I'm not fear mongering. If you do ANYTHING on your computer that ends up tied to financial accounts of personal information (SSN for example) using a 10+ year old OS is unacceptably risky. 

Using an OS YEARS after support for it ended is NOT best practice. 

If you said you used Windows 7 for years, which was supported by microsoft for a much longer time span, I wouldn't be as critical. 

I say this as someone who was once a 10 year old using windows 98. I had AVs catch DOZENS of intrusions. And a different AV caught a bunch more. No OS is perfect. No AV is perfect. You're almost surely wiser and more sophisticated than I was and Windows Vista is certainly more secure than 98 was. But NOTHING is perfect. 

3900x | 32GB RAM | RTX 2080

1.5TB Optane P4800X | 2TB Micron 1100 SSD | 16TB NAS w/ 10Gbe
QN90A | Polk R200, ELAC OW4.2, PB12-NSD, SB1000, HD800
 

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40 minutes ago, cmndr said:

You discovered you had at least one virus 2 years after Microsoft stopped supporting Windows Vista. 

yeah... idr what it was but it got caught and nothing happened... i mean...~10 years, 1 "virus" is a pretty good track record no?

 

Funny enough,  at the time, i was actually doing online banking on that computer  - i don't do this anymore since im on 10 (seemed too fishy in terms of user control etc) and nothing ever happened to my bank account  - which at least implies there wasn't an actual issue  - sure, nothing is perfect as you say, but the risks are somewhat negligible as long you don't do dumb stuff (like watching pr0n or downloading "free" games,  etc )  

 

40 minutes ago, cmndr said:

Using an OS YEARS after support for it ended is NOT best practice. 

it isnt... but its not the worst thing to do either,  and ima say having a "fully" updated "supported" OS isn't  necessarily more secure on average,  basically you're just doing beta testing and are exposed to all kinds of zero day attacks and so on...

Actually security experts catching up on this too now (i already figured it out in 2008 lol, so godspeed to them lmao) if you're always on newest update/ whatever, you're actually doing it wrong, it's better to wait until everything is "clear" basically. 

 

Here's something (that i don't use regularly, mind you, although i definitely use sledgehammer, windows is unusable without it)

 

Take a look, read it, maybe even consider making your pc more secure by stopping to be Microsofts beta tester...

 

https://www.askwoody.com/ms-defcon-system/

 

 

40 minutes ago, cmndr said:

I'm not fear mongering. If you do ANYTHING on your computer that ends up tied to financial accounts of personal information (SSN for example) using a 10+ year old OS is unacceptably risky

 

Maybe not on purpose,  but in my opinion you are actually. 

Bolded is most definitely wrong,  that's like just your opinion... which i don't agree with for already mentioned reasons. 

 

 

ps: i know,  this doesn't look like its working,  but i think its actually being updated;

 

Screenshot_20240923-224059_SamsungInternetBeta.png.6e4866c6a00adde429d0b3176eecc745.png

 

never have seen anything except defcon 2 tho xD and it *is* most definitely updated in sledgehammer. 

 

And i share that estimate fully.  🙂

 

 

Also, JFYI, this does not disable defender,  still working perfectly fine ~

 

20240923_230534.thumb.jpg.15668a669b963fb8615ff2950f04dee5.jpg

 

It even let's you use the store, but i dont have a ms account so that's kinda useless to me, think i installed some razer software that way though! 

The direction tells you... the direction

-Scott Manley, 2021

 

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10 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

yeah... idr what it was but it got caught and nothing happened... i mean...~10 years, 1 "virus" is a pretty good track record no?

 

Funny enough,  at the time, i was actually doing online banking on that computer  - i don't do this anymore since im on 10 (seemed too fishy in terms of user control etc) and nothing ever happened to my bank account  - which at least implies there wasn't an actual issue  - sure, nothing is perfect as you say, but the risks are somewhat negligible as long you don't do dumb stuff (like watching pr0n or downloading "free" games,  etc )  

 

it isnt... but its not the worst thing to do either,  and ima say having a "fully" updated "supported" OS isn't  necessarily more secure on average,  basically you're just doing beta testing and are exposed to all kinds of zero day attacks and so on...

 

It even let's you use the store, but i dont have a ms account so that's kinda useless to me, think i installed some razer software that way though! 

using vista online is unacceptably risky

yes a fully updated and supported OS is more secure on average. you are not exposed to more zero days, there are hundreds of known vulnerabilities and thousands of unknown ones on vista. 

The thing is with 10 and 11, when a vulnerabilities becomes known to MS, there are resources put in to patch it out in a reasonable time frame, when a new one is found for the NT kernel, its NEVER patched on vista. 

If an OS is not getting security updates, it should not touch a WAN. Any software you want to run on that PC needs to come through a trusted safe PC. 

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20 minutes ago, starsmine said:

using vista online is unacceptably risky

nowadays i would agree, but 10 years ago? well, as said i even did online banking and nothing happened  - because i didn't have a virus apparently... never said its perfect but obviously there are measures that can make using such a system more secure.

 

Also the thing about always being on latest is true - you should thoroughly avoid it, wait a few weeks until it's patched and no known issues... early adopter isn't something you should do in the security space - they even said this in the recent Veratasium video about hacking Linus, maybe you should watch it - "security" is probably more an illusion than reality, ESPECIALLY if you're using Windows which is basically swizz cheese security wise. 🙄

 

 

1 hour ago, starsmine said:

If an OS is not getting security updates, it should not touch a WAN. Any software you want to run on that PC needs to come through a trusted safe PC. 

Again,  in a vacuum this is true, but you still need to understand Windows isn't a secure system even if you update it... it's not secure by design so updating is a bandaid at best, even fully updated it remains full of security holes. 

The direction tells you... the direction

-Scott Manley, 2021

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yep, I am. Built a highish end gaming PC around an i7 and a GTX 1080.

 

It’s still going strong now, even though I am now running a monitor at 4k 120hz.  Most games run great too, and I play a lot of different types.  
 

including the new Dragonball game.  
 

I meant to upgrade during Covid, but gave up with trying to find a GPU to build around.  And now with 5090s so close I am just waiting to pull the trigger.  
 

But I am really impressed with how well this thing has held up, and it was my first PC build and my first PC (Mac guy).  

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I build a box for development about 18-20 years ago. Still used by the admin staff and currently runs Windows 10. One thing I like about Windows is most of my hardware dies before Windows support ends(looking sadly at my MacBook Pro).

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Unless it was an absolutely top-spec machine from 2016, it’s going to be severely underpowered for most things now. An i7 6950X is a wash compared to a Ryzen 2700x from a few years later, both in single-core and multicore Passmark benchmarks. An i7 7700K barely edges-out an i3 10300, but gets trounced by an i3 12100.
 

Also, none of the hardware from that era has hardware-level Windows 11 support. 

AMD Ryzen 5900X

T-Force Vulcan Z 3200mhz 2x32GB

EVGA RTX 3060 Ti XC

MSI B450 Gaming Plus

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo

Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB

WD 5400RPM 2TB

EVGA G3 750W

Corsair Carbide 300R

Arctic Fans 140mm x4 120mm x 1

 

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Currently my gaming PC is not 8 years old yet, but I did build it with the goal of it lasting 10 years.

 

My previous gaming PC was an i5 6500 and a GTX970. It served my loyally from 2014 until 2021 when I upgraded to an i7 11700KF an RTX 3080. I figure if an i5 and 70 series got me that close to 10 years an i7 and 80 series should get me over the line. I play games on my living room TV and the old PC just couldn't game at 4k.

 

My dream, is that my next PC (bought in 2030) would just be the Steam Deck 3 and a dock for TV play. If my PC ends up showing its age and the Steam Deck 3 isn't quite able to replace my desktop then I'll just buy another 10 year computer. My current Steam Deck + gaming PC in the living room lifestyle is great. But Steam Deck plus dock in the living room would obviously be better.

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On 9/19/2024 at 6:14 AM, Emillio said:

Hello, I'm just curious. Is anybody here in this forum still using the same PC from 8 years ago? This means, you build or buy your PC 8 years ago and are still using it with no upgrades whatsoever. So, the same specs 8 years ago up until now and you didn't change anything. If there is, what are your specs and how does it perform in gaming? The reason that I ask this is because I want to build a PC that is still good even 10 years from now with no upgrades. So, I need some proof or story from some of you guys who owned a PC 8-10 years ago and still use it up until now with no upgrades.

I also used my MSI gaming notebook from 2013 to 2023, I hope you also meant laptops, in this case, and not purely desktop PCs.

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I've been using my Acer Predator 17 laptop with a 1070 since 2017. I don't have time to game like I used to, of course, but it still gets the job done when I want to try some games

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My home office is in my garage, but in my house, I daily use my MSI 17" laptop from 2016. Other than adding a NVMe and SSD (replaced the DVD drive with a caddy and put HDD in that) and adding RAM when I bought it, it is the same. I don't really game, I work on spreadsheets, photos and such. I clean it every 6 months or so, reinstall windows every year or two, but it runs quick and fairly cool.

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My wife was running an I7 4790 and a GTX 970 until just over a year ago, and it still handled 1080p gaming admirably. Not saying you'd have a good time in Alan Wake 2 or Ark Ascended, but most games ran quite nicely overall. Handled our open world survival crafting games with no issues, and she even played Warzone with us just fine. So it's definitely possible depending on your needs (and gaming tastes in particular). 

 

She was definitely ready for an ugrade for some of the upcoming games we wanted to play, but the machine is/was hardly e-waste. Our nephew is loving playing Spiderman on it as we speak.

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