Computer Longevity

[Sousuke]

Hey Guys,

 

I've been a technology enthusiast since I was 8 and over the years i've noticed systems are no longer held back by hardware limitations as much as they used to be (for normal day to day use).

 

For example.

 

When XP Came out the standard specs of a High End system wouldn't be able to even run Windows Vista without some proper slowdowns.

 

When Vista came out the standard specs of a High End system can run both Windows 7 and Windows 8 with ease.

 

Computers seem to be lasting longer these days as there has been 13 Years between XP and Now and they were made to be totally obsolete only 5 Years after their release. However since 2006 any high end system made at that time can still run (and run it well) Windows 8 (I've tested this on a MacBook Pro and a Dell Inspiron laptop) and they can run the OS and do many tasks as well as any low end system can these days.

 

Even my main computer was manufactured in 2008 with Mac OS X Leopard installed and runs Mavericks and Yosemite with absolute ease in fact I've only upgraded a few components of this system (Ram from 4GB to 16GB, GPU from the X1900 to the 5770 and the Primary hard drive to an SSD. 

 

I guess my point is that these days the key components of a system are lasting allot longer than they used to (CPU & Motherboard at least).

 

So in the long term building a High End system makes allot of sense due to how long they last. 

 

What do you think LTT, Am I correct or am I not? And throw in your opinions on this matter

[Zeke]

Well, Vista had a much higher requirements, compared to XP (because let's be honest, MS tried to put every possibe feature in there and it worked like shit), 7 demanded about as much resources as Vista, and 8 (since it was optimized for tablets which don't have a lot of juice) is something between XP and 7. Mac OS... well, let's be honest, their designer didn't look out the window (no pun intended) and said "YE GODS TRANSPARANCY GOTTA GET SOME OF THAT EVERYWHERE". Plus, Mac OS is developed with exact hardware specs in mind so... IMO, the question now is  "Do you want to play what games in that resolution with how many fps on how many displays?" is the crucial one for choosing your build.

[Woodypc]

I still us my Laptop top with a T7500 2.2GHz everyday. Starting to slow with Chrome and Youtube though now.

[Sousuke]

Well, Vista had a much higher requirements, compared to XP (because let's be honest, MS tried to put every possibe feature in there and it worked like shit), 7 demanded about as much resources as Vista, and 8 (since it was optimized for tablets which don't have a lot of juice) is something between XP and 7. Mac OS... well, let's be honest, their designer didn't look out the window (no pun intended) and said "YE GODS TRANSPARANCY GOTTA GET SOME OF THAT EVERYWHERE". Plus, Mac OS is developed with exact hardware specs in mind so... IMO, the question now is  "Do you want to play what games in that resolution with how many fps on how many displays?" is the crucial one for choosing your build.

 

Yes but all Operating Systems have done that over time.

 

However my point was how long systems are now lasting.

 

Core 2 Duo systems are just now showing their age, 8 years after their first introduction.

[Zeke]

Core 2 Duo systems are just now showing their age, 8 years after their first introduction.

I dunno, for office tasks maybe, but if you like to play games on high/ultra...

[Sousuke]

I dunno, for office tasks maybe, but if you like to play games on high/ultra...

 

Of Course we're not talking gaming here, normal Day to day use in my opinion is non gaming use.

 

Who plays games on their Macs  

[Zeke]

Who plays games on their Macs

I play Borderlands 2 on my Air... 

[ShadowCaptain]

Who plays games on their Macs

 

People who own macs? lol

[b45op]

How much is this phenomenon that we have longer lasting computers down to offloading a lot of the stuff we do onto the internet and cloud services. The one thing that we do need to upgrade regularly it seems is connection speed.

 

Gaming will always be a special case as things can change quite regularly, and it is heavily based on your local machine. BTW you can play games on macs just because it is not a huge gaming platform does not mean it is non existent.

[Dimwitted]

What you're noticing is the maturing of the cpu. Almost no software is cpu bound these days. It allows you to use damn near anything and have a decent experience. It also doesn't hurt that the DDR3 spec has been stable for 6 years.

 

Will this change? Perhaps. My crystal ball is a little cloudy but with DDR4 the memory density has just doubled. Min systems will be 8 gigs, and there will be many machines with 32 gb and greater available. *Somebody* will want to use that! I think that Win9 or 10 and some game devs will use things like RAM drives and VM's right out of the box on capable machines to increase speed and stability.

[Sousuke]

What you're noticing is the maturing of the cpu. Almost no software is cpu bound these days. It allows you to use damn near anything and have a decent experience. It also doesn't hurt that the DDR3 spec has been stable for 6 years.

 

Will this change? Perhaps. My crystal ball is a little cloudy but with DDR4 the memory density has just doubled. Min systems will be 8 gigs, and there will be many machines with 32 gb and greater available. *Somebody* will want to use that! I think that Win9 or 10 and some game devs will use things like RAM drives and VM's right out of the box on capable machines to increase speed and stability.

 

I agree that CPU Manufacturing seems to have had a quantum leap since.

 

When intel ditched the P4 Architecture and rolled back to the P3 Architecture but also made major improvements like dual cores ect.

 

Also DDR2 Still seems to be lasting also as my Mac Pro is a fast machine even with 800MHz ECC DDR2 Memory.