How many miles on your laptop?

F=MA

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Just curious...

After a year and a half, about 640,000 miles, roughly 2000 hours of use, ~215 TSA inspections, and one failed attempt to replace a power jack, I've retired yet another laptop computer.

I use these things pretty heavily, but I wonder what the average life expectancy is for one.

My wife is on year four with her Mac Book Pro...I told her for the $3500 she spent on it I am entitled at least three Windows-based laptops. The problem is I'm getting real close to reaching that limit with the new laptop I bought this afternoon.

These things are getting really cheap. I guess they have to since it seems we've hit a point where technology doesn't seem to be advancing at the same rate it was a few years ago. I paid less than $700 for my latest laptop...which specs out to be superior to the one I threw across the kitchen this afternoon. :laugh:

So to repeat the question...how long do you expect your laptop computer to last, and what kind of travel/use do you subject it to?
 
I've had the same one for 2.5yrs now, almost as many TSA inspections as you and many many miles of air, rail, cruising and rental cars across 3 continents, 20+ countries and countless rental cars. They issue us IBM T43s and I gotta say I'm not gentle with it. I've dropped it, smashed it, seen it go sailing through the xray machine on the belt, etc and yet it still keeps on running :cool:

The Dell that I have had to carry with me for another project, well that POS has been replaced 3x and it only comes out of the backpack for TSA checks and when I get to that office.

I think with the technology, yes there are some amazing deals out there, however some laptops are built for the type of travel you and I do while most are not. It is amazing what you can get these days for a few hundred bucks. I've often considered just getting a smaller "netbook" and carry a few small external drives along for storage :thumbsup:
 
I think perhaps that's part of the problem. I'm buying the best I can find at Best Buy, but like you wrote, these are probably too cheaply built.
 
could be, I'm tellin ya, this IBM I have has taken more than its share of having its ass beaten, it runs hot as hell a lot, its got love marks, its missing a key on the keyboard but the damn thing just wont die ... and its coming up on the lease turn in time so I can buy it back for next to nothing in a few months :thumbsup:

I would say check out the Lenovo Outlet - Home page you can find some sweet deals on there from time to time. Not sure what changed in the IBM -> Lenovo update but definitely worth checking into the business class laptops. :beerchug:
 
Good to know for future reference. Anyone else?

There was a time when I didn't mind replacing a laptop every year and a half or two years, but since they haven't seemed to improve significantly during the last couple of years there's no performance gain to look forward to at the end of yet another broken relationship.
 
I bought a Dell in 2000 and I still use it everyday. Many trips abroad to foreign countries, so many places my passport is full in just 2.5 years.. Other than the normal viruses and and a bad battery, that's all..
 
I personally had my Macbook now for two years and it is going as strong as ever. My windows laptops I've had before I always had to replace every two years easily because the new software coming out required too much out of them. I don't travel as much as I use too but this laptop probably has 10,000 miles on it.


Good to know for future reference. Anyone else?

There was a time when I didn't mind replacing a laptop every year and a half or two years, but since they haven't seemed to improve significantly during the last couple of years there's no performance gain to look forward to at the end of yet another broken relationship.

I forget the scientist's name but he predicted the rate of processor growth and predicted that eventually the architect and power requirements of current processors would hit a cap. In laptops especially that wall would be hard to overcome because batteries haven't made any major leaps forward in the last 20 years or so. So basically if they did invent a new faster processor that most likely the power requirements would be too great for our battery technology to handle and I believe that's where we are at right now. I wish I could find the article from about 8 years ago though to show you in better detail what I'm talking about.
 
I bought a Dell in 2000 and I still use it everyday. Many trips abroad to foreign countries, so many places my passport is full in just 2.5 years.. Other than the normal viruses and and a bad battery, that's all..

Gee, that makes me feel a whole lot better. My first laptop was a Dell purchased in 2002. I got almost three years out of it, with one trip to the shop to have a cracked motherboard replaced under warranty.

Maybe I'm harder on things than I think I am?
 
I personally had my Macbook now for two years and it is going as strong as ever. My windows laptops I've had before I always had to replace every two years easily because the new software coming out required too much out of them. I don't travel as much as I use too but this laptop probably has 10,000 miles on it.




I forget the scientist's name but he predicted the rate of processor growth and predicted that eventually the architect and power requirements of current processors would hit a cap. In laptops especially that wall would be hard to overcome because batteries haven't made any major leaps forward in the last 20 years or so. So basically if they did invent a new faster processor that most likely the power requirements would be too great for our battery technology to handle and I believe that's where we are at right now. I wish I could find the article from about 8 years ago though to show you in better detail what I'm talking about.

I think you read about Moore's Law. I am somewhat familiar.

I don't think I've had a laptop since that was as fast as my single core 3.06 gHZ Dell. It seems like this "dual core" stuff is not really that great...plus it's not as easy to understand how one chip compares with another with the naming convention they're using at present...or maybe I've just gotten too far beyond the technology culture to want to invest the time to learn what the difference between a T6500 and T8800 is exactly.
 
I put almost 20,000 miles on my old Thinkpad T43 before the hard drive went. I am not sure if it was caused by the vibrations from riding or not. I now have about 7,000 miles on a T61. I had issues with this one since the start. I wouldn't buy another Lenovo. I am hearing the new Dells are not that great either. I have an old Toshiba that I picked up in 2005 that the wife still uses daily. I have never had a single problem with it. If I get a new one, I will be looking at Toshiba first. I think how you carry it will also make a big difference. I carry it in a backpack that is made to carry a laptop. It has some cushioning in it. Sticking the computer in a tank bag will probably transmit more vibration to the computer and reduce its life.
 
Have you been taking care of them real good I don't know about the laptops but my home pc if you don't take the cover off an blow it out it will fry itself
 
I put almost 20,000 miles on my old Thinkpad T43 before the hard drive went. I am not sure if it was caused by the vibrations from riding or not. I now have about 7,000 miles on a T61. I had issues with this one since the start. I wouldn't buy another Lenovo. I am hearing the new Dells are not that great either. I have an old Toshiba that I picked up in 2005 that the wife still uses daily. I have never had a single problem with it. If I get a new one, I will be looking at Toshiba first. I think how you carry it will also make a big difference. I carry it in a backpack that is made to carry a laptop. It has some cushioning in it. Sticking the computer in a tank bag will probably transmit more vibration to the computer and reduce its life.


:welcome:

Thanks for the info. Most of my miles have been accrued in airplanes, while the computer is stored in a laptop case.
 
Have you been taking care of them real good I don't know about the laptops but my home pc if you don't take the cover off an blow it out it will fry itself

I can't say I have...I keep the viruses away, I'm hit or miss with the spyware. Beyond that I view a computer no differently than a toaster...I plug it in and it should work.

I used to be more interested in the nuts and bolts of it all, but these days I have more important things to do.
 
My Apple laptop finally gave out last spring (hard drive) after 7 years. That was a faultless machine......

I replaced it with tha HP TouchSmart 22" all in one. Never had a real reason for a laptop anyway. This thing is awesome............
 
4 years now on my macbook pro... minor maintenance work:

change fan
change battery
got new charger

other than that it looks and feels as good as new!!!

I use it daily... But I really take care of my machine... My wife's got a macbook for almost the same period of time... changed battery and charger.
 
Well, I have many PC's and two laptops currently. I have a four month old HP which is wonderful machine and love it. However, I'm on my old trusty Gateway SOLO 9300 that is now 12 years old and running 700 MHZ with 256 Meg of Ram. It's still pretty quick and I can thank UBUNTU for that and have never had a virus at all. I think I have got my money out of this one and it still even looks new with just a little wear on the touchpad and that is it! :thumbsup:
 
A couple months ago, I upgraded to a Lenovo/IBM T500. Prior to that, I had a T60p, T42p, A20p, Thinkpad 770. I keep mine for 2.5 - 3 yrs... Sometimes it never gets shut off. IBM/Lenovo has solid stuff. Yeah, you may pay a little more and you may not get as many bells/whistles - but IBM/Lenovo is solid stuff.

zukracer said:
I've often considered just getting a smaller "netbook" and carry a few small external drives along for storage

We're doing that right now at work - We're now issuing Lenovo S10-2 netbooks with external drives. We have guys coming out of the woodwork with "dead" laptops just so they can get the upgrade. LOL

I may get one to carry between meetings and to/from home, but my main box will remain my T500, 4GB RAM, Win 7 x64...
 
Thanks all. Looks like I'm taking the new $700 HP back to Best Buy today. The Intel graphics card (4500MHD) is complete crap. I'm not a hardcore gamer, but from time to time I do like to take a break.

My wife, who all but has "Apple" tatooed on her forehead, is really pushing for me to get a Macbook Pro, but as good as Apple is, from what I'm finding online they're still not quite there in terms of competitiveness as a laptop gaming platform (though admittedly all laptops still lack gaming capability if one is really into that). I'm not interested in owning a seperate desktop computer just for playing games.

My travel over the next year will be a fraction of a fraction of what it has been as I've taken at least a year off from work (well, one of my jobs, to be more accurate), so I don't think my next laptop will be subjected to the level of abuse it has been in the past.

For the first time I briefly considered getting a Mac. That's a big step for me.
 
MY GIRL GOT 3YRS OUT OF HER ACER BEFORE IT DIED.I HAVE HAD MY HP FOR A 1&1/2YRS.IT'S OK,BUT WISH I WOULD HAVE SPENT EXTRA AND BOUGHT THE APPLE.WHEN I GET SOME EXTRA MONEY,I'AM GONNA GIVE MY PC TO MY LADY AND BUY THE APPLE.:thumbsup:
 
:welcome:

Thanks for the info. Most of my miles have been accrued in airplanes, while the computer is stored in a laptop case.

Thanks. I just picked up an '09 and started hanging out at new boards. I guess I had motorcycle on the brain and was thinking about carrying on the bike.
 
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