How Old Is Too Old?

I was surfing the Net last week when I came across an article saying how hard it was to upgrade an older operating system to Windows XP. The article was pretty critical of XP saying that the tech had experienced a lot of problems and was six or seven hours in getting the job done. But the problem wasn’t with XP; the problem was with the ancient hardware he was trying to upgrade.

Computers aren’t like automobiles; they age at an accelerated rate. And while they don’t actually wear out, advancing technology makes them obsolete. Fortunately, their successors are more powerful, less expensive, and easier to operate.

My car is about six years old and it’s hardly broke in. I expect to get many more years of service from it with little or no major maintenance. On the other hand, a six year old computer is pretty much obsolete. In fact, three years is about as old a system as I like to work on. Anything older and you start to run into major hassles.

I’ll have to admit, I know someone that’s still using a 1980s model Radio Shack computer and it works just fine. He uses it to drive a plotter. But for most people, especially those using computers in business applications, three years is approaching the limit.

Here’s the problem. Avery three years or so major innovations in hardware tend to turn up. For instance: memory chips changed from the slower SDRAM, to a faster chip called DDR. DDR stands for double data rate and performs twice as many operations per clock cycle as SDRAM. Processors changed as well. The PIIs and PIIIs were replaced by the P4 chip. AMD Athlons were replaced by XP processors. New systems use more power. Power supplies of 300/350 watts plus are common now. The 200/250 watt supplies of several years ago no longer cut it.

With the advent of 3,000 MHz processors, heat becomes a problem. All of the new systems use high-end processor fans and heat sinks. My system uses water cooling to keep the temperatures in hand. What I’m getting at is this…on systems older than three years; almost everything needs to be replaced. I don’t know how many times I’ve ended up spending seven to ten hours messing around with a system that really should have been put out to pasture.

Even upgrading a new system is time consuming. It takes about 45 minutes to install the XP upgrade. Add another 15 minutes for SP1. Then you’ll need to update the security and Windows patches from Microsoft’s website. This can take over an hour on cable and several times that on dialup. If you’re upgrading to a new hard drive, it can easily take an hour or more to transfer everything from the old drive to the new one. It takes special software as well.

I like to upgrade hardware at least once a year. When I upgrade, I don’t replace the entire system, just my processor. I usually wait until the next technological leap before I upgrade the entire system. We are on the verge of one of these “leaps” right now with the release of 64 bit processors. And we’re right on schedule; it’s been about three years since the last major innovation.

The bottom line is…don’t expect to be able to upgrade a really old system to current standards. It’s usually more economical to just buy a new one. And if you’re in the market, don’t forget to check out Apple’s offerings. They are awesome!

Reach me at randy@randybenjamin.com.