How long can my comptuer last?

[rabidbunny]

My current rig is:
C2duo e6400
Gigabyte DS3 mobo
2gb ocz ram 800 mhz
bfg 7600gt
550watt Antec Truepower II psu
Seagate 320 gb 7200.10 rpm (perpendicular recording)
XP home

I will be graduating entering College in the year 2008 and was wondering how long this computer might be able to last me through college with simple internet and office. I built it in october of 2006, so by the time I leave college my fourth year, it will be 2012. Do you think that I can still use this beast for office at that point in time? Now, i do intend to eventually switch to Vista, but not now.
And I do not forsee myself having the money in the middle of college to drop $1500 on a new pc.

However, none of us here probably know exactly where technology is gonna be in 2012... so, this is just a wild question and it is probably a silly one.

I do not plan on gaming that heavily, since now i do not do much gaming now.
I forsee a future ram, graphics card, and psu upgrade, but no cpu upgrade.

So, whatcha think about it still booting up in 2012?

 

[jaguarskx]

I built it in october of 2006, so by the time I leave college my fourth year, it will be 2012. Do you think that I can still use this beast for office at that point in time?

Yes.

Unless M$ really mess up Office so badly that you'll need an Octa (eight) core, , Quad 8900GTX SLI, and 1TB of RAM setup to put together a simple spreadsheet to that can add 1 + 1.

 

[badge]

My current rig is:
C2duo e6400
Gigabyte DS3 mobo
2gb ocz ram 800 mhz
bfg 7600gt
550watt Antec Truepower II psu
Seagate 320 gb 7200.10 rpm (perpendicular recording)
XP home

I will be graduating entering College in the year 2008 and was wondering how long this computer might be able to last me through college with simple internet and office. I built it in october of 2006, so by the time I leave college my fourth year, it will be 2012. Do you think that I can still use this beast for office at that point in time? Now, i do intend to eventually switch to Vista, but not now.
And I do not forsee myself having the money in the middle of college to drop $1500 on a new pc.

However, none of us here probably know exactly where technology is gonna be in 2012... so, this is just a wild question and it is probably a silly one.

I do not plan on gaming that heavily, since now i do not do much gaming now.
I forsee a future ram, graphics card, and psu upgrade, but no cpu upgrade.

So, whatcha think about it still booting up in 2012?

When I first entered college I bought one of the first hand held electronic calculators on the market. By the time I graduated, i had to upgrade to a Texas Instruments Scientific version of the hand held calculator. I seem to remember the electric typewriter being the rage in high school. I used my trusty manual version throughout college. I didn't have enough money to ugrade to electric. Considering I bought my furniture used it all makes sense. The only thing I bothered to upgrade during my college yeas was the chicks. Finally upgraded to the professor.

 

[rabidbunny]

The only thing I bothered to upgrade during my college yeas was the chicks. Finally upgraded to the professor.

Whoa, you hit the jackpot!

On the other hand, I will be getting a laptop in the $1200 dollar range in the summer of 08 for college for writing and probably photos, i forgot that part. although, i don't know what I'm going to be doing on the laptop other than office, photo sorting (maybe a bit o' editing? dunno), music, and some other stuff.

I just hope that with minimal upgrades, i can keep this rig unless my parents buy it from me (wishful thinking).

Well, thanks for the responses. I guess I had a panic attack about my Baby. I rarely play any new games (though, i did purchase HL2: EP1 and it ran quite well! ), just Halo, need for speed Most Wanted, HL2, and some other games that run well on it now. I don't really find myself interested in new, upcoming games. :\
Plus, i've only got less than 40gigs of data on my current hd, got the same one in an enclosure for storage, so i'm good for awhile there.

hopefully, somewhere down the road I can build and sell computers to people, since I like building them sooooo much.

Thanks.

 

[badge]

Four years is an eternity in the cutting edge PC market. C2D made every processor ever manufactured to that point an antique. I just upgraded my e6600 to a q6600. For me it ws a great upgrade. I was using a Pentium III 100 mhz. system with Windows '95 back in '92. Upgrading to a 450 mhz. system with Windows '98 was a big leap forward. Then to a Pentium 4 3.0 and a AMD 2.2 3200 and Windows XP. I still have most of those systems! They all run perfect except the Pentium III 100 mhz.

I'm sure your C2D system will still be cranking out the research papers in 2012. If anybody questions you about your 'old' news system, tell them you know a guy who keeps his Pentium III 450 mhz. running in tip top shape and lives with the professor. :lol:

 

[rabidbunny]

Alright, badge sounds great!

Do you think that quad core will be quite common then with software design? Then again, i'm sure that a lot of programs (barring games maybe) will still support dual core and not require quad.
I do not encode stuff, other than the occasional video for my Zune (love that too). Sound is GREAT, never heard anything better and my video isn't bad for now.
also, I can't really hit 100%cpu usage on my e6400. it's usually around 50% or so. :_) It kinda bums me to think about how single core was the only cpu type until dual core came...then quad...eventually octo..etc . etc..
I suspect that dual core won't last as long as the single cores did. We shall see what good ol' Gates does!


Regardless of the age, i'm sure taht this sytem will still be around playing music or whatever. I still have my modded dell dimension 4550 (first EVER computer owned by me! ) from 2003 in the office...hit four years old this january. but it still runs, just hoping for the monitor to kick the bucket (ancient gateway 2000 crt beast :twisted: )

Maybe I can start a donation now for a $1700 custom rig in 2010! that'd be sweet!

 

[badge]

I keep waitng for the 5 ghz. processor. We're not even looking at 4 ghz. with Penryn. It's all about processor arcitecture. Then you have RAM. DDR3 is almost upon us. Then you have the extinction of my numerous floppy drives. My Pentiun III has a One (1) GB Fireball HD! I bought a 2 GB Kingston USB drive for $14.99 last Sunday! So HD's, RAM, CPU's etc. are all subject to cutting edge technology. So in 2010 don't look for the 5 ghz. CPU. Quad core to be sure.

It will be interesting to see what technological improvements (CPU, RAM, HD, etc.) have the greatest measure on systems in the next four or five years. I'm waiting to build my 6 ghz. dual quad, 200 GB DDR5 Hard RAM driven ATI 10,2900 15 ghz. 74 GB DDR16 quad x 2(4)(8)(16)(32)(64)(128) PCIE 4016 budget system. Whatever.

I use Pinnacle studio 9 to edit videos. My first dual core, AMD 4800 X2 socket 939 2.4, made a huge difference from the single cores I had been using. I have not really had the time to test out the new q6600. Your video editing experience should have improved quite a bit with your C2D. You mentioned Gates. He and I are the same month same year. Same year includes Bruce Willis, Ron Howard, Willem Dafoe, Bill Gates and I. Gotta go. Appointment with the Fortune Teller or that's the Escort Service knocking on the door. :lol:

 

[rabidbunny]

actually, my video experience includes only watching them on my zune..the software converts the format, however i do not edit video...i've got nothing to really put onto video..dont' own a vid camera either..
My camera is a 35mm compact camera...quite good and I can get digital if I really want to.

 

[badge]

Pinnacle Studio 9 lets me hook a VHS recorder to the Pinnacle PCI card and copy any VHS movie onto my hard drive. Then I can use Pinnacle's editing software and edit the movies semi professionall and eventually burn the finished product to DVD. I have an enormous Three Stooges Collection. That and a Madonna home video I picked up at a garage sale. I hope to get some bucks for that baby.

We bought two digital cameras last week for our business. We take a lot of clinical photograps and have used standard 35 mm scientific setups for the past 20 years. Now we've moved to digital. So far any 4-7 megapixel with a 10-12 zoom lens is working for us. Tired of using that old camera with the long black bellows and close up lens. If you are interested in the rearrangement of skeletal bones of the face and cranium, I have a ton of great shots.

 

[SEALBoy]

Four years is an eternity in the cutting edge PC market. C2D made every processor ever manufactured to that point an antique. I just upgraded my e6600 to a q6600. For me it ws a great upgrade. I was using a Pentium III 100 mhz. system with Windows '95 back in '92. Upgrading to a 450 mhz. system with Windows '98 was a big leap forward. Then to a Pentium 4 3.0 and a AMD 2.2 3200 and Windows XP. I still have most of those systems! They all run perfect except the Pentium III 100 mhz.

I'm sure your C2D system will still be cranking out the research papers in 2012. If anybody questions you about your 'old' news system, tell them you know a guy who keeps his Pentium III 450 mhz. running in tip top shape and lives with the professor. :lol:

Pentium III 100MHz? They didn't even have a Pentium (586) in '92. And where did you come up with AMD 2.2?

 

[badge]

I still have my Pentium III, but it's a 133 now. Bought from Montgomery Ward in Anaheim, CA around 1992 for a little more than $3000. How old were you then, 4? I still have my AMD 3200 Socket A 2.2. So really, what are you talking about? Besides being a Troll, what are doing on the forum?

 

[chungdokwan]

should have got the professor to buy you an uber calculator

 

[badge]

should have got the professor to buy you an uber calculator

Ef an uber calculator. Corvette.

 

[gbfromsd]

Your rig should last the complete duration of your schooling. As important as your rig is, a printer is probably as important. It too should be fine as long as you don't intend to crunch big stuff or dont require more horsepower for future classes. Depends to a degree on your course of study.

If on the otherhand your major requires extensive use of top of the line hardware and software, you may reconsider at a later time. Drafting?
Programming? Graphic design? Engineering? These might require a badass rig but for general studies stuff - what you got will do the job, then you can sell it to a freshman and recycle it.

 

[chungdokwan]

Your both wrong the first Pentium( they wanted to call it 586 but couldnt trade mark a number from memory) wasnt commercially availible until march 93 as for running Windows 95 in 1992 i'll let you both spot the problems with that statement yourselves.

As for a 2.2 GHZ Athlon processor Badge is 100% correct Sealboy I honestly can't believe youve never heard of the Athlon 3200+ Barton.

If your going to argue do it right.

 

[badge]

My son was born in August '92. I bought little toddler video games. he loaded the software (with my help telling what keys to press) and played Sesame street and some other games. I still remember his wet diaper sitting on my lap. So...yeah, I said around '92. Hey man...so hold a efing gun to my head. It's happened before.

 

[chungdokwan]

LOL beats a calculator thats for sure

 

[badge]

LOL beats a calculator thats for sure

The forumz members know we have been in Private Practice since 1986. Hey, I came a long way from Missouri state. Penitentuary.

 

[badge]

LOL beats a calculator thats for sure

The first computer I ever used was in a Sociology class in the early 80's. It was used by the entire Social Science dept. at the time and as far as I know, it was the only computer in the entire building. I rememeber I had to put the data in a machine that made a punch card. You know, a card with little holes representing the data I entered. Then I fed the punch cards into the Radio Shack computer and had the data run through the computer into some print out results. I remember it was a Radio Shack computer I think. Would you know what kind of system I was using back in the early eighties?

 

[foxrocks]

This thread is weird.

 

[onestep]

You're going to be using your PC for "office" yeah right!

C'mon now you're going to be a college student, so i'm guessing you're probably more worried about whether or not your PC will be able to handle all that new 1080P HD-DVD Porno which will be floating around by then...

Rest assured, from what i've heard/seen you should be all set...

 

[rabidbunny]

If you are interested in the rearrangement of skeletal bones of the face and cranium, I have a ton of great shots.

Actually, that'd be quite interesting to see! I'm just finishing a course at school now on anatomy and physiology. We went to see "body worlds 2" which has plastinated bodies. It was pretty cool to see, so I'm actually interested if you are willing to show me

You're going to be using your PC for "office" yeah right!

C'mon now you're going to be a college student, so i'm guessing you're probably more worried about whether or not your PC will be able to handle all that new 1080P HD-DVD Porno which will be floating around by then...

Actually, no. I have my interest in only one girl now...no one else. As long as I will still be able to watch some format of movies on this computer, I'm happy.

Alright, sounds good.
[/quote]

 

[badge]

Actually, that'd be quite interesting to see! I'm just finishing a course at school now on anatomy and physiology. We went to see "body worlds 2" which has plastinated bodies. It was pretty cool to see, so I'm actually interested if you are willing to show me

The x-ray end of what we do is what really shows bone structure, not so much the clinical photographs of the head and face. Today I have taken probally thirty x-rays total on several new patients. I take an 8 x 10" craniofacial (skull) film which we use to measure the bones of the face and skull, as well as measure distances from landmark to landmark. An example of a craniofacial landmark measurement would be to measure the distance from the Nasion (center of nasal bone) to the Sella Turcica (center of the pituitary gland). Clinical photos of the face and teeth are to document a starting treatment point and an ending treatment point as well as a quick way to remember what the patient looks like at a given time in comprehensive treatment.

What is you course of study?

 

[gattsuru]

Depends on what you're using it for.

It's probably not going to play Crysis or Bioshock, and by 2010 expect DX10 to have taken enough root for the graphics card to be in the crapper. Despite the weakening of Moore's law, you can still expect computers to be around four to eight times as powerful as they are currently, with game requirements following that.

Will you still be able to boot up and run office? Pretty sure it's a yes. CPUs last around 10 years without being overclocked, and we've got no reason to expect any differently from the C2D. Motherboards are just as solid, and RAM tends to work reasonably for a long time. You will almost certainly need a new hard drive -- average lifetime of a mere five years -- and the power supply may or may not survive.

For comparison, I've had a Micron Millenium that still runs Windows 98 smoothly, a nearly a decade after we bought it.

I would suggest getting a decent UPS/power protector. While dorm power tends to be reasonably well conditioned, it's the most likely route for disaster to occur in terms of lost data or killed PSUs.

 

[badge]

A clinical photograph we took about one hour ago. I loaded the picture onto this computer and photoshopped it real quick. Next week we will present this picture and many others as well as many x-rays I took and do a case presentation and begin active comprehensive orthodontic treatment on this patient. Hey...Fun!!!!!!!!

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/1417/hohumdayuq0.jpg