How old is your computer?

onomatopoeia said:
Home built i7-2600k based box that I assembled New Year 2011, so eight and a half years. Since building it I've allowed Windows 7 to convert to 10 (pro) and doubled the RAM to 16GB. Nice 15K rpm mechanical boot disk helps keep things sprightly.

No slowdowns, no re-installs, no "cleaners" used, no defragmenting, it just keeps going. I did upgrade the original GPU I built it with to allow it to drive three screens including one in 4k.

I'm about to replace it with another homebrew machine based on an 8700k, for no other reason than "I can", which should last me at least another eight years.
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If you can wait for the 10th Gen version you will get 10 core instead of 6.
It will more or less be like an Extreme series CPU that used to cost thousands lol.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I don't want that, just want some facts on how old is your machine really.
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I think there are some additional points why a computer is as old as it is. Generally I don’t think people upgrade them as much as cameras. If it’s working it’s working. If you’re interested in computers you are more likely to upgrade or play around with them.

Could you add voting to the thread ie age range and pc or Mac? The thread may then be able to give you some results.
 
Inspiron 17inch 2-in-1 bought in november so 8 months old
512gb nvme with operating system etc, and 2tb ssd for storage
laptop.JPG
 
Mine is 2016 built by CCL
I5 chip
2*250GB SSD
1*1TB HDD
16Mb DDR4 Ram
Win 10 OEM -clean install from disc
Never missed a beat since new
 
iMac 5K Late 2015 and Macbook Pro Late 2014, both of which were the first macs I owned and not had a problem with either, never had driver issues, had to reinstall OS etc and that is all pretty important.

Without a doubt the longest I have ever had a computer without upgrading and although I will get a new Mac Pro when they come out, my current iMac 5K is fine, in fact for some strange reason it seems faster in recent weeks.

Although some may argue the Mac is more expensive, for me considering how much a decent 5K monitor is (and the iMac screen is amazing) there isn't any much in it.
 
mine is not as old as me :) and I agree with what Jase as said above, some folks have more GAS with computers than with cameras
 
I have an old HP 8200 i5 2400 with 16gb RAM, seems to be working okay with the D750 files bit is struggling with RX100 video files.[emoji849]
 
5 years old, but just about to swap the mobo, cpu and ram.
 
Between 4 and 10 years old
Original Asus P6T S1366 (10 years)
Original Seasonic PSU (10 years)
Upgraded CPU from i7 920 to Xeon x5650 (5 years, same CPU cooler)
Upgraded Ram from 6gb to 24gb (6 years)
Upgraded SSD from 120gb to 480gb to 1tb (4 years, other drives still inside as storage)
Upgraded graphics from gtx260 to HD7850 to gtx970 (4 years)
Added USB3 card

Platform it was built on is 10 years old but had a few minor cheap upgrades over the years (far cheaper than buying a new PC). No plans to upgrade it yet, got at least another 2-3 years left in it.
 
Prefer workstations to "ordinary" PC because you get so much more bangs for your buck!
My editing workstation is an HP Z800 with twin Xeons which gives me 12 cores and 24 threads!
Kicks the crap out of all i7 4 and 6 cores.:banana:

Twin Xeons 5690s
96 GB RAM!
250GB Samsung 970 NVME M.2 running at 1.8 / 1.5GB/Sec GB/Sec
1TB Samsung 970 NVME M.2 running at 1.8 / 1.5GB/Sec GB/Sec
3x500GB Samsung 960 EVOs in a RAID 0 configuration giving a 1.5GB disc running at 750MB/Sec.
2TB HDDD for data.
 
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petersmart said:
Prefer workstations to "ordinary" PC because you get so much more bangs for your buck!
My editing workstation is an HP Z800 with twin Xeons which gives me 12 cores and 24 threads!
Kicks the crap out of all i7 4 and 6 cores.:banana:

Twin Xeons 5690s
96 GB RAM!
250GB Samsung 970 NVME M.2 running at 1.8 / 1.5GB/Sec GB/Sec
1TB Samsung 970 NVME M.2 running at 1.8 / 1.5GB/Sec GB/Sec
3x500GB Samsung 960 EVOs in a RAID 0 configuration giving a 1.5GB disc running at 750MB/Sec.
2TB HDDD for data.
Click to expand...
Bit OTT for lightroom or photoshop ;) or do you use video software ?
 
15" Macbook Pro 2015 & iPad Pro
 
Nikon f1.8 said:
some folks have more GAS with computers than with cameras
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I once suggested in a product analysis that the programmers and testers should be given 5 year old computers for the project. My opinion this would ensure that the widest possible customer base would therefor be able to use the product didn't meet with the approval of the development team...

:tumbleweed:
 
Until the start of this year I was using a homebrew PC based on an i7-3770 that I bought in January 2013. So it lasted me six years which is a looong time for me. Of course, the GPU and internal drives evolved during that period. W7 x64 Pro

I swapped out the motherboard/CPU/RAM for something more recent in January so now have an i5-8600T which provides slightly greater CPU power for 35W than the 77W that the 3770 needed. W10 x64 Pro
 
rob-nikon said:
I think there are some additional points why a computer is as old as it is. Generally I don’t think people upgrade them as much as cameras. If it’s working it’s working. If you’re interested in computers you are more likely to upgrade or play around with them.

Could you add voting to the thread ie age range and pc or Mac? The thread may then be able to give you some results.
Click to expand...

There are way more PC enthusiasts that photography enthusiasts though.
This forum has 60K members, the overclockers forum has 140K
And a lot of them are nuts, making insanely expensive PC`s.
 
Nikon f1.8 said:
Bit OTT for lightroom or photoshop ;) or do you use video software ?
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I don't bother with PS or LR, I use older editing programs which I've had for years and Topaz AI Gigapixel and Neat Image and EasyHDR3 and various other programs.
Apart from AI Gigapixel all my photographic editing is done inside a VM.
In fact virtually all my programs are run in VMs because they can be transported onto any machine without any problems and still work exactly the same.
In fact Talk Photography is inside a VM running Windows 7 on Linux on a Z600 workstation which I'm presently using for surfing.
And I can use 24+ VNs running all at once to transcribe DVDs etc.
They are created using XP which I gutted years ago using NLite to enable me to get 1GB VMs running XP.
And I also have an Nvidia 1050Ti 4GB video card.
I don't play online games but it would probably cope with slower games.
One problem with the Z800 and Z600 series (or at least all the ones I have used) is that the fans don't ramp up when the CPUs get hot, so I use CoreTemp set at 75C to shut the workstation down if either cpu reaches that temp.
And I have also installed SpeedFan - that is coupled each individual core and set to turn the fans on when a core reaches 60C.
And of course when running 24+VMs I can also cap them so the CPUs assigned to them don't go to 100%.
And if necessary I can also go into the Contol Panel and turn down the actual speed of the CPUs and so reduce the temperature.
And 96GB RAM means I can create a 64GB Ramdrive (or any other size) if I want and still have a shedload of RAM available for other programs.
 
Built many expensive PC's over the years but now I prefer the simple life. Long gone are the days of trying to achieve 4.0GHz air-cooled on an Intel E6600! :LOL:

Current machines:
2018 Dell Precision 5820 (W10, Xeon W2155, 32GB RAM, 4TB SSD (2TB int + 2TB ext), 16GB nVidia P5000)
2015 27" iMac (macOS 10.14, i7 4.0GHz, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 4GB Radeon M395X)
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
I once suggested in a product analysis that the programmers and testers should be given 5 year old computers for the project. My opinion this would ensure that the widest possible customer base would therefor be able to use the product didn't meet with the approval of the development team...
Click to expand...

The requirements of a development computer can be very different to the requirements of the computer the software is intended to run on, so I imagine you got educated on why that was a bad idea pretty quickly.

Modern versions of Visual Studio are behemoths, whereas the project I manage produces an executable core requires under a megabyte of RAM for code plus data at runtime. In theory it would still run on Windows 98 on a machine with 16MB RAM, but I certainly wouldn't want to develop in that environment. :runaway:

petersmart said:
Prefer workstations to "ordinary" PC because you get so much more bangs for your buck!
My editing workstation is an HP Z800 with twin Xeons which gives me 12 cores and 24 threads!
Click to expand...
My dev machine at home is a Z800 with twin Xeons and 96GB RAM (bought s/h on TP in fact), only 8 cores / 16 threads though. I don't edit on it though, so didn't mention it. It's a splendid thing and will probably outlast me :naughty:.
 
onomatopoeia said:
so I imagine you got educated on why that was a bad idea pretty quickly.
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Well: I've only been programming since 1978. Perhaps I'll learn why it's a bad idea to develop on the same kit the average user has real soon now. :thinking:
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
Well: I've only been programming since 1978. Perhaps I'll learn why it's a bad idea to develop on the same kit the average user has real soon now. :thinking:
Click to expand...
That’s when I started in IT. I had the sense to retire from it 15 years ago.:LOL:
 
Mac Pro Tower
2012

2.8Ghz 4 core Zeon processer
12gb RAM and 1tb drive.

I use Aperture 3 for processing and it's great - and handles D810 files ok so will run it for 3 more years and then buy a PC as I

a) Aperture 3 is discontinued - whilst the competition have moved on - this hasn't and it was the best at the time - and for someone not into "computers" very user friendly - now I understand sharpening, levels/curves I would have no issue using a different suite but I rather like it and it does what I need to do and it does it quickly. Learning something new isn't my ideal choice so I keep putting it off
b) bearing in mind point A) I will be using Capture One for RAW editing the Mac/PC platform doesn't actually matter. RAWs will be the same, outputs will be the same as its the suite that does the editing, not the OS.
c) cost - I am not "into computers" so I simply at this point want the fastest and most powerful one for my £5k budget (including a really decent screen) - PC does this - Mac doesn't. I aim to get 7 to 10yrs out of a computer without doing upgrades to it. £5k buys a lot more windows stuff than apple stuff - even from Dell but I will go to www.scan.co.uk for the computer as the lad next door who is really into computers recommended them to me
d) when I upgrade the computer I will probably do the bodies as well - digital photography is a whole system from body, to lens, to computer/editing suite - everything needs to match the power of the other. A very powerful computer means I can move up to medium format and enjoy fast editing. I hate waiting for 100% preview to load on my current rig when pixel checking my edits of my D810. I cannot imagine how it would cope with 100mp RAWs etc so it's important to get a very powerful computer to handle a decade of this stuff.
 
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I replaced my old compuyter back in February 2018 - I didn't realise it was that long ago :)

I have added more RAM and a larger HDD since then but it is currently:
Asus Intel Z370 ATX mobo
Intel Core i5-8400 processor
16GB DDR4-2400 RAM
Nvidia GeForce 1030 2Gb graphics card
250GB M.2 drive
250GB SSD drive
1TB HDD
24x CD/DVD writer
ATX case with 500W PSU
Windows 10 Pro X64

The 1TB HDD will get replaced by a couple of smaller SSDs later this year.
 
petersmart said:
Prefer workstations to "ordinary" PC because you get so much more bangs for your buck!
My editing workstation is an HP Z800 with twin Xeons which gives me 12 cores and 24 threads!
Kicks the crap out of all i7 4 and 6 cores.:banana:

Twin Xeons 5690s
96 GB RAM!
250GB Samsung 970 NVME M.2 running at 1.8 / 1.5GB/Sec GB/Sec
1TB Samsung 970 NVME M.2 running at 1.8 / 1.5GB/Sec GB/Sec
3x500GB Samsung 960 EVOs in a RAID 0 configuration giving a 1.5GB disc running at 750MB/Sec.
2TB HDDD for data.
Click to expand...

Forgive my ignorance - what is the difference between a workstation and PC - other than power?
 
SFTPhotography said:
Forgive my ignorance - what is the difference between a workstation and PC - other than power?
Click to expand...

workstations tend to have a graphics card that is designed for things like 3d rendering/design applications instead of a gaming card, the operating system also usually includes a lot less preloaded garbage software than an off the shelf pc too. Also tend to find slightly better/faster ram and a cpu which again compliments the purpose of the machine rather than gaming (so xeon instead of an i5 etc). As time has gone on the differences are more marginal now than they used to be and it mostly boils down to the graphics card.
 
keeweeman said:
workstations tend to have a graphics card that is designed for things like 3d rendering/design applications instead of a gaming card, the operating system also usually includes a lot less preloaded garbage software than an off the shelf pc too. Also tend to find slightly better/faster ram and a cpu which again compliments the purpose of the machine rather than gaming (so xeon instead of an i5 etc). As time has gone on the differences are more marginal now than they used to be and it mostly boils down to the graphics card.
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And the fact that you can have a vast amount more RAM (I have 96GB the max in the Z800 is 192GB!).
And the RAM is ECC which means it has error correcting unlike the RAM in domestic PCs, which makes for a far more robust machine.
There is no garbage at all in the ones you can put together yourself.
Windows 7 is the normal OS and all the drivers are already pre-loaded for it so just install Win7 and it just runs - the only drivers you need are for a graphics card and any add-on cards (in my case cards and drivers for USB3 and the Samsung NVME M.2 SSDs.
It also has RAID hardware built in and ready to go.
Plus almost everything (apart from the CPU coolers) is tool free which means that everything else can be put together or replaced in a few secs (HDDs, Fans, PSU, DVD re-writer).
And in my one about 12 fans to keep everything cool including 2 fans for the memory!
And an 1100W PSU.
And the fans at the front help to keep the HDDs cool.

View: https://youtu.be/vLbWZA0L49c

View: https://youtu.be/d7d42hFY3dg

https://youtu.be/u_FMGY9V-jE
 
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Late 2012 iMac 27 on MacOS Mojave
 
petersmart said:
I don't bother with PS or LR, I use older editing programs which I've had for years and Topaz AI Gigapixel and Neat Image and EasyHDR3 and various other programs.
Apart from AI Gigapixel all my photographic editing is done inside a VM.
In fact virtually all my programs are run in VMs because they can be transported onto any machine without any problems and still work exactly the same.
In fact Talk Photography is inside a VM running Windows 7 on Linux on a Z600 workstation which I'm presently using for surfing.
And I can use 24+ VNs running all at once to transcribe DVDs etc.
They are created using XP which I gutted years ago using NLite to enable me to get 1GB VMs running XP.
And I also have an Nvidia 1050Ti 4GB video card.
I don't play online games but it would probably cope with slower games.
One problem with the Z800 and Z600 series (or at least all the ones I have used) is that the fans don't ramp up when the CPUs get hot, so I use CoreTemp set at 75C to shut the workstation down if either cpu reaches that temp.
And I have also installed SpeedFan - that is coupled each individual core and set to turn the fans on when a core reaches 60C.
And of course when running 24+VMs I can also cap them so the CPUs assigned to them don't go to 100%.
And if necessary I can also go into the Contol Panel and turn down the actual speed of the CPUs and so reduce the temperature.
And 96GB RAM means I can create a 64GB Ramdrive (or any other size) if I want and still have a shedload of RAM available for other programs.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a total faff though lol
 
My windows machine, Ryzen 1700 based, is a touch under two years. It replaced a machine that was from about 2011 and that had become painful for Lightroom (it took about 5 seconds on switching to a photo before it was ready for editing).

However the CPU from that got dropped in my Linux box which is a few years older than that. I might replace that soon if I don't spend the money on other toys...
 
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