What is the Average Lifespan of a Modern Shelf PC

For todays Off the Shelf PC's that people buy from places like Walmart or Best Buy, what is the average lifespan of these type of devices before seeking a replacement for them?

Starguard said:

For todays Off the Shelf PC's that people buy from places like Walmart or Best Buy, what is the average lifespan of these type of devices before seeking a replacement for them?

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Really depends on what the end user is doing with the PC.

Getting on facebook and checking email? They'll last as long as the hardware doesn't fail. Many, many years.

Playing modern highly detailed, graphically intense games then they'll last a couple years or less.

Skillz said:

Really depends on what the end user is doing with the PC.

Getting on facebook and checking email? They'll last as long as the hardware doesn't fail. Many, many years.

Playing modern highly detailed, graphically intense games then they'll last a couple years or less.

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Realistically, 5-7 years for the basic tasks you mentioned. At that point the machine may experience hardware failures which are too costly to repair, necessitating replacement earlier. 3-5 years isn't uncommon and 5-7 years isn't unheard of in these scenarios.

Playing modern, highly detailed, graphically intense games then they don't do well at the start without significant upgrades. Remember, the average off the shelf PC from places like Wal-Mart rely on integrated graphics and have a shitty power supply that barely powers the machine, much less an electrically demanding video card. They often use slow, bargain basement JEDEC spec RAM, non-K SKU CPUs, and they'll have cases which can create challenges for video card installation.

If you upgrade the crap out of them they can last two or three years easily, just like custom built machines can. Sometimes you get lucky and can take it five years or more with moderate upgrades here and there or a GPU replacement down the line.

Lots of variables to consider...

I would argue that in most cases the user will encounter other issues before the hardware becomes "too old" or breaks somehow. Malware, lack of maintenance, etc can bring a computer to a crawl even if the hardware is still fine. I come across countless computers, many approaching 10 years old, that just need an OS re-install and maybe a memory upgrade and still make great budget PCs.

So in that regard, I wouldn't count on more than about 3 years or so before things start getting slow and crusty. If the user is able to do at least some minimum maintenance (or takes it to someone who can) and doesn't infect themselves with malware then it's not unreasonable to expect a decade of service out of the PC.

Well to echo the choir, we really haven't had any major technological improvements in the past 5 years on the cpu front. So to an average Joe who bought a machine in a b&m store they probably wouldn't notice a difference from a first gen Clarkdale quadcore i5 to a shiny new i7 Skylake. You know minus a clean install of Windows to wipe out all the crap they install on their machines while searching aimlessly on the internet for dumb stuff. Maybe if they are in the P4 era or maybe core2duo they might notice.

Probably best bang for the buck are: ssd (os drive), more ram, a decent IPS monitor, a good mouse / keyboard, maybe a video card (if a gamer) or if having issues with video / youtube playback.

I still see Core 2 Duo computers in usage and that was about 10 years ago. I had a Pentium D in the garage that could still surf the internet just fine....that's like what? 04-05? I only replaced several months ago just cause I was bored of it. Was a Dell that still worked rock solid.

Oh, putting an SSD in just about any computer made in the last 10 years will make it "useable" for desktop stuff. The SSD covers up a lot of other deficiencies.

4.6 years.

Core2Duo's are still usable today for a basic system. Core2Quads are still great. Hell if you were crazy enough, I think a Pentium 4 with an SSD would do most people fine as well. As long as these types of systems have enough memory and a GPU to offload rendering, they're gravy.

When I was in college in 2012 I was using a laptop from 2007. I put a ssd in it and it handled everything just fine that I needed too. Now days I can imagine computers lasting at least 7 to 10 years as long nothing dies and if you put a ssd in them. Hdds seem to get really slow and crappy as they age.

I got an old HP with a AMD Athlon XP 2400+ about a year ago, and when I checked the hard drive SMART data, it had been running 24/7 since 2004. Still has the 200w power supply even.

PornoSatan said:

Core2Duo's are still usable today for a basic system. Core2Quads are still great. Hell if you were crazy enough, I think a Pentium 4 with an SSD would do most people fine as well. As long as these types of systems have enough memory and a GPU to offload rendering, they're gravy.

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Yep, the e6750 c2d in my sig still works great for light office use, it does however have a fairly heavy overclock on it that has remained stable after all these years. The small 60gb ssd I installed really gave the system new life! For simple word processing and web surfing it is still more than capable.