How long do you think is the proper life-span of computers?

I used to work in Technology Services at a community college and we cycled our computers through the classroom labs for four years and then donated or sold them. At that time, though, processor speeds and hard drives were just starting to increase so the older ones weren't able to run the number of large programs we needed them to run after four years. One of my computers at home is six years old. It's mainly used by the kids and is a little slow by today's standards but I increased the RAM a few years ago and it seems happy.

[i]Most of our computer now a days are more digital and more convenient to handle.Through the years computer evolution is faster than we can imagine. As far as computer life-span and their quality is concern, the new model of computers now a days are more faster but poor in quality.[/i]

I think you mean an average life-span of a computer. Are you trying to make a survey here? lol. Well, with regards to this subject matter, I can tell something about my experience. I got my pc since I graduated in highschool, that was year 2002 but I use it on playing games, I install alot of games on it (including ONI I really love that game that time but not anymore^^). And I become addicted to it! It consumed me! It devours me! I didn't stop until my head aches and after I relieve from pain, I continue the game again and again. My parents hated me for that haha! but past is past, the important thing is that, I'm not doing that anymore=) And because of that, my pc ended on computer technicians hands haha! Guess what? Because of that, if the computer didn't end up on computer technicians hand, we will never figure out that the pc we bought from our neighborhood was a sempron brand! we ordered pentium 4 to him and he gave us SEMPRON! CRAP! For that my parents become more mad to our neighbor more than to me for overusing the pc hahaha! After we figure out that it was sempron we return it to that liar neighborhood then he return the money to us worth 40 thousand pesos (pc set)with some deduction. And we brought a pentium 4 with ASUS motherboard and we live happily ever after! I still use it on games and until now its still working. Im still using it for games sometimes but not too much anymore lol! (I am now more concern about my health)I take about 2 hours per day not bad huh? hehe So whats the sense of the story? "THE LIFE-SPAN DEPENDS ON THE BRAND THAT YOU WILL BUY ON STORE!" Better get high quality products.=)

If the computers are used for more than 5 hours a day,then it will not run more than 3 to 4 years.To increase the longivity of such a delicate machine,we will surely have to trake a very good care.

Most of the PCs in my office are 10 years old and we are replacing them as they are becoming obsolete. So I guess its the proper life span of a PC. But todays PCs are becoming obsolete once their warranty period is completed

ya u are right about 3 to 4 years is the life span the computer. i bought P4 2.8 with Intel 915 chip with ddr1 ram in 2005 . but smae year itself ddr2 was launched. i missed my ddr2. next year came super computing dual core proccesors. Then quad core. if i have same money when i bought in 2005, now i can bought 3 times faster than my previous one.

Like you, I think the average number of years that a computer would last is about 3 - 4 years. gadgets are upgraded so soon that sometimes, you just bought the top of the line model, then a new model comes out again.

well if you are just talking about the life span of the computer then it is i fell more than 3-4 years. yes i agree the computers tend to become slower and also with new innovation coming in the market almost daily we might feel our computers to be out dated... my computer lasted for 6 years before i exchanged it for a laptop.

In my own opinion a computer's life-span is dictated by how many years the user is willing to continue using the machine. For an example, in my bedroom is a Compaq DeskPro that has to be at least 15 years old. All i have to do is add a hard drive to it, install Linux (Gnome desktop), and i'd have a viable workstation. Not a game machine mind you. For it only has 128Mb of EDO RAM and only has a Pentium II (at best, its been awhile since i toyed with it) but with all of the opensource software out there i could do just about anything else on it. Browse the net (Firefox), word processing (AbiWord), image editing (GIMP)...and so on. If a user is looking for pure flashbang, then i'd say be a good consumer and purchase one every two years. ;)

the life span of computer would be reduced to 2-3 years as time goes on. now a days new technologies emerging day by day. so the change of life span is unavoidable.so coming years we need to change our machine so often than now

I think the actual appliiance way outlasts the technology stored inside. The amount of difference in the stardard models varies drastically in a year i think that computers although not really built to last last as long as they have to until the operating system and hard drive size are inadequate.

Well I think its about 5 to 6 years and it really depends on the quality and brand of the computer because I just bought this brandnew pc last october and yeah just last month,it's not working anymore and now I just need to buy atleast a temporary replacement for it which is second hand now and the brand is dell.I find it more good than my brandnew pc.I just upgraded the ram of this and the video card and yeah,I don't have problems anymore for the meantime..:-0 God bless and have a nice day

Our son maintains our computer for us as we do not know anything about that side of things. Our deskn top is 6 years old and is still going strong. We have now bought a laptop to take with us when we travel and I do not know if this will last as long although our son wil keep it up to date for us. I like using the laptop better because it has Windows Vista.

it depends on who's using it and the number of hours the computer is used. if its used too long,and the user is not using it well(mybe not shutting it down and other uses that can break your computer e.g. kicking it if your mad etc.) maybe your computer hav a very short lifespan.