How old is your computer?

Dr Harry, our favourite TV Veterinarian often talks about the age of dog in “dog years” and similarly cats in ‘cat years”, so I have been asking myself why not “computer years?”

It is not as easy to come up with a definition for Computers as it is with animals. You see electronic things may still “work” well after their useful life is long gone, where as all living things do “literally die”.….. So how would we do it?

Would it be fair to say nobody works over 100 years of age, and few computers are regular in commercial use when it is 5 years old?

So therefore if we say one human year equals 20 computer years, therefore:

· 1 year old computer is equal to a 20 year old, right in its prime!

· 2 years and it is forty, still useful, but retirement has been at least considered.

· 3 years it is sixty, it is still very useful, but cannot keep up with the young’uns.

· 4 years old and it is now equal to an 80 year old, past the official retirement age, may still work fine but at a different pace to the 20 year olds, has a marked preference for the old programs that were all the rage when it was young, may refuse to “dance to the modern music” if you get my meaning.

It helps to know how long we can expect our computers to last, so we can budget for their replacement. At Iseek Computing we advise our customers to keep their equipment as long as it does what you want it to do, wring every bit of use out of it that you can, then upgrade. If the budget is tight ask your local computer store if your computer can be upgraded, have some necessary surgery to get it to function better. This way you can keep your old monitor, keyboard and printer, and upgrade them when needed. This will help spread the expense over a couple of years.

There is also the option of renting your computer, treat your computer equipment like mobile phones, you pay for your technology by the month and they upgrade it about every two and a half years, so you are never out of date. If you use your computer for work there are great tax benefits in renting/leasing your equipment.

So based on the assumptions above, the average life of a computer is 3 years. By this time you will need to look at doing some sort of upgrade to give it a boost.

Remember it all comes down to what you are using the computer for! Don’t hesitate to speak to your local computer store for more advice in regards to your computer needs.