First Click: How old is your computer?

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Yesterday my colleague Sam Byford beefed about Apple’s habit of selling outdated laptops and desktops, some of which haven’t had spec bumps in years despite the availability of faster components like CPUs and GPUs. That got me to wondering: how old is your primary laptop or desktop computer?

There was a time that I would never consider using a laptop or desktop that was more than a few years old. I’m talking back in the days when Macs were used primarily as digital hubs in the home and workplace PCs needed new Intel or AMD processors just to keep pace with the latest versions of Windows and Office.

Now, however, we’re keeping our computers longer, thanks in part to the computing load being distributed across phones, tablets, and fast connections to the cloud. Lightweight desktop OSes that work well on older machines have also helped extend the life of our computing hardware. "[The] replacement cycle for the PC has extended," said intel CEO Brian Krzanich in June. "Four years was the average, now it has moved to about five to six years." A trend that computer makes don't like, to say the least.

My primary computer is a three-year-old iMac that feels just as fast as the day I got it. What about you, how old is your primary computer?

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