You feel bad for zis little laptop.
This is because you crazy. It has no feelings. It is just a machine.
Wholesome-ness on the internet? In this economy?!
I use a 12 year old laptop as my daily driver, and use it to do high res video editing. A decade old computer these days is still highly capable.
Is it a Thinkpad?
Nope, MacBook Pro
Up until about a year ago my main gaming rig was a laptop from 2012. Toward the end I had to turn settings down (sometimes WAY down) but it still performed like a champ.
Last year I still used to use a 16 year old laptop. It could even run Windows 11 just fine. I only tried Asphalt 9 and 8 on it as I don’t play games, but it ran well.
I still miss that laptop. I really wish it still worked.
What happened: I finally wanted to learn using 4NEC2. It doesn’t want to run on my new laptop, neither in VM nor WINE. But suddenly, the laptop kept shutting down randomly. Probably issue with the aftermarket battery. It still showed 80% of charge. At one point I said “That’s it. You shut down one more time, I am done and plugging you in.” (The adapter wasn’t with me, so I used it on battery.) It shut down.
I then plugged in the adapter, but it never turned on again. R.I.P.
Looking over at my old Thinkpad X131e with those “I’m going to start a new project with you” eyes
Everybody with a Thinkpad
X230 gang!
X220 too.
My 12 year old thinkpad is still my daily driver.
Speakers stopped working 5 years ago tho. Only BT audio out, now.
T60 gang
You’re missing the Jolly Roger
This is me with my 11 year old thinkpad t420, sometimes I’ll even ask it to play minecraft or holocure both of which it will mystically play just fine Steams interface unironically runs worse on it than those two games
Steam has been gradually going down the route of becoming a “pretty” interface instead of a fast one, and it’s kind of sad. Excessive use of dynamic svgs for home page animations, dynamic gradients that slow everything down, and probably some backend changes too, and all baked in with the base UI so it’s less responsive than it was before, even on decent hardware. Seems like it all started with Big Picture and the gradual migration of that design style into the main client.
This is very well timed for me. I just acquired myself a convenient ancient laptop by installing Linux on a circa 2014 chrome book. It can chug when playing videos, but great for general use.
The first (and last) surface product I bought was the pro 3, and I still find uses for it today. I’m planning on making it a media hub for my workout machine when I get that set up. I need to clear some space before I can put that together.
I recently purchased an older gen (refurb) framework 13 and it sure is quick. A bit costly, but hopefully the last full laptop I’ll need to buy.
My desktop is an older (purchased used) Dell high end desktop system, which I dropped CPU/RAM/SSDs into and augmented with a Nvidia RTX card. Runs like a champ. Built in ~2016 or so… It was like 5 years old when I got my hands on it.
I still have my ~15 year old Alienware… I think the M15x, which was a pre-Dell acquisition laptop. From college. Which still works but probably needs some coaxing to get up and running again. That was the last “new” system I purchased. I learned my lesson then to not buy new.
I also have a collection of older servers and stuff and I run a homelab on dated enterprise equipment. It needs an upgrade as the main components are over 10 years old (except the drives), and it’s showing its age. Looking at getting a refurb/used Dell FX2s chassis because it’s more upgradeable than the alternatives and should save space and power.
The only warning I will give is that low end consumer systems are going to be garbage, whether they’re new or not. When buying a used prebuilt, I highly recommend finding a used business system.
RE your last paragraph: does this apply to gaming or just as a general office work machine?
In general, if you are looking for a system to play games with, building your own is the best option, if you have the money, buying from an SI is the next best (they basically do the same as a custom build, it’s just that they’re doing it instead of you), after that, you can get a gaming focused, used, prebuilt if you like (like an Alienware or something similarly gaming focused) and do some upgrades (GPU, disk, more RAM, etc) as appropriate, or buy a prebuilt office PC and add a good GPU.
The custom built after market is a nightmare of both good and bad deals; for someone who isn’t completely versed on hardware, I would say you either need to bring a friend who is, or just avoid it entirely.
With all used/refurbished systems, always set aside some money for a new primary drive or SSD, since the one that’s included is probably fairly worn out, and it’s not unusual to have it fail within a few years of getting the system.
The only new PC’s I would say you should consider, are from SI’s. Where it’s basically a custom/self built PC, but built by someone else. Only if you have the money and only if you can’t do it yourself for any reason. If you have any technical know how at all and can take an hour to look up PC building guides, then spend a few hours on pcpartpicker or similar to spec the system… Then just do it yourself. I won’t fault anyone for using an SI, if they simply don’t have the time to learn and do it themselves, or if they have a mobility issue… (among many other reasons). Buying a new prebuilt from a big name should probably be avoided where possible (names like Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft, HP, Asus, Acer, etc). Used are fine as long as you can get a deal and the system is part of the business line… For gaming, not a lot of business PCs are good for gaming. Some can be upgraded to be decent at it (usually by adding a consumer graphics card).
The difficult one is laptops. If you want a mobile system with graphics enough to play modern games at even modest settings, you’re going to have a lot of difficulty finding something in the used/refurb segments… Mainly because GPUs have such a significant performance difference between each generation. Any modern generation GPU in a laptop will command a very high price, and it goes downhill fast, especially considering that mobile GPUs are fairly poor for performance, even compared to the same generation of the same series of desktop card.
In those cases, I’d generally recommend a business system with a thunderbolt GPU dock, and just slap in a desktop GPU. It’s not as mobile, but you’re going to save a lot of time and heartache trying to find a good system that fits both your performance requirements and your wallet. An external GPU dock gives you the flexibility of using less expensive desktop cards with more power, and upgrading that card whenever it suits you.
Thanks a bunch for the extensive answer. Lots to think about
There always is.
Good luck fellow traveler, and good hunting.
My 16 year old iMac valiantly can run roughly one application at a time, which is all I need it to do for background media while working
I’m tired, boss.
I love watching videos about plane crashes on my old tablet when I’m cooking or rinsing (non-native here, is that right for doing a dishwasher’s job by hand?).
Rinsing would just be running water on them without any soap.
You rinse before you pit in the dush washer (only if it’s really bad though)
True.
My laptop is still chugging along since 2011, and I totally feel this comic.
It got an SSD to really boost performance.
It still runs Windows 7.
I can’t create-react-app because I can’t upgrade node to the version it requires.
Chrome doesn’t update anymore.
This thing is robust and feels like I’ve had it forever.
I will be sad when it dies.
This is the weird, sentimental attitude that has me buried in clutter
Praise sentimentality … I’ve done my best to maintain and keep running almost every laptop, tablet, phone and PC I’ve ever owned. A few just died because of dead main boards, short circuits or mechanical failure. The ones that work are all gathering dust in the closet, basement or storage space but they all work. I use one as a reader, one is parked next to the couch so I have access to a laptop while watching TV, one’s in the basement workshop, one gets moved to the garage in the springtime and the rest just sit on the ready for whenever I think of using them.
Buried in clutter yes but it also got me into electronic repair and frugality so I can’t say it doesn’t have its merits, wish it were easier to keep clean though.
Man I feel that in my bones.
