John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

Me too. Don't know if you can get them your side but I'm getting a new one soon. Well, nearly new. I buy refurbed ex office (1 for and 1 for Mrs.N.) for half the price of a new one. My current one's a bit low on ram and I can only increase it to 8mb + it's got 7pro.

Next one is offering me 10pro installed, 32gb memory, SDD drive, etc. for a comparative song.

Like you I'll be getting HP. Our current ones have done us well over the last 5 years and I see no reason to change.

dr.juice

I've had 2 Sony Vaio notebooks the first for 8 years and the second for 11 years. The only reason I got the second one was that I needed a bigger hard drive and a DVD. The first one could only burn CDs and the agency I was volunteering with distributed new stuff on DVDs and wanted us to send new documents on DVDs becasue they were usually several hundred pages long. I replaced the second one with a Lenovo 320 which is in the Casa de Fixit because a DVD got stuck in the drive. It's due back tomorrow. That's been my only issue except for trying to deal with M$ about the mere existance of Windows 10 and their idiot Cortana. Corel Draw!, all the Fast Stones software, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Gmail, Kedit (my favorite software for writing writing because it doesn't freak when I write non-English passages) and every single piece of my handwritten software have all continued to work just fine in the 64-bit environment. I don't know what I'd have done if any
of my major stuff had crapped out.
I expect that in 6-7 years I'll get
another Lenovo because, except
for the DVD, it's been just fine.
Hope this helps somebody.
drjuice

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

Buy from crucial to make sure you get the right RAM for your computer

dbaird2495

If Lightroom or Photoshop start being too slow, then you might consider a new computer. Often it's the graphics card that is the problem. If you get a new computer, I recommend the latest graphics card, an internal SSD, and at least 16 mb of RAM. Good luck.

BebuLamar

I have some computers that die on me but most never died. I just stopped using them. Think of it the ones that died were laptops.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Computers keep improving, but if this one isn't causing trouble, maybe you should wait a while - as computers continue to improve. In the meantime, you can at least double the memory. A 3.10 GHz processor sounds good. As for the internal drive, you can get a 4TB or larger drive for much less that the price of a computer.

You can get a 500GB (or larger) SSD for the OS and programs and add a new 4TB drive for data. That will make the computer faster and give it more storage.

Make your current computer faster -
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3029168/windows-10-quick-tips-13-ways-to-speed-up-your-pc.html?page=2
https://www.techradar.com/how-to/how-to-speed-up-windows-10
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/12-tips-to-speed-up-windows-10
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/easy-ways-to-speed-up-windows-10/

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Good suggestion!!
Mark

Toby

A couple of months ago I was in your situation. My HP Pavilion Elite was bought in 2011. Served me well. With the advent of MS not supporting Win 7 I decided rather than upgrade it I would buy a new HP. Six months ago I bought an HP Pavilion 790-0068 with a 6 core Intel i5, 16 gig and a 254SSD processor. I replaced the processor with a 2T SSD as soon as I got it because I felt it might be too small. Probably over kill. It has 4 expansion slots and 4USB3 ports on the front (also has a “SuperSpeed” charging port for phone or like device) and a card slot. It also has 4 USB ports in the rear. It feeds my 27” Samsung screen in HD and a 23” Asus and 2 more if I want. I am very pleased with it. I use LR, PS and MS Office primarily.
One thing to note. This computer was supposedly on sale because it was being discontinued. When I went to the HP site I could not fine one under the Model # that was on the local Best Buy store and the on-line stores. Don’t know what the game was there.

thephotoman Loc: Rochester, NY

I had my computer built for me in 2009. It is still going strong. I have had about $500.00 in repairs to it. I am going to look into upgrading it. The higher files of my EOS R take awhile to download. If my current computer can not be upgraded it will become a spare and I will have another one custom built for me. I go with custom built because I have not found an off the shelf model that fits my needs. I will check just to be sure.

Harry13

>You may want to add more RAM if you can.

that would be my thought, 32 at least.

ronaldwrightdallas

if you are happy with your computer, then just keep it.

I end up changing computers after 4 or 5 years. sometimes the computer starts being a problem. sometimes the technology of cameras has changed enough that I would like a faster computer. sometimes my internet upgrades make me want a new computer.

usually technology in general changes enough in 5 years that it is time for new computer, new external disk systems, new camera etc.

knoxworks Loc: Western Mass.

Thank you for all the feedback and suggestions!

For now I will keep my HP and double the RAM to 16 GB. I used Crucials program to check available slots for upgrading and got plenty of info. I've bought a lot from B + H, including this HP, so I'll buy RAM from them. (This computer arrived with an Acer monitor in a carton that looked like it had been handled roughly. The monitor didn't work properly so B + H quickly took care of the problem and sent a replacement.)

As for my last HP, it was in 2006 that I wanted to increase the RAM for PS. At the time of purchase extra RAM was expensive. A local technician came to my home and told me if I had "normal" RAM he could go to his van and for a small price give me lots more RAM. But, he said, HP had used a different, probably proprietary, type of RAM Modules that he would have to order, and they would be expensive. He suggested I buy a new machine. He didn't stay long and didn't drive far to me, so there was no charge.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

You didn’t mention if the current performance is an issue or which CPU you are running and whether your Windows 10 is 32 or 64 bit.. In general, I would want a 4-core fast I-5 as a bare minimum, and an I-7 or I-9 will certainly be faster. Assuming a decent speed processor, moving to 16GB memory (assuming your OS is 64 bit) and moving your applications and OS to an SSD will make a huge difference in performance for less than a couple of hundred dollars. That could get you a few more years...

just.a.guy

My question: How long do you think the software vendors will continue to support your hardware. The more versions that a vendor has to support the more costly it is to them. It seems hardware lasts a lot longer than the software vendors want to support the hardware. We are moving out of the old generation of information processing, where people bought/owned software on their machines. Then there is the use of the internet, which increases the attack vector for hackers. If you have an old but stable environment, and want to continue to use it without fear of changes, then you should keep it isolated/off of the internet (no network communication). If you want to use the internet, get yourself another machine that is up-to-date, and keep it up-to-date. For this other machine choose a fairly cheap machine. My son-in-law did that for 5+ years, but then the need to transfer images between the two environment (via memory stick) for a professional became just to cumbersome. There is always a cost.

Also, the advances in hardware and software are another cost you pay without internet connection.

In this new (today's) environment, the vendor cost to support older environments is becoming too costly. Google has moved to a limited support period for its operating system (6+ years). Microsoft is also moving into this direction for the same cost reason. Adobe has already abandoned it ownership program for photoshop, in favor of a rental service.

Also if your old environment is not on the internet, any recovery after hardware failure will be possible if you keep very good back up. Depending on the type of failure, you may not be able to recover your data. You may not be able rebuild your system as it was (some of the hardware or software will not be available). The 1960's space program had this problem. The data was in unknown formats, there was not existing program that could read it. The format of the data was unknown. If you take backups, make sure they are in a format independent format, so that 5 years from now you will be able to move the data to a new environment.

For these and other reasons, I try to stay reasonably close to the current tech environment. (the days of building your own systems are over - but then we still have black smiths even today - but their usefulness is very near zero - nice for nostalgia) I now expect to replace my systems every 5 to 10 years. I have moved to cloud storage, and let the professionals take care of backup and recovery. This requires an internet connection, which makes an isolated environment obsolete.

I have worked in IT environments for 35+ years. Just like an automobile, I no longer want to or can maintain an IT environment like an auto mechanic. I have no problem driving a car, and using it for its purpose. The IT environment has moved on just as the auto environment has changed in the past 20 years.

DesignOrc

I would suggest getting a S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring Tool https://sourceforge.net/projects/smartmontools/ to keep track of the health of your hard drives. When tool starts identifying problems, replace the hard drives. The other thing to use is the compatibility tool every time Microsoft releases a major update, now 2X a year. It will usually look for out of date drivers and maybe video cards for new features. If the feature means nothing for you, just keep on truckin'. Just remember there are people out there still running older PCs with XP, 2000, and Win7 who refuse to give up.