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Do you take pride in keeping older tech around cause it still works

Naer

Naer

Diamond Member
Or do you feel obligated to move on and upgrade(and maybe donate the old tech) cause you have the funds and you just have the urge to get on board with the new stuff?

Maybe it's a philosophical question. If the right people don't upgrade, things/tech won't improve for there would be no reason to improve it if nobody consumes. But more than likely tho, the capitalist machine feedback system of discarding old stuff and acquring new will have to come to an end in the near future. People's final tech should last forever. The question is, when do we decide to feel technologically sufficient

Thoughts?
 
I usually buy the top of the line desktop PC and then try to update it every few years but after 6 years, got a new desktop that was a few years older but not top of the line. Still much faster in every way from my 6 year old PC. Got it at a great price, impulse buy!
 
I suspect I'm not alone in that I used to upgrade the PC pretty frequently, but haven't bothered for a long time now. Cannot be bothered with a smart phone of any kind. Don't even like having a mobile at all (just encourages people to expect to be able to bother you about trivial nonsense at any time). I do seem to keep getting larger-and-larger storage devices of all kinds, though (external hard drives, memory cards...). It's less effort than working out what to delete.
 
If it's fit for purpose, I keep using it. I'm sitting here in front of a 15yr old dell 20" 4:3 monitor. Aside from wishing it was bigger and less power hungry, it works fine. I intend to use it til it quits working, and I'll get something newer then. You have to separate your wants and needs, and not be an idiot consumer.
 
lxskllr said:
If it's fit for purpose, I keep using it. I'm sitting here in front of a 15yr old dell 20" 4:3 monitor. Aside from wishing it was bigger and less power hungry, it works fine. I intend to use it til it quits working, and I'll get something newer then. You have to separate your wants and needs, and not be an idiot consumer.
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Thats depressing I'm all for being cheap as can be but just no. You said monitor and 4:3 jesus. I paid $200 for a 27" lcd about 7 years ago, thats 8 cents a day its cost me, that monitor probably burns that in electric in a day.

I wish I hadn't thrown out the 286s and 486s from my childhood. I get nostalgic about them every now and then. 20 year old kid that works for me is into computers but never heard of setting cpu speed with jumpers, DOS, Basic or ISA slots.

Other than that my 7 year old budget build is fine I might upgrade soon though, mainly to pass this one down to the step kid. The 11 year old budget build hes on is a little long in the tooth.
 
lxskllr said:
4:3 is a pretty good format. 16:10 is the best, but the powers that be said it's not allowed anymore.
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i switched to 21:9 (well, 3440x1440 which is close) because of a sale and i love it

works so great when watching movies

plus the widescreen is great when video editing and playing games too
 
Naer said:
Or do you feel obligated to move on and upgrade(and maybe donate the old tech) cause you have the funds and you just have the urge to get on board with the new stuff?
Click to expand...

i hoard all my old tech. i sold one PC once but regretted it. occasionally i give it to family members.

my brother just resurrected our old windows 98 machine for playing old games on
 
I would probably still be using my old Nanao monitor if it hadn't died. That MF was so sharp. I loved it.

The only reason I ever think of upgrading when it comes to computer equipment is because I like to BOINC (with my girl WCG - luv ya bae). But right now, the real geeks are using top of the line GPUs and racking up 100-300k points per day. But I decided a few years ago that I'm just not spending thousands of bucks on stuff like video cards that I otherwise have no use for. Did get new lappie though.

As for other electronics, meh. As long as they work, I don't even think about them. They also need to be able to handle whatever the global or regional standard is. So for example I'm currently on my third HD tv because I wanted OLED. It's also 4k and 3d - neither of which is especially relevant currently. So even with the extensive burn-in, I'll probably keep it for while. But in that case, the main issue is disposal. Getting someone to take an old television is a PITA.
 
Sort of. Similar to lxskllr if it works, I'll keep using it. Older technology can be really cool and more useful than newer stuff, and if it works for you, you save money by not constantly upgrading.

I have an older mechanical keyboard I got from someone at work, and I love it (not my picture, but it's the same brand):

1639319073738.png


I also still use my Logitech MX518 USB mouse, and I have a CRT for retro gaming.

My TV is a Samsung 61" LED DLP - I bought it in 2008 and it's still going strong. The great thing about it is that it's repairable and parts are still available. I had to replace the DMD chip maybe five years ago and it was easy to do - if I had an LCD, I would have had to throw the whole thing away and buy a new one. If/when I upgrade, it'll be to a projector.
 
I'm typing on a model M now. It's from the 80s or 90s. Can't remember, and the sticker fell off. I have three of them I got from the thriftshop. I cycle through them as I screw them up by spilling something in them, or just needing to clean them. Better than anything you'd get for <$100, and arguably the best at any price.
 
TracFone sent me a text saying that i need to upgrade my flip-phone as they're phasing out 3G. For my use this phone does everything i need. Looks like i might need to go "smart".

I have a "boombox" i bought back around 1990 or so. I use that for my computer speakers. They sound good enough for me. I bought a (not real expensive)Logitech speaker system for at work. I did a side-by-side with the boombox & they sounded the same to me untill i really uped the volume, then the speakers won out.

There are other examples.

I tend to use things till they break or are showing signs they really really need replaced.
 
When I moved to my current 5800x/B550 system from a 3600/B450 I figured it was time to put the old FX-8350/990FX second-system out to pasture.

Thing is though, once I eliminated HDD's completely from its configuration I realized that the old FX is still completely usable even for most newer games with my old GTX-980. (I've since swapped in a "lifetime warranty" EVGA GTX-1650 Super "grandfathered" from my original 8800-GTX)

So instead I decided to keep the FX, I threw together an "awesome-deal" bundle including a WD-Black SN750 500gb NVME and 32gb's Corsair DDR4-3200 CL16 (that was priced approx what I paid for it!) and sold the 3600 system almost instantly/effortlessly on FS/FT.

Posting this on my "obsolete" 9 year-old FX right now in fact. 😎
 
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To answer the Ops question, NO!! I upgrade my stuff when I have the extra $ and if it will provide a significant improvement. My most recent upgrade is a 32" curved 4K monitor. HDR would have been nice but it's still too expensive. Anyway, one of the best upgrade I have ever done on any of my pcs.

Last year I retired my I5 2400K system and went with a Ryzen and an x570 board and new ram and M.2 drive. I was able to keep the case and PS. Nice performance improvement.
 
Can openers from the 80s and before are worth getting attached to. Just works...every time...and it will last for your offspring too and you don't feed the Chinese beast.

(I know the context is computer tech but tech is anything we make to make our lives easier, yes I wanna DERAIL this thread)
 
I do like when I spend more on something that will last and it does. I just replaced my 14 year old computer speakers because the pod broke. I'm still using the first blu ray player I ever got and it doesn't need to be replaced now because everything is streamed
 
I'm using a Slimserver Squeezebox to stream FLAC files from my computer to my audio system. I bought it before Logitech bought Slimserver (and shut it down a few years later, earning my lifelong hatred). It's probably been in service since 2006 or so, used at least on a daily basis. I consider it the best and most useful piece of audio equipment I bought. I was pricing replacing it with "modern' technology recently-I could set up a Raspberry PI based mechanism which would cost at least $300-400 total at today's inflated prices or buy something like a Bluesound Node for $600. I'm holding out as long as I can. The Squeezebox remote has worn out (I rehabbed it once), now using a phone app as an (inadequate) remote, will have to do something someday.

There's a fine line between hanging onto stuff too long and being too much of an early adopter (who ALWAYS get screwed financially.
 
Torn Mind said:
Can openers from the 80s and before are worth getting attached to. Just works...every time...and it will last for your offspring too and you don't feed the Chinese beast.

(I know the context is computer tech but tech is anything we make to make our lives easier, yes I wanna DERAIL this thread)
Click to expand...

we have two Swing-a-way can openers we got as wedding gifts in 1975. They're in a box somewhere in the garage.
 
I'm sure I got this from somebody here posting it in the Hume thread in the first place, but it made me laugh (and feel oddly sad) and it seems to fit here

1639336464963.png

(This is one, entirely irrational, reason why it feels better to carry on _using_ old tech)
 
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