How old is your primary workstation?

[+Warwagon MVC]

The question is How old is your primary workstation? I can't believe how time flies, my Primary workstation is my tiny Brix Pro i7 4770r / 16gb ram / 512 ssd couch computer.  feels like I just got it but I got it in 2014. It's almost 5 Years old. Still running like a champ. It originally had a 256 ssd but i've upgraded it to 512.

 

Motherboard isn't an upgrade option on the poll, because then you might as well have a new machine.

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

Built mine about a year ago, looking to remove my intel optane drive (no use for it since my primary boot drive is an m.2 nvme drive) and get a 1tb samsung nvme m.2 drive.  also looking to upgrade my ram from 32gb to maybe 64gb and a new graphics card.

[ZakO]

Just built a new one (3900X, 64GB, 1TB NVMe SSD, GTX 2080) but before that I was using a 5 year old (4790k, 16GB, GTX 970) PC as my primary workstation which was still a really good machine. The 4790k was a solid purchase at the time, I only really upgraded because I needed more RAM for database stuff and buying DDR3 felt like a waste of money.

[+Warwagon MVC]

2 minutes ago, ZakO said:

Just built a new one (3900X, 64GB, 1TB NVMe SSD, GTX 2080) but before that I was using a 5 year old (4790k, 16GB, GTX 970) PC as my primary workstation and it's still a really good machine. The 4790k was a solid purchase at the time, I only really upgraded because I needed more RAM for database stuff and buying DDR3 felt like a waste of money.

I don't know that still sounded like a pretty solid system.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

my main PC at home is probably 6 or 7 years old now; it started on an i3 Sandy Bridge and I later upgraded the CPU and MOBO for an i5 Devils Canyon. runs with 16gb ram and a low profile GTX 750ti. Still works great to this day; may upgrade the GPU at some point here to the low profile GTX 1650ti

[Jose_49]

Lenovo Y510p. I have ditched the crappy Centrino N2230 wireless card for an Azurewave BCH-4320. I had the graphics card 750m SLI upgraded for free to 755m SLI after it got fried (overheated).

 

Slapped an M.2 SSD 256GB on 2015 to support the 5.4KRPM Hybrid 1TB Hard Drive.

 

I recently placed a 860EVO 1TB...

 

And to be honest, if it keeps this way, I won't see another computer in a while. This just runs great. I'm gaming in my Xbox One and sometimes in this PC (Tales of Vesperia was the most recent one). I currently do a lot of multitasking and coding.

 

Computing power, except for the GPU, hasn't done gargantuan jumps as it did in the <2012 era. Quad Core CPUs + SSDs can deal a lot of damage and still make excellent productivity workhorses.

 

I may benefit the future from higher RAM and more cores in the CPU. I will probably upgrade it when Intel releases a proper 10nm or 7nm processor with 8 cores, DDR5, and probably the next or the one after version of the RTX Graphics card. I'd also look for a 4K OLED screen (Probably 8K) Wi-Fi 7 or newer, and/or probably Thunderbolt 4.

 

While I know many of these technologies haven't been even announced yet, the point is clear: There's no need to upgrade the 6 year old laptop now, and in the near future.

 

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

Still running my 4790k system. The 32gb of ram in there helps! 

 

Just upgraded the GPU a few months back from a GTX-780ti to an RTX-2070 and that' been a big gain. Storage is still capped at the 500Gb PCI-E (non-nvme) SSD and a second 500Gb Samsung 850. 

 

 

[Buttus]

the case i use is probably 10 years old, but i've been through 3 or 4 motherboards with all new stuff on them every 2-3 years.   the current guts in my case are about 2 years old.

 

I still have my old HD as just a garbage secondary drive that i'm just waiting to see how long it takes to die, it's about 8 years old.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Current desktop I put together in 2012 ... still used components:

Sabertooth Z77, i7-3770k, 32GB Corsair Vengeance, Corsair Hydro H80, Western Digital Black 2TB (storage) and an ASUS Blu-ray 5.25 drive

 

What I've swapped (original 2012 to current):

PSU - PC Power & Cooling 750W PSU --> Seasonic 860W (the PC Power & Cooling was getting old)

GPU - GTX 670 -->  GTX 980ti

Case - Lian-Li A10 --> Fractal Design R5

SSD (system) - OCZ Vertex 4 256GB -->  Samsung 850 Pro 512GB  (OCZ is still used as a gaming drive)

 

Added a Samsung 850 Evo 500GB ... I think that is pretty much it.

 

Been itching to put together a whole new system ... but eh.

 

Edit:  Love NewEgg order history.  My prior build was used by me for only 4 years ... an E3110 Xeon on a x48 platform which I put together in 2008.  It still works though ... given to my friends kids.

[dead.cell]

Currently running on a custom-built system from a friend of mine; he wanted to go with a Ryzen Threadripper setup so with that in mind, I'm currently rocking:

 

i7-5930K @ 4.0GHz (was 4.4 but I've reduced it due to some instability)

32GB DDR4 RAM

GTX 970 recently upgraded to GTX 2080.

RAID1 setup with two WD Red drives I believe (if not, the Seagate red equivalent).

Samsung 960 EVO 256GB NAND SSD

Main OS on Samsung 970 512GB NVMe from the NAND above, Windows 10 v1903 (thankfully).

 

Currently wanting to switch out the mobo, CPU, case, and cooler simply because I'm not a fan of this water cooled system setup. It works, but it feels like more trouble than it's worth. The case is also gigantic... Cosmos II from Coolermaster.  It's... just absurd lol.
https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/cases/full-tower/cosmos-2/

[+Warwagon MVC]

19 minutes ago, dead.cell said:

Cosmos II from Coolermaster.  It's... just absurd lol.
https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/cases/full-tower/cosmos-2/

That looks like a new version of my case from 2009. Ya, it's crazy, when UPS dropped it off, I was like HOLY **** that's so much bigger than I thought it would be.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Mine is custom built with parts from my out of warranty Dell XPS 8930. It had already been sent back twice for PSU issues (first time they sent it back without fixing it). I got so fed up with it I decided to use the good parts and just build a new computer, so in short, my first and only time since I got into tech with Neowin  that I decided to buy a ready built PC did not go well. I have built my own since the 90's, mainly replacing a part for upgrade purpose over the years. 

 

Be quiet! Tower Pure Base 600 ATX (black) - upgrade part
Be quiet! Straight Power 11 550W, 80 Plus Gold - upgrade part

LG BluRay/DVD/CD writer (it's a 2012 model) - given to me by a friend

Gigabyte Aorus Z390 Pro Wifi (with custom S/PDIF passthrough to coax and optical backplate) - upgrade part

Intel Core i7-8700 (from 2018 Dell XPS 8930)

32GB Samsung 2666MHz DDR4 RAM  (from 2018 Dell XPS 8930)

Nvidia 1060 GTX  (from 2018 Dell XPS 8930)

Samsung 970 Evo Plus 256GB NVMe PCIe Gen 3 (C Drive) - upgrade part

Toshiba 256GB SSD NVMe (D drive) PCIe Gen 3 (from 2018 Dell XPS 8930)

Toshiba P300 3TB HDD (upgraded in 2018) + Seagate 2TB  (from 2018 Dell XPS 8930) for media E drive combined with Drive Bender

Dell S2716DG 144Hz screen (G-Sync baby) 😛 - it's a TN panel though so the colors look a bit washed out (configurable)

This whole system is bottle necked as a gamer PC by the graphics card, but it doesn't frustrate me enough to upgrade yet.

 

Planned:

 

(maybe) Intel Core i5-9600K - it performs better for gaming

Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 2070 Super 8G 

 

I want to see if I can put some parts back in the Dell and sell it complete with a 27" QHD screen to recoup upgrade costs.

 

Appreciate any feedback! Dell Nederland sucks though I was not able to get a refund or replacement  They just replaced the PSU one time, but I think it is the motherboard too.

[LaP]

My current "workstation" is two years old. It is a :

 

Crosshair Hero Vi

16GB of ddr 3200 ram

Ryzen 7 1800x

gtx 1070

250Gb Sansumg nvme

2.5GB of ssd (Crucial)

[nekrosoft13]

5 hours ago, warwagon said:

The question is How old is your primary workstation? I can't believe how time flies, my Primary workstation is my tiny Brix Pro i7 4770r / 16gb ram / 512 ssd couch computer.  feels like I just got it but I got it in 2014. It's almost 5 Years old. Still running like a champ. It originally had a 256 ssd but i've upgraded it to 512.

 

Motherboard isn't an upgrade option on the poll, because then you might as well have a new machine.

Question 1 and 2 are interesting...

 

How exactly do you define "build" my workstation started about 10 years ago from scratch... over the years, there was changes, new case here, new cpu/motherboard there. etc....

 

But not a complete new build since, but over the years, its completely different from when it started.

4 minutes ago, LaP said:

My current "workstation" is two years old. It is a :

 

Crosshair Hero Vi

16GB of ddr 3200 ram

Ryzen 7 1800x

gtx 1070

250Gb Sansumg nvme

2.5GB of ssd (Crucial)

where did you find such a tiny SSD

[Jim K Global Moderator]

15 minutes ago, nekrosoft13 said:

Question 1 and 2 are interesting...

 

How exactly do you define "build" my workstation started about 10 years ago from scratch... over the years, there was changes, new case here, new cpu/motherboard there. etc....

 

But not a complete new build since, but over the years, its completely different from when it started.

where did you find such a tiny SSD

Just my opinion ... I believe a new motherboard/CPU is a "new build" since they are the central nervous system and brain of the PC.

 

... yea ... you have the cases where someone replaces a motherboard but keeps the original CPU (or vice versa) ... so whatever on that...though I would lean towards the motherboard.  /shrug

[Steven P. Administrators]

Until 2018 when I replaced it with the crap Dell XPS 8930, my 2013 build which is now my backup PC:

 

Coolermaster Midi Tower

Asus H87-Plus (with custom S/PDIF passthrough to coax and optical backplate)

Intel Core i5-4440 + stock cooler

AOpen 500W PSU

LG DVDRW (model is from 2007)

32GB DDR3 (HyperX Fury)

Nvidia 1050Ti GTX

Kingston 120GB SSD (OS Drive)

Western Digital 2TB HDD (D, 500GB and E, 1.5TB drive)

[LaP]

1 hour ago, nekrosoft13 said:

Question 1 and 2 are interesting...

 

How exactly do you define "build" my workstation started about 10 years ago from scratch... over the years, there was changes, new case here, new cpu/motherboard there. etc....

 

But not a complete new build since, but over the years, its completely different from when it started.

where did you find such a tiny SSD

oups 2.5TB of course. Can't edit it now

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

My current primary system build is as follows:

 

CPU:   Intel Core i7-8700 Processor

Cooler:  Zalman CNPS10X Optima (2011) CPU Cooler

RAM:  64GB (2 x Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Gray 32GB Kit (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 UDIMM BLS2K16G4D240FSB)

Motherboard:  EVGA Z370 Classified K ATX motherboard

Video card:  EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GAMING Graphics Card 08G-P4-5670-KR (with Fractal Design FD-ACC-FLEX-VRC-25-BK Flex Extender and Vertical GPU Riser Card Adapter)

Wi-Fi card:  Intel Wireless-AC 9260 802.11ac M.2 2230 card

Sound card:  Creative Sound Blaster E1 USB

Speakers:  HyperX Cloud Stinger Gaming Headset (HX-HSCS-BK/NA)

Internal HDD:  2 x Western Digital Red WD80EFAX 8.0TB 3.5" SATA HDD, 1 x Western Digital Red WD100EMAX 10.0TB 3.5" SATA HDD

External HDD:  1 x Seagate Backup Fast Portable 4.0TB USB HDD, 2 x Oyen Digital MiniPro Dura RAID 10TB USB HDD

ODD:  HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH16NS60 Internal Blu-ray Drive Ultra HD Blu-Ray

SSD:  Samsung 960 PRO 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD

Case:  Fractal Design Define R6 Black Computer Case

Power supply:  EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G1+, 80 Plus Gold 650W ATX power supply

Keyboard:  MK Night Typist Warm White LED Mechanical Keyboard

Mouse:  Kensington M01306 Expert Mouse USB Trackball
 

The Western Digital drives were shucked from enclosures.  The two  8.0TB HDDs run as a mirror set (RAID1).  The two 10TB external USB drives are rotated for backups, and usually only connected when performing one.

 

Average age of parts is a little over 1 years old, with oldest being 4-5 years old (some of the drives, trackball, and the monitor I didn't mention).  This was an upgrade from a machine I built in 2017, which was an out-of-cycle upgrade after my previous system had failed prematurely (later tracked down to a failed PSU).  In some respects, the previous machine is more powerful than this one, and it serves as an off-region backup (1 timezone away) for this newer system.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I think it's about 6 years old. I haven't changed anything on it other than upgrading to Windows 10, hence selecting that I upgraded the OS drive (because it wouldn't let you vote unless you answered all the questions). I wouldn't say that it feels like new, and there are a couple of games that I've gone, "damn I wish I could play that" but overall it's still snappy and reactive to my day-to-day needs.

[Son_Of_Dad]

Nine years, 9 months Dell Studio XPS originally running Vista with free upgrade to 7. I was planning on making it 10 years but the sale Dell had on XPS systems last week twisted my arm. NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO WINDOWS 10 HOWEVER!!

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

The poll is kinda flawed as you can’t say no to question 2 and not answer question 3.

 

My main workstation will be 8 years old this November and I've not upgraded anything hardware wise during that time.

 

CPU: Core i5 2500k (not overclocked)

Ram: 16gb DDR3

GPU: Radeon HD 6870

SSD: Corsair 120GB Force 3

Hard drive: Seagate 500GB 7200RPM

Monitor: 24" Dell U2412M IPS (1920x1200)

OS: Windows 10 (started out with Windows 7, then went to Windows 8.1)

 

I don't really play PC games anymore so I've never felt the need to upgrade anything. The only games I've purchased in recent years are Age of Empires Definitive Edition and Two Point Hospital, both of which my ancient Radeon HD 6870 managed to play perfectly fine at 1080p.

 

Windows boots in a couple of seconds and I've no problems running all the apps I use on a day to day basis. Photoshop works perfectly fine for what I do with it, which is probably the most demanding application I have installed. All my data is stored on my home server.

 

I must admit having had a 27" 4K monitor at work for the last 10 months I keep thinking about buying myself one for at home, which would mean upgrading my GPU. So I might treat myself to a new monitor and a GPU capable of hardware decoding 4K video such as a GeForce GT 1030.

[NinjaGinger]

As far as the monitor is concerned, get a 32 inch (81.28 cm). Mine is great

[dead.cell]

15 hours ago, warwagon said:

That looks like a new version of my case from 2009. Ya, it's crazy, when UPS dropped it off, I was like HOLY **** that's so much bigger than I thought it would be.

Is yours like 50lbs too without anything inside?  It's like trying to lug a giant suitcase around; they should at least put wheels on it if it's going to be that heavy.

[+Warwagon MVC]

8 hours ago, dead.cell said:

Is yours like 50lbs too without anything inside?  It's like trying to lug a giant suitcase around; they should at least put wheels on it if it's going to be that heavy.

Yep .. person could bust a nut trying to lift that.

[zhangm Supervisor]

Oddly enough my previous workstation was one that I got from a giveaway here (TY Neowin!, and I'm still using the displays from that - I'm a multi-monitor convert).

 

Current one is a refurb Dell Precision 5810 that's between 1, 2 years old: Xeon 1650, 32 GB RAM, couple of SSDs (I guess that qualifies as an upgrade). Also upgraded the PS a few months after I got it in hopes of being able to someday upgrade the GPU from the current K620 but prices have been pegged at heinous since the rise of crypto.