Usable lifespan for buisness computers

[SoopaStar]

It really depends. I have a pentium 75 in my office that runs Windows 95 (48 megs ram, 850 meg harddrive). We only use it as a print and fax server.
As for monitors, it depends on how the user feels. Are you using a 15" monitor for cad? If so, then I would say that monitor has seen its lifespan. As long as a monitor has no problems and can produce a nice enough image, then I would say it is okay to keep. if its a basic 15" and the screen is starting to go bad, then don't bother fixing it. It would cost at least $50 in labor alone and you can buy a new one for just over (and sometimes under) $100.

As for you Pentium 133--do you like slow computers? I don't dabble in autocad, but I was under the impression that 3d rendering and design like that required a pretty fast computer. As for your question on the life of that machine? Personally, I would dump it. You can get an E-machine at best buy for $450 with a celeron 633 and 64 megs of ram that would out-perform that machine in a heartbeat.

Basically, this all boils down to personal preference of the user. I like to keep my end users satisfied and keep time-costs down by providing them with adequette machines. If the person assigned to that P133 workstation is satisfied with the work they are doing, then keep the machine. Or, you could drop a 200mhz processor in the unit and speed it up a tad.
Obviously computers will NOT last for 10 years. 10 years ago we were coming of the 80286--do you know many people that still use these in a functional manner (eg: not a doorstop or hamster house http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif )? I doubt it. Moore's "law" states that Computers double in speed every 18 months. This has held true, more or less, for the last 30+ years of computers--and we may see it shortened from that soon!

As for "quotes from other sites etc", I have none. I don't know what kind of hard data you want. I work for a small company (less than 25 people, 15+ workstations, 1 server) and do everything that is computer related for them (website, network, upgrades, purchasing computers, repairs, etc). I have been there for nearly 7 years now. I may not be an authority on the topic, but I feel I have a good knowledge of the situation.

Paul C

[Target]

This is a tough one, and a question I deal with a lot at work. The reason its tough is because it really depends on a lot of factors.

Keep this in mind though. Its true lifespan has little to do with its productive lifespan.

In a nutshell, compare what you have today to an alternative (ie: newer/faster) parts or a machine. If the old one is fully paid for or depreciated, then this is definitely the time to make such comparisons. If not, then you have to consider that as well and factor those remaining costs in.

Anyway, assuming that the newer machine completes the tasks at hand faster, measure the time saved with the new machine doing the same task as the old one. Convert this into a productivity cost. Meaning, lets say it saves you 2 hours over the course of the day on a particular task, convert that time to real dollars by using the wage of the operator. Hell, you could even throw in the cost of 2 hours less electricity used per day if you want to dig deep enough into what it really saves. So, lets say new machine allows the user to finish all their days work in 6 hours instead of 8. Thats 2 hours you don't need the person, and two hours you no longer have to pay them for. That is the real per unit cost savings. Of course, you might not want to necessarily send them home either, and would have them doing some other task, which is a productivity gain that is harder to measure. But at least you can assume that they will have the ability to get more tasks done per day for the same pay.

Or perhaps you get paid by the job or the content produced. Again compare how much can be completed using the faster machine. If it allows you to crank out 6 units per day instead of 4 with the old system, then simply multiply the excess you are able to produce with the faster machine to the price you sell it for. There is your cost opportunity again, this time in the form of increased revenue, rather than decreased costs.

Once you have decided how you want to measure, and what the quantified measurement will be, its just a matter of capturing the data, and putting it on a balance sheet to compare the old numbers to the new ones and see what it does for you (ie: is the bang worth the buck).

If it doesn't increase revenue, decrease costs, solve a particular problem, or increase productivity, then the answer is it probably isn't worth replacing.....regardless of where it is in its "lifespan". Of course, if its truly obsolete, and places your business in jeopardy should it fail because it cannot be repaired or fixed, that is another story all together.

Of course, things like employee satisfaction also can come into play, but they are a harder sell to management. Lets face it though, those are all jugement calls. If you were an accountant, would you really want to be working with large spreadsheets and reports on a 14" monitor simply because it still worked and your company was too cheap to replace it with a 17" one? Heck NO! But your management team might not want to necessarily spend money on things they perceive as "nice to have" rather than "need to have".

You asked what we do so I'll tell ya....I'm a Technical Project Manager for one of the largest Telcom companies in the world. (trust me, not as cool as it sounds)

Anyway, the largest part of my job is figuring out what stuff needs to be replaced and when. Then justifying the dollars to get it done, and managing the implementation of it. Last PC replacement I did for my company was large. 23 office sites in 13 states, with 5000+ PC's. How'd you like to try to talk your Vice President into forking over the $$ for 5000 PC's, the staff to roll them out, not to mention the cost for service agreements to go with them?? Sounds daunting, but to a business manager if you can show them cost savings, or revenue increases, it becomes a pretty easy sell.

[randy48]

There are two ways to look at office/business machines. Buy and depreciate or lease! Good 'ol Uncle Sam (U.S. Army, Fort Leonard Wood) still uses P-90s and 133s as a typical desktop unit. The "high tech" class rooms are equipped with P3-500s and 733s. IF I had to make the decision on furnishing/replacing workstations, I'd have to consider what they're used for and look seriously look at leasing! If not just upgrading what is already in place. Face it, e-mail and word processing don't require a "muscle box"! CAD, databases, etc, sure http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

[OuTpaTienT]

Check out this document: http://www.is.ilstu.edu/AdminComp/Admin_HW.html#section02

Even though it's a few years old, it goes into great detail about this exact subject. You might be able to find similar reports that are more up to date.

[Beerman]

Thanks SoopaStar, Target, randy48, OuTpaTienT and those still to add your 2cents. I have found your information helpful. I also find that whenever I post to these boards, I am usually still not specific enough to get exactly the answers I need (although perhaps these answers are not as easily quantifiable as I would want). Don't get me wrong, all the information supplied here has been helpful, just mostly not the statistical based concrete figures that I can use to convince my boss that the particular unit in question has every right to:
- not be displaying a crisp clear picture.
- Have a hard drive that no longer wants to function.
- Have GPFs the moment you try to run Excel, Word, Winzip, Norton Antivirus, Novell client, and Groupwise all at the same time on a Windows 95 computer, and especially with Windows 98 installed.

Somehow he always reverts to the argument, "Well my wife's buisness has never had to replace a computer."
I'm not sure how old his wife's buisness is, but I do know that they run an AS400 server, which probably means that they have a person specifically dedicated to making sure all computer systems are functioning properly. (Something "not possible" in a 15 person Architectural firm..although my job seems to be to do that job AND my job as an Architect). I also wonder if she is capable of distinguishing the difference between older computers and newer computers around the office, or if it is just her computer that has never been replaced because the only thing she does with it is predefined simple spreadsheets. Or if in fact, they are running separate PC clones at their workstations or IBM client workstations that are tied to the AS400.

Anyhoo...I digress.

A specific answer that I am looking for would be something like this:
The industry wide average lifespan for a 15" computer monitor is 10,000 hours assuming a minimum number of power spikes and running at optimum resolution with a video card that can handle that resolution.

Or

The industry wide average time till the failure on a PC of some major component (defined here as everything within a case plus the monitor, not to include keyboard, mouse or other periferals, but to include hard drive, network card or video card) is x years.

Of course if this were my buisness, I would not have anyone drafting on anything less than a Pentium II 350 with 128 Mb of ram and 8 Mb video card and 17" monitor. Running Windows 98 SE and AutoCAD r14, this combo seems perfectly capable (although our office does NO 3d rendering on CAD). If we were to upgrade to Windows 2000, and add MS Office 2000 software, I would have to reconsider the minimum threshold.

Obviously I am dealing with a little man with an even tinier budget for computers. I am seeking ways to convince him that purchasing five computers this year and last year is not out of the question for a firm that three years ago was running a number of Pentium 90s, a handful of Pentium 133s, and three Pentium 200s, all in DOS with ACAD r12. At that time the server was a 486DX266 with 16 Mb ram and 4Gb storage running Lantastic for DOS. Since then we have added New workstations (just within the last month 2 new Pantium III 800 w/ 128 Mb ram, and 32 Mb video cards), and a new Server running Novell (the Novell client was surprisingly huge compared to what our lesser computers were used to, contributing to the near demise of most of the Pentium 133s that were still used for drafting). I think this ammount of change is necessary on a yearly basis to keep all the systems running at a competent level. Of course the boss is wondering when it will all end (I'd hate to tell him the answer to that).

[OuTpaTienT]

You should have my boss. He's a wannabe computer nerd. We are a small office (8 people) and he just bought a PIII/1Ghz server w/1GB of ram a duel PII/400 as the backup server. Most of our computers are PIII/500-866 with a couple Celeron's thrown in. I have about the oldest machine here, it's a PII/450 w/256mb ram. And the killer is, we don't use these machines for much except some minor data entry and database work. Oh yeah, we also got a supposedly 6Mbit DSL connection...why? I don't know, but I ain't complaining. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

Anyways, sorry I couldn't be of more help. I'll continue to keep my eyes peeled for the info you're looking for.

[This message has been edited by OuTpaTienT (edited 01-31-2001).]

[Beerman]

I'm having a discussion with my boss about the usable lifespan of an office workstation computers. Of course, he would like to purchase a computer and have it be useful for ten to fifteen years. You and I know this is unrealistic especially with the knowledge that our office uses almost exclusively Microsoft products on our computers (mainly because AutoDesk, the makers of AutoCAD are by far the most common drafting system on the planet and are now building their software only for Windows based platforms).

Given these parameters, how long do you think this office should go before replacing a system? Do you have any resources that back you up on your estimated time frame? How long often do you have to replace monitors in your workplace? How about hard drives? Do you think that a Pentium 133 with 48Mb, a 4 Mb video card, and a 1.2Gb hard drive is adequete for running windows 95/98 and AutoCAD r14?

Let me know what you base your opinions on (prefer hard data or a citation of someone else's data). Also let me know if you are a systems administrator, cad drafter, janitor, etc.

Thanks for your time. I'll share any info I get here if I get enough data.