What is your end user machine lifetime? [closed]

This is directly related to my question regarding leasing or purchasing in flights versus piecemeal design: Switching from piecemeal machines to leases

When you buy a machine for a user, how long do you assume it will be in use? Do you plan 3 year or 5 year generations, or something else? Is it different for laptops vs desktops? (or are you even still buying desktops? I've bought 4 in as many years, I think).

Solution 1:

It depends on what your support costs are. Manufacturers will generally give you three years warranty for a reasonable price, but then charge like a wounded bull for years 4 - 5 (and you're pretty much on your own after that).

So you could say the minimum life of a desktop laptop is three years, plus however long each individual machine lasts -- when it fails after three years you swap it for a brand new one.

Also bear in mind that future generations of Windows may not be compatible with 3+ year-old hardware (this was the case with Vista).

Solution 2:

Last place I was at we did it this way.

Power users got new machines, high end specs

• power users are people who need the power not who know how to rework the registry on the weekend
• these were the drafters (AutoCAD), engineers running simulator software & developers

At 2 years, they got a new top end machine Their machine then went to support staff

• These are the accountants, payroll, sales, people who generally only used "office" type applications

So max machine life was about 4 years. If a support person needed a new machine for any reason and the power users wasn't due for a while longer we'd upgrade the power user sooner since they make better use of the faster machine.

The machines we bought were high end enough that at 2 years old they were still better then some bottom end stuff, 4 gigs ram, and dedicated video cards was the norm for us.

Solution 3:

Most answers here will handle the IT/tech side.

So I'll say this:

• Check with your accounting department about how they depreciate assets like computers. This helps to determine a lifecycle plan, and will make the Execs appreciate IT even more for thinking about the dollar figures involved and how Accounting handles those dollars.

Solution 4:

We keep ours 3 years. All our eqiupment is leased. So no machine is ever more than 3 years old. It makes support much easier because they all match one of 3 models, and one of 3 images.

Solution 5:

We generally go with 4 years, as we can get this level of warranty from our supplier easily enough. It seems smart to bet with, rather than against our hardware suppliers.