The longest you've ever used a single system?

[TechGeek]

Pitching in with a couple of my dad's computers. (Is this cheating?)
Main desktop of his is a Gateway FX-6831, 14 years strong. It's been through a few hard drives, and I stuck it in one of my old cases a few years ago so that it would stop eating hard drives for lunch.
His laptop is a Toshiba Satellite P755-S5262, still running 14 or 15 years later. I just did a fresh Windows reinstall on it the other day, in fact. Dropped in an SSD, bumped the RAM from 6GB up to 8GB, and dropped a fresh install of 11 Pro on it.

[Dan81]

I think I had a client bring in one of those X8DAi at one point, his issue being bad RAM sticks.

The most impressive thing was the watercooling. All custom made. IIRC he still uses it to this day for CAD applications.

Meanwhile I just dug out my EX58-UD5 out of its box. Probably boring given it's a consumer board - but I owe it an Xeon Crossfire mayhem to unfold, soon enough hopefully.

[Topcat]

Re: The longest you've ever used a single system?

This one is still in use; infact this post created from it:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8901

Built in 2010....It was mothballed for a little while...but still active, so in February it will be 13 years. It began with XP64. It's currently running Server 2016 standard until that goes EOL or the system dies; whichever comes first....but I'll lay odds the OS goes EOL before this freight train dies.

Then there's still this one, still cranking along since 2012.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=19940

Both of these relics are still in operation...as a matter of fact, this message typed on the one built in 2010....so 14 years so far.

[Dan81]

My main PC, while the rest of the HW has gone through at least 3 or 4 changes along the years, the Win10 Enterprise install on it is now 8 years old. Two 775s, an AM3 and today's 1155 Ivy is what it went thru.

[TechGeek]

My main workstation is about to roll past the 8 year mark and shows no signs of stopping soon.

[em132]

The box I'm writing this post on:

XP (32-bit)
Lenovo M58 (3GHz Core 2 Duo, 4G RAM)
Mypal browser

[LukeDavis]

I've used my Windows 7 tower from 2016 until 2019 when the hard drive died, and then I upgraded to a Thinkpad Edge (0319-3tg) but even that's getting on with age a bit I've used It from 2019 to Now (typing on it as we speak)

However the fact I'm still using Windows 8.1 isn't good, but my New HP Probook 640 G3 should last me another 5 years easily. The ThinkPad will go into my Collection and I'm tempted to just part our the Win7 tower or just turn it into some sort of server.

Unfortunately my HP is currently chilling in a box in my dad's garage in Ireland, probably squished underneath the Alienware Area-51 M7700 I have but when I'm next over there I'll pick it up and finally put my Lenovo to rest. It's been an absolute bloody legend and I'm eventually going to upgrade it's CPU to a 1st generation I5 (currently using an i3)

I've used a MacBook Pro 13in 2010 for the longest time... eventually replacing it with a similarly aged Retina last year. The Mac was an upgrade from my Emac...which was an upgrade from my iMac (Tangerine G3 400mhz) which was an upgrade from my shuttle XPC SN41G2 (Athlon XP, 256mb, 80GB, Ubuntu)

Which in turn was an upgrade from my Emate 300.

How I've gone from a small Green Glorified PDA to collection of over 100 different systems of different makes and models astounds me....and I Still have almost all of them except the 13in and the Emate.

[brethin]

Re: The longest you've ever used a single system?

Does my Commodore 64SX count as still used and running?

[TechGeek]

Re: The longest you've ever used a single system?

Intel 80386 PC or Intel 486 DX4 :-)
1997 :-)

Nice! I've got a 1993 Gateway 2000 system with an 80486-DX2/100 (50MHz external clock) with 8MB RAM (8x 30-pin FPM SIMMs), an ATi Mach/8 GPU, a Soundblaster Vibra/16 (CT4170) soundcard, a UMC UM9008F network card, and an Adaptec AVA1515 SCSI controller, connected to a Seagate ST4766NV SCSI drive and a Sony SDT-5000 external tape drive. Running MS-DOS 6.22 + Windows for Workgroups 3.11.

[samtron786]

Re: The longest you've ever used a single system?

Intel 80386 PC or Intel 486 DX4 :-)
1997 :-)

[TechGeek]

Re: The longest you've ever used a single system?

MS 6.22
windows 3.11 :-)

What kind of hardware are you running that on?

[samtron786]

Re: The longest you've ever used a single system?

MS 6.22
windows 3.11 :-)

[jiroy]

Re: The longest you've ever used a single system?

I've always been around in some form or another, momaka. I've just either been too busy with work or plagued with physical or mental illness, usually both at the same time. That's why I haven't been posting a lot.

I thought I was the only one ..Welcome back Smile

[momaka]

Re: The longest you've ever used a single system?

I have always been here with my heart.

Sometimes, work, relationships, health, family, or a combination of all four, get in the way of my posting. But no longer.

Totally understandable.
I had a somewhat similar fallout like this for almost a year myself. Still can't say it's cleared, but I'm trying to work it out, if ever so slowly.

I have my own company now. At 31, with 12 years of real experience and 8 years of legal, registered and documented work experience under my belt, I refuse to work UNDER anyone else but MYSELF, ever again, until the day I die. I salute you, hat's off, beer has been out for over 2 hours and I'm just lighting up another cigar.

As we'd usually say here in the US, F--- Yeah!
Glad to hear things are starting to work out for you. I've been noticing the same thing for a lot of my older friends who've went through similar life struggles - at some point it just clears up and things fall into place. Just have to be patient and persistent. So I'm hoping / looking forward for that myself as well... but we'll see, of course.

Unfortunately, I don't think I can ever be my own boss, though - I'm too passive for that.

It means a lot, coming from you, and after so many years of me here as a member without paying a dime, and you running the forum basically voluntary, as the shop is its own entity and one can live without the other. You could have split, charged for, or sold off long ago.

Yeah, I think about this too from time to time and always feel super-grateful to TC for keeping this place as it is. What I've come to realize is that some of the best places / sites on the internet are exactly like this - kept by independent "nobodys" who actually make the world a much better place than so many big "somebodys".

I later found out the modest chubster was the VP of Ubisoft Romania.

Nice!
Goes to show you never know who you'd meet and how.

yea nice board! the T on the board model means tualatin support so it can support up to the 1.4 ghz p3 tualatin if u ever wanna upgrade to the fastest p3 cpu available. i also wanted to get the same board on junkbay from an ukrainian seller but i wasnt too impressed by the overclocking options.

gigabyte boards often have a hidden hotkey (ctrl-f1) to unlock the hidden and advanced overclocking options. the hidden and advanced overclocking options often arent shown or explained in the manual. i wonder if u have tried using the hotkey to see what hidden advanced options are available? if so, what else is available? that would make me finally being able to get my bucket list of having a p3 system done and checked off the list.

Awesome, thanks for the tip!
Will definitely keep it in mind for next time I go there and use that PC.
I think I tried some brief OC, but then the system quickly tanked after that. Turns out the partial recap I did in the Deer PSU was starting to bite me back in the ass. The two silly CS caps on the 3V3 were failing with abnormally-high capacitance (high internal leakage). Swapped one two summers ago, then swapped one this summer too. So 3V3 is solid now. Only the 12V rail remains. The Jun Fu cap on there is also starting to rise in capacitance, but hasn't gone over 20% just yet. I'll probably have it fully recapped and done by this summer. Then I can try the CPU OC maybe. Not sure how far it will go, though, being a 933 MHz CPU on a 133 MHz FSB. I do have an 850 MHz P3 for 100 MHz FSB, though. Should do 1.13 GHz @ 133 FSB. Tualatin is probably out of the question, given the prices these days. The extra 400 MHz might be nice, but not sure if worth burning my wallet for.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: The longest you've ever used a single system?

It's the Pentium 3 PC at my grandmother's house

yea nice board! the T on the board model means tualatin support so it can support up to the 1.4 ghz p3 tualatin if u ever wanna upgrade to the fastest p3 cpu available. i also wanted to get the same board on junkbay from an ukrainian seller but i wasnt too impressed by the overclocking options.

gigabyte boards often have a hidden hotkey (ctrl-f1) to unlock the hidden and advanced overclocking options. the hidden and advanced overclocking options often arent shown or explained in the manual. i wonder if u have tried using the hotkey to see what hidden advanced options are available? if so, what else is available? that would make me finally being able to get my bucket list of having a p3 system done and checked off the list.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: The longest you've ever used a single system?

Thank you boss.

It means a lot, coming from you, and after so many years of me here as a member without paying a dime, and you running the forum basically voluntary, as the shop is its own entity and one can live without the other. You could have split, charged for, or sold off long ago.

The sell off happened on a huge Romanian gaming, OC, enthusiast and general PC forum with a reliable vendor section with feedback (not to mention my 99% rating from over 150 transactions over many years), and the new owner decided to basically just close shop overnight. THAT HURT.

I have longtime clients from that forum which are my friends to this day, who have gone from gamers or game testers on min wage + commission to company owners with wives and children and their own land and houses and cars. And I'm still here, still live round the same area and still make a living off fixing shit, 12y later. Tech moves on, businesses open and close, we as people get old... we move on and align with the times, otherwise we get left behind.

BTW, I did get off my ass and grabbed that beer from the store. More than 30min ago.

One last thing. I've certainly got a temper, I'm controversial, and when I was younger I have argued with some old and respectable members and I'm sorry. But we all gotta start somewhere. And speaking of old and respected, if there is ONE thing pissing me off like nobody's business on this Earth, is "dude, do you know who that guy who you just talked shit back to is?". To which I have to reply... "Dude, do you know who I AM?". Because I AM. 10 years ago round Christmas time I was fixing some modest, slightly chubby family guy's large screen LCD TV with bad caps, who picked my broke ass up in a cheap Romanian family car (Dacia Logan), had a regular wife, a large but unremarkable apartment and a 7yo daughter.

I later found out the modest chubster was the VP of Ubisoft Romania. And I was the one swapping his bad capacitors on his big LCD TV's power supply board, 1 day before Christmas Eve (or was it actually strait Christmas Eve evening? Certainly either the 23rd or the 24th of December, that's why he called a rando off a forum and not taken the TV to a local shop, he wanted it fixed that night), 10y ago. Take that. Cya. Time to get wasted and pass out and forget about the Internet for a while.

[Topcat]

Re: The longest you've ever used a single system?

I have my own company now. At 31

Welcome to the club! I started when I was 17.....the difference between then and now is experience.... It's been a great ride for 32 years!

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: The longest you've ever used a single system?

Paperwork not out yet since holidays and lazy state, but both morally and legally speaking, yes, I am my own and only boss now, since 3 weeks ago. And speaking of beer - I have to get off my lazy ass and go out and get more at some point since I'm out of it.

Otherwise, cash, tobacco, vapes, enough dr**gs and medicine to get the whole hood lit for 3 days... no thank you, no (more) sharing, I'd rather take evverything slow for 1+ month, why waste all of this on a bunch of freeloadetrs who won't even mop the floor or carry a single bag for anyone? I paid for it. I risked for it. End of story.

[Per Hansson]

Re: The longest you've ever used a single system?

Glad to hear you have your own company, that is a great start to a healthy life!
Beer is out here too, it is Friday after all!

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: The longest you've ever used a single system?

I have always been here with my heart.

Sometimes, work, relationships, health, family, or a combination of all four, get in the way of my posting. But no longer.

I have my own company now. At 31, with 12 years of real experience and 8 years of legal, registered and documented work experience under my belt, I refuse to work UNDER anyone else but MYSELF, ever again, until the day I die. I salute you, hat's off, beer has been out for over 2 hours and I'm just lighting up another cigar.