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when it is time to upgrade your personal laptop (machine)?
I've started working on some unity stuff and my laptop isn't quite fast enough. I have 16GB RAM, so I'm thinking the performance is most likely related to the graphics card. That aside the only other thing not working is the touch-pad (external mouse fixes that nicely).
Is a change justified? Yes, there is the additional expense, but file / app migration is probably the bigger PITA.
Do you treat your laptop like a (lease) car and get a new model every 3 years, or do you keep it until end of life?
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The screen on my HP fell off so it was time for a new one. Apparently they are known to do that, first a hinge lost its enthusiasm, and the screen went floppy, then the other joined it, followed by a monumental failure when it came away completely.
Mind you it had a Harmon-Kardon sound sound system on it.
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I buy a new computer when I find that the old one doesn't possess the features that I need. The last time I replaced it (2 years ago) was when I discovered that I needed AVX 2.0 for some things; my previous computer was about 4-5 years old at the time. I expect the next replacement will come when I discover a need for AVX-512, or some such.
I find that practically any professional-level computer (i7 + 16GB of memory + SSD) is good enough for the kind of development that I do. YMMV
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I had an old one that had a DVD drive, a PCcard bus port, numerous memory ports, a COM port, Firewire, USB, etc etc etc
I bought a new one and it had less features. Just a USB port. 
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My new laptop doesn't have a DVD burner, and is ~1 Kg lighter. Then again, I use a DVD burner much less often than I used to, so having an external burner (connected via USB) is a reasonable choice.
As for connectivity, as long as a laptop has a network (RJ-45) port, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a variety of USB 3 ports, I'm happy.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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A few years ago I dug up some old equipment (a MIDI interface) from the basement to plug into my tower style PC. This thing had a DB-9 plug, the old "COM port" RS-232. I searched the computer all over, from every angle, but I simply couldn't find the COM port! I had replaced the computer more than two years earlier, and had never realized that it didn't have a COM port.
(Later, when I had the box opened, I noticed a mainboard header labeled COM1, so in fact the PC did have a COM port, lacking only the socket. The main point of the story is that it took me more than two years to discover that RS-232 is no longer included in the standard PC interfaces.)
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I think that proves my point. Unless you have special requirements (e.g. legacy hardware), USB is the answer to your needs.
Out of curiosity, did you use the motherboard's COM port, or did you get a USB-to-COM adapter?
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Yes, I mentioned it to prove your point.
Actually, I did neither use the COM port (it wasn't until months later I discoverd it), and I didn't get a USB-to-COM-adapter - I did it in software.
20+ years ago, when I bought this MIDI-adapter, I also bought a fairly good, for the time, keyboard. At that time, software MIDI players had terrible sound, all digitally generated, while this keyboard used actually sampled sound of acoustic instruments. I used it with a visually handicapped daughter who could not read the sheet music, so she had to learn her violin part in the orchestra by ear. (One side benefit was that when practicing, she could turn down her own part and play with the other instruments.)
Fifteen years later, I picked up the old music editor so that I could practice my barbershop quartet songs with the three other parts "singing" along with me. When interfacing to the old keyboard failed, I switched to a modern MIDI player. With today's processing capacity, they generate far more pleasant sounds, even though it still is completely synthesized, not sampled.
The old keyboard is still nice for e.g. giving the opening chord when singing without any PC/instrument support, but I don't use its MIDI interface at all nowadays - even though I did buy myself another MIDI-interface, going directly from USB to MIDI.
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That's one of the reasons I don't buy lappies: at least with a desktop you can rip out the MB and stuff another in there, while keeping your SDD / HDD and graphics.
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Here here! My desktop at home is 6 years old and it's still running fine with the original i5 processor and motherboard.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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I purchased my desktop in 1996. Yes, 1996! Still got the same PC and it runs great! The nice thing about desktops is they are so modular -- it's easy to replace failed parts.
- CD/DVD-burners tend to go fastest (yes, I still keep one in the PC).
- Replace the primary HD every 2 to 3 years.
- Motherboard, CPU, & RAM get replaced every 4 to 6 years (had 1 MB failure, otherwise when the old one doesn't run the software as well).
- Hate onboard video, used to use lower end graphics cards, but bought a good one last year for gaming, and it improved overall system performance. I didn't expect that.
- The case has been replaced a few times, and the power supply a few more than that.
Other than replacing a few parts periodically, I have the same PC! 
To answer the OP's question -- I have a laptop and I'll replace it when it dies. It's my secondary unit and doesn't get used as much.
I replace parts on my desktop when I have to (due to failure) or when the system is not meeting my needs. So I replace the MB/CPU/RAM every 4 to 6 years. That's my answer on when to replace the laptop -- if it's not meeting your needs, replace it.
Don't buy a low end laptop. I buy last year's model. It's typically good enough for last 4 to 6 years, and the price drop from when it was current is significant.
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When it looks like the current laptop will not cut it usually because it is broken. My previous loptop had a screw holding the screen together break (metal screw in plastic), and it was only the first of these screws. I tried initially using aluminum tape but it failed. did it a few more times, and finally I drilled through the laptop screen and screwed it together but still not a great. Finally bit the bullet. Have occasionally looked for a replacement screen but almost as much as I paid for the laptop.
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When it starts to act like a teenager on full hormonal change. (i.e. doesn't wake up and/or go to sleep, start forgetting to do its chores... )
I'd rather be phishing!
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I don't have a laptop. They lack features and age quicker than desktops.
I just rebuilt my desktop and, according to my notes, the previous time was in January 2014.
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Every 50,000 miles or 6 years, first reached.
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Before you doubt the graphics card does your laptop have a HDD or SSD
if it's not SSD there's your answer, uless you are high graphics gaming the graphics card makes ZERO difference - even chipset graphics will suffice for all but the heaviest gaming. It will not slow you down.
SSD's are cheap enough now and more reliable too - there's no reason to use HDD, even more so for portable drives.
(Yeah I know HDD's retail for pennies per pound, so does cow sh*t - at least the cow sh*t has a use if you're into gardening.)
This internet thing is amazing! Letting people use it: worst idea ever!
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 Thank you for the advice. I checked last night and it did have a 500 GB HDD. Ordered a 1 TB SSD. Now I just have to be patient and wait the week for it to arrive. 
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I also think that’s the answer. I’ve now updated three laptops (wife’s, her friend and a buddy of mine). Made a huge difference in each case. The old HDDs were all 5400rpm. Check your performance with Task Manager some time when you think the laptop is running slow. If it shows 100% disk and low cpu and memory utilization, the SSD is definitely going to help. On the laptops I upgraded, disk usage went from 100% down to 20-30% and cpu became the bottleneck. Basically a 3 to 5 time improvement in performance since the cpu was only running 20-30% before and it’s now 100% (when fully loaded).
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I'm usually more of a desktop guy. I replace it as soon as I can find a plausible excuse. Most recently, my power supply died. Yeah, I know! I could simply replace the PSU, but I really wanted that excuse
I carefully timed it, until after I used my aforementioned excuse to buy a new PC. After this, I also replaced the old PSU...for free. It still had about 3 days remaining until its 5 year warranty expired!
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if u buy like a custom dell precision series or a ThinkPad P72....ur set for some time...
Caveat Emptor.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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littleGreenDude wrote: I have 16GB RAM, so I'm thinking the performance is most likely related to the graphics card.
That's quite the leap, IMO. What "isn't quite fast enough" exactly? If you're just getting started with Unity, I have to believe you're still working on basic stuff, and nothing already so complex as to overwhelm your video hardware. As others have pointed out, are you using a spinning drive, or SSD? I'd try to figure out what is slowing you down before getting newer hardware that, in the end, might not solve the right problem.
As I'm sure you know, your options are rather limited when it comes to laptops, other than an SSD and more RAM (if you need it, and the MB can take it). Otherwise it's time for a new laptop. Although you can certainly keep it going in parallel until it dies. All my systems eventually get repurposed.
How does Unity perform on a remote system across Remote Desktop sessions? Would you consider getting a beefy desktop (they're cheaper and you have more upgrade options) and remoting into it from your laptop? If you can run that way, then whatever specs your laptop's got become pretty much irrelevant, as all the heavy lifting is done elsewhere. But since Unity is involved here--YMMV. Just a random thought from my part. Obviously this won't work if you need to be elsewhere, and offline.
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I use only gaming desktops and replace them only when the frame rates of the games I play start to drop below 60 fps. Then I go and order a custom machine with some top components. The current one is almost 4 years old and still going strong. The company that assembles them was so good at it, they went bankrupt because nobody needed new ones.
Building an X299 RGB Gaming PC - YouTube
They buy shoes, then they wear them! They make them sound old! Dairy! Dairy!
modified 20-Oct-19 21:02pm.
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For work I make sure to get a new one when the warranty runs out, but I always buy with extended warranty, so four years.
The reason is simple, the time it takes to get a new computer and get it up and working is worth more than what the computer itself costs.
At home I get a new one when the old one goes beyond repair.
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Quote:
Do you treat your laptop like a (lease) car and get a new model every 3 years, or do you keep it until end of life?
Isn't end of life 2 years?
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