PCs can be a considerable investment, easily costing hundreds or even thousands of pounds at the higher end.
Like any substantial investment, it’s only fair to want value for money and get the most out of the lifespan of your PC. But have you ever stopped to wonder why PCs have a lifespan at all?
EPX’s “Professor” Elliot Bishop takes us through it……
The first components to traditionally fail
This is a fair question, and has become more relevant as the technology inside PCs has improved. In mechanical devices like cars or washing machines, the first point of failure is usually the moving parts.
As the gears, bearings, and belts move past one another, friction will naturally wear them down until they can no longer perform their intended function. Historically, PCs would have contained mechanical hard drives for storing data – all the files that the PC requires to operate, as well as your documents, photos, etc.
Hard drives contain a spinning magnetic platter that is read by a drive head, not unlike a vinyl record player – these moving parts would also typically have been the first components to fail.
Modern technology
These days, however, solid-state drives, or SSDs, have almost entirely replaced traditional spinning hard drives, doing away with these moving parts.
The only mechanical component of most modern PCs will be the cooling fans that stop the device from overheating – whilst these are certainly important, they’re not necessarily critical for the PC to function, and can be swapped out and replaced relatively easily. Everything else in your PC is strictly electronic.
Why do PCs gradually slow down?
So why is it that PCs still “age”, and seem to gradually slow down over time?
There are a few angles to this; firstly, even electronic components don’t last forever – there’s still a sort of “friction” taking place as electrical charges move around within components, and this can wear out components in a similar way. Solid-state drives, for example, are typically rated for a certain number of read and write operations that they can carry out before this electronic wear and tear takes its toll. However, a high-end SSD should still last in the region of five to 10 years or more if well-maintained.
Secondly, although the physical specifications of the hardware in your PC will remain the same unless you upgrade them later on, the software you run on your PC is undergoing constant and consistent changes, in the form of new versions, updates, or “patches”.
These updates will often bring new functionality or better stability, but may also ask a little more of your PC’s performance each time. Over time, this can add up, and your PC might struggle to run the same software now that it could five years ago – not because your PC has gotten worse, but because the software on it is more demanding.
Some major software, such as Windows 11, won’t even run on older hardware, and might force your hand towards an upgrade if you want to carry on using it.
Spring cleaning
It's reasonable to expect that the longer we’ve owned a PC for, the more files we’ve likely saved onto it, and the more software we’ve installed – your device will only have so much space unless you consider upgrading its storage drive, and as the drive gets more full, it also gets more “cluttered”, and it becomes harder to move files around as there’s less available space to work with.
This can dramatically slow down your PC as it gets “older”, and some spring cleaning to remove any unneeded files or software can go a long way to keeping your PC in good shape. It can even be beneficial to periodically back up your important data and reset or wipe your PC entirely, to eliminate the clutter completely for a clean, fresh start.
Upgrade your PC
Another thing we can do to increase the lifespan of our PC is to upgrade it – for most pre-configured laptops and desktops, the most accessible components to upgrade will be the memory, or RAM, and the storage.
More memory means that we can run more tasks at once and keep up with ever-increasing software requirements, and more storage means more space before a “de-clutter” becomes necessary.
Certain other components, though, typically can’t be upgraded unless we’re building our own PC entirely from base parts, such as the processor, the main “brain” of the PC, and the motherboard, which acts like its spinal cord, and transmits data between all the other main components.
Eventually, as further progress in technology is made and software continues to demand more resources, these non-upgradable parts become obsolete and can no longer keep pace.
When do you need a replacement PC?
So, when is it finally time to say goodbye and consider a replacement? The best answer is whenever you start to notice signs of “aging”, to the point where poor performance and longer wait times are beginning to affect your day-to-day duties – a well looked after home PC might last you 10 years or so with casual use, but a more heavily used business PC, running from 9 to 5, will probably need replacing sooner than this.
Our Service Desk typically recommends replacing a lagging laptop after around three years, and a dated desktop after around five years.
Is your PC slowing down?
Noticed signs of your PC beginning to show its age, or have questions about the upcoming end of support for Windows 10 and whether your PC needs an upgrade to stay ahead?
Reach out to our team for a health check!
