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I've always said computers have been so powerful for ages that it doesn't matter what the average home user buys anymore. I just upgraded from my trusty 2011-b

I've always said computers have been so powerful for ages that it doesn't matter what the average home user buys anymore. I just upgraded from my trusty 2011-built i5-2500K, not for any performance reason, but because the motherboard was getting flaky with random poweroff events and difficulty powering on again. My new i5-12400F doesn't really feel much faster. (I'd upgraded the old system along the way with better GPU and SSD)

zokier 4y ago
Desktops maybe. Vintage mobile CPUs often were quite anemic though.
smlacy 4y ago
In totally the same boat! My daily driver home machine is an i5-760 (Released in 2010!) with a GTX 1060, and it works GREAT. I play lots of RTS-like games in 4K via Steam (Stellaris, Civ, Timberborn, Factorio, Valheim, etc) and there's absolutely no problem whatsoever. The "pcmasterrace" mentality that makes you think nothing works without the latest & greatest CPUs & Graphics is just blatantly false. I've always run Ubuntu on it as my daily driver, and I think that's part of my success. Windows machines of this age are seem to be more susceptible to long-term performance degradation. As a comparison, I routinely use it side-by-side with much more recent machines (Intel 10th gens) provided by my workplace, and all the machines feel nearly identical in speed and performance to my 12-year old beater. My only regret/hope is that my ancient motherboard doesn't seem to support more than 8G RAM, which is a bit annoying given how cheap memory is at this point.
- steeleduncan 4y ago
  > I've always run Ubuntu on it as my daily driver I think linux is an important part of using old machines. I use a 2014 11" Macbook Air, (not too old, but quite a weak processor for 2014), and macOS and Windows run like treacle. Stock Ubuntu with Gnome is snappy though, I don't even need one of the lightweight variants.

zokier 4y ago

Desktops maybe. Vintage mobile CPUs often were quite anemic though.

smlacy 4y ago

In totally the same boat! My daily driver home machine is an i5-760 (Released in 2010!) with a GTX 1060, and it works GREAT. I play lots of RTS-like games in 4K via Steam (Stellaris, Civ, Timberborn, Factorio, Valheim, etc) and there's absolutely no problem whatsoever. The "pcmasterrace" mentality that makes you think nothing works without the latest & greatest CPUs & Graphics is just blatantly false. I've always run Ubuntu on it as my daily driver, and I think that's part of my success. Windows machines of this age are seem to be more susceptible to long-term performance degradation. As a comparison, I routinely use it side-by-side with much more recent machines (Intel 10th gens) provided by my workplace, and all the machines feel nearly identical in speed and performance to my 12-year old beater. My only regret/hope is that my ancient motherboard doesn't seem to support more than 8G RAM, which is a bit annoying given how cheap memory is at this point.

steeleduncan 4y ago
> I've always run Ubuntu on it as my daily driver I think linux is an important part of using old machines. I use a 2014 11" Macbook Air, (not too old, but quite a weak processor for 2014), and macOS and Windows run like treacle. Stock Ubuntu with Gnome is snappy though, I don't even need one of the lightweight variants.