What's the oldest machine you guys have and actively use? Personally, I've got a few old machines, but I'm actually typing this post from one that's almost 15 years old - period-appropriate hardware for Vizzed, I'd say? It's got an ancient dual-core AMD Athlon - it scores way better than the Intel Atoms of its day, but it wasn't great even for its time considering it was up against the early Core series. It does have 4GB of RAM, though, and that puts it...still firmly at entry-level even 15 years after its release. Man, that RAM crisis is making its mark.

I'm curious to hear your guys' input, or if you've got even older machines that you make active use of! I know I can't be the only one.

well the oldest machine in the house has been off for quite a few years. We still have our old XP but we haven't been able to dump it for some reason. We have dad's old laptop that was a Windows 7 when we bought it, he uses it once in awhile, the last time I used it was for a Tour de Vizzed several years back just so I could get some screenshots. (it got re-imaged into 10 in 2015 when it was available for free) The oldest computer I use is the other old Windows 7 but I don't really use it myself because the sound went out in 2018 (but my dad found a solution awhile ago he used an old sound card that I used to plug in and use as I'm a headphones user and something caused an older laptop to not work with the original headphone jack anymore).

classgame : I gotcha. That is an issue with old machines - it's likely something will fail, and it might be harder to find replacement parts. The speakers on my ancient laptop essentially failed a while ago, meaning I have to use headphones with it to have any audio, but I still continue to use it regardless. Thanks for the input, it's fun to hear other people's experiences like this!

NovemberJoy : it was the type of device that goes into a USB, I've had to replace them a few times because either something was bent or yeah I shouldn't of had to replace them constantly

Up until like 2 weeks ago or something I was still actively using my old Macbook Air (early 2015). So that thing was 11 years old before I bought a new laptop.

It actually held up really well for a long time despite it getting on in years, only really starting to struggle around 2024. I could barely open more than 3 tabs, only one youtube tab at a time, opening Microsoft Teams would cause it to almost freeze due to how intensive that software was on my poor laptop. Gaming had started to turn into a nightmare too. I don't play any of the triple A ultra realistic modern games, but screensharing DS games on emulator was already too much for the machine to handle.

I still have the machine and will probably sporadically charge it so I can use it for something. It does have about 11 years worth of screenshots, memories, etc. on it. Not to mention all the college projects and other important documents on it. Oh and passwords for a bunch of websites lol

Furret : That checks out. I remember you describing the experience you'd had with your old laptop in another thread, but I didn't know it was a Macbook Air. It's definitely got plenty of memories - hopefully you can save and back up everything on there that's important to you. Who knows, maybe you could resell it if it's still in usable physical condition? I know the feeling you're talking about - this laptop I'm using is a bit pokey if you do more than one thing at once, and arguably is a bit slow even just handling one YouTube tab. I wouldn't even dream of doing DS emulation on it - DS emulation is infamously pretty poorly optimized unless you're on Android. Thanks for sharing your experiences!

I built my PC in 2018 so I guess technically this one?
I think the laptops we use at work are newer than this one.
Albeit my PC has had a couple upgrades since so is it a 2018 computer or is it a more modern one?

pokemon x : Ah, the classic Ship of Theseus problem. Personally, my desktop has had a couple of upgrades, and even my own ancient laptop had its aging hard drive and long-dead battery swapped out for an SSD and a third-party battery. As far as I'm concerned, you have to have swapped out pretty much all the parts to consider it a truly new computer. Still, hopefully that machine's working well for you - it might be a while before further upgrades would be possible, considering what the market's like right now.

The only computer I use is the one I bought in 2023 so I guess it's 3 years old now in hindsight do I kind of wish I would of waited till I could of got a better computer? Maybe just a bit but I still think overall I wouldn't ever switch to gaming mostly on PC as it's just not the same for me but having the option would of been nice.

SonicOlmstead : That's pretty new. All things considered, you should be happy you got in before the RAMpocalypse - some things were still expensive, but a bit less expensive than they are now. I'm personally I got my desktop in before the crypto craze happened where people bought up all the graphics cards. I can understand if PC stuff isn't for you - personally, I really like it, but I can get the appeal of consoles as well. Thanks for providing your perspective!

All of my computer doo-dads are relatively new (discounting my retro games collection), but I do feel that I can give a special shout-out to my power supply which I bought in... 2013??? and I'm still using it in my main computer to this day. Surviving multiple part upgrades and all. I don't really PC game anymore but most modern releases I can still play at 60-120FPS@1440p if I chose to. Practically elder abuse at this point really... my older GPU I still have in my closet as a memorial rather than just getting rid of it. I think this PSU will join it when I do finally decide to let it retire. But... what's another 10 more years?

My oldest computer in an entirety would probably be my early college-age laptop that I still bring with me here and there if I expect to be traveling for a significant amount of time... so about 2018. It's kind of a piece of s*** (endearing!) and I don't enjoy using it but I don't have enough use case for a laptop to justify buying another.

Minuano : I think that's a classic Ship of Theseus situation, where you kinda just upgraded the whole thing over time. I'd upgrade mine further, but I'm a little walled in terms of other upgrades that would be worthwhile without costing a ton. Makes sense to me - and it also makes sense that you're satisfied with a relatively weak laptop, since most of the time a laptop mostly just needs to process documents and browse and stuff. Thanks for the input!

The laptop next to me is from 2009, so 17 years old (give or take a few months). It still runs (albeit barely), and I've been trying to get linux onto it to run something more lightweight than windows, but I think it might be a lost cause lol. Still, I use it from time to time.

I use my main PC daily, and it's from 2016. That's probably a better answer, lol.

merf : Man, 17 years old? That's a bit more than I was expecting. What kinda specs does it have? I'm guessing linux-ing it up would likely help it, though I'm guessing it's probably a bit weaker than what I'm working with. Serious props for having a machine that old that's still functional.
...funnily enough, my desktop's also from 2016, albeit the end of 2016. It's still serving me well, even if you can tell it's 9 going on 10 years old. I do somewhat strenuous things on it, too, though not many newer games nowadays. Thanks for the input!