What's the longest you've regularly used a piece of PC hardware?

[Illusion of Progress]

I saw a similar thread on another community asking what the oldest thing you still use is, and I thought I'd make a similar thread here, but with a distinction. Age doesn't mean much if you weren't regularly using it the whole time, so in order to qualify, something...

1. Must have been used "regularly". I'll leave this up to you to define, but something you're not using anymore, or something you own but don't use often, doesn't count. Something you relegated into in a second PC you barely use (or someone else uses now)? An optical drive in the main PC you almost never use? I wouldn't count those.

2. Is only counting the time you used it. Date of manufacture or introduction to the market is meaningless. Date of original owner is meaningless. It goes by the date you got it, and ends when you stop regularly using it.

The idea is to ask yourself what single piece of hardware you got the longest use of time out of. How long was it, and what was it?

As a bonus question, what's longest out of the hardware you still have? In other words, if your "record holder" is in the past, then the purpose of this question is to ask out of the stuff you still have and use now, what has been in your use the longest?

Mine in both cases would be my monitor, a Dell UltraSharp U2410. It was manufactured in August 2009 but I got it second hand sometime in 2010 (I can't remember when in the year exactly). So I've been using it for somewhere between 13 and 14 years, and its formally 14 and a half years old. I might be looking to finally replace it soon.

[Sigma957]

Altec Lansing 4.1 PC speakers. 1999-2021. Made vinyl records sound so yummy.

[Shaggin'Wagon]

Originally posted by Sigma957:

Altec Lansing 4.1 PC speakers. 1999-2021. Made vinyl records sound so yummy.

So you stopped using that in 2021? I think you missed the entire first post and subject of this thread. People should only be commenting about hardware that they actually still use in 2024, not something that they stopped using years ago. That's what the OP asked about.

[carl]

I am still regularly using a Razer Abyssus 2014 mouse. My favourite long lived gadget though is the Nvidia Shield TV Pro unit I've been using for TV streaming since 2016. Oh and my Lumia 950 with Windows 10 mobile still starts up...

PC hardware wise a Ryzen 5 2400G on a B450M MSI mortar motherboard running Arch which I put together in 2018 and is still in continued use. It's now paired with a GTX 1050 Ti which I bought in 2016 for an earlier build. It also uses an original purchase 2015 Western Digital Black 4TB HDD recycled from another PC build for mass storage.

The oldest still working PC I own is a Dell Dimension 3000 Pentium 4 prebuilt with Windows XP purchased back in 2005 though the last time dabbled with it I installed Linux Lubuntu 32-bit but alas Steam app is no longer supported. Over the years I upgraded the ram from 512MB to 1GB and added a Zotac GT 610 with a PCI connector.

[_I_]

if you count speakers, iv had a set from the early 90s that still work great

[Liquid121]

.

[Illusion of Progress]

Peripherals (monitor, speaker, keyboard, mouse, etc.) count, as long as you have been been regularly using it during the time. That's still PC hardware.

Stuff that you're no longer using now also counts as long it is was, once upon a time, the longest thing you've used.

The idea is just to figure out what is the longest you've gotten out of something.

[A&A]

Then the Samsung SyncMaster 2243SN still works with an HDMI to VGA adapter.

[Bing Chilling]

probably have to be my secondary monitor (Ben-Q gl2450)
using it right now to type this out, it's from 2011 but is full 1080p and works great still.
pairs nicely with my main MSI (OPTIX G241) monitor.

[CJM]

Originally posted by Shaggin'Wagon:

Originally posted by Sigma957:

Altec Lansing 4.1 PC speakers. 1999-2021. Made vinyl records sound so yummy.

So you stopped using that in 2021? I think you missed the entire first post and subject of this thread. People should only be commenting about hardware that they actually still use in 2024, not something that they stopped using years ago. That's what the OP asked about.

The timing of such a question is interesting. Between COVID lockdowns, scalpers, and bitcoin mining, computer components have been seeing inflated prices for some time.

This is the era of transitioning from Quad Core processors, to 8-Core processors. With a still undefined standard of quality in the 9th Generation 8-Core era of gaming.

My standards are higher than Electronic Arts or UbiSoft, which is why I play on PC rather than a static console. So I want a system that exceeds their Quality Assurance testers for a period of about 5 years. This means at current I am focusing on Quad Core optimized games, which are generally Steam Deck verified. Games that are 3-10 years old.

I'm still diagnosing performance in Forza Horizon 5, and reviewing YouTube streamers of Forza Motorsport. Forza Motorsport is an e-Sports title, and either perfect 60 FPS, or higher frame rates are essential to the game.

I'm also looking to alleviate frame time spikes in Jedi: Survivor. Possibly by using Riva Statistics Tuner to get a locked 30 FPS, but I still need adequate underlying hardware to support spikes in the frame times down no lower than 30 FPS. I'm looking for a better experience than Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 on the Nintendo Switch.

Originally posted by Illusion of Progress:

Peripherals (monitor, speaker, keyboard, mouse, etc.) count, as long as you have been been regularly using it during the time. That's still PC hardware.

Stuff that you're no longer using now also counts as long it is was, once upon a time, the longest thing you've used.

The idea is just to figure out what is the longest you've gotten out of something.

From my old Dell Inspiron 530, I'm still using most of the same accessories from 2009. The same speakers, the same keyboard and mouse, and I still have use for the monitor.

My speakers started to fail more than five years ago. I generally ran them at lower audio levels to avoid annoying those I lived with. I can still get about 30% volume out of them, which is just audible enough when sitting directly in front of a computer screen. They work well enough to not be bothered for a proper replacement. At least not until I can afford a proper 4k gaming setup with a soundbar.

The wireless dongle for my mouse is falling apart. I've got the plastic housing held in place by a rubber band. It eats batteries more quickly, since the dongle is used to hold down the "dead man's switch" power button for the mouse. The rubber grip is heavily worn, and completely gone on the scroll wheel.

The monitor was a 75Hz display, and was higher than 720p. The 16:10 ratio on a 900 pixel vertical provided the best bang for buck at the time of purchase. I wouldn't have been able to afford a proper 1080p/60 platform in 2009. The 900 pixel vertical pushed me above the very cramped 768 vertical. I suspect a lot of developers at the time were using size charts to create content for 720p consumption, and not actually testing it on a device with toolbars and a taskbar taking up valuable screen real estate.

Going with 1440 over 1600 horizontal reduced the hardware costs of achieving a locked 60 FPS at the LCD's native resolution. With CRTs, you wanted a higher resolution because there was no cost to scaling the image. With LCDs you want to run at the panel's native resolution, because of the additional cost of scaling from a lower resolution.

Which brings us to the modern era. FSR and DLSS have a much lower cost than internal scalers in LCD panels, having much better hardware behind them. Unfortunately, developers are leaning so heavily on FSR and DLSS, that I am still locked to lower resolution panels.

[xSOSxHawkens]

If we are talking computing devices:

Oldest still seeing semi-regular actual use and is part of the "household electronics" is a First Gen Ipad.

Oldest computer still running and capable of being used for daily use if needed: Pentium (1) 233Mhz MMX Baby AT machine, dual booting 98se and XP, last saw long term daily driver use as a front line PC for actual business use in 2015 (used for about 9 months for a special use case requirement for someone needing a daily office computer). Performed flawlessly and only had one reboot in the 90+ days of up-time. Currently mothballed but ready to deploy.

Oldest piece of A/V *tech* (as in more than speakers) still regularly used: Sony D10 stereo boombox from 80's

Oldest AV equipment still ready to deploy - Peavy PA and Speaker system from late 60's, fully working and ready to literally rock. Intended to be put back into daily use (the speakers at least) once I have a house and not apartment, they are a bit too much for an apartment space with neighbors and all that.

[CJM]

Originally posted by xSOSxHawkens:

...booting 98se... ...only had one reboot in the 90+ days of up-time.

90+ days of up-time for a 9x Kernel version of Windows is seriously impressive. That was back in the day when nerds would actually brag about their up-time, especially the "neckbeards" running Unix and/or Linux.

90+ days of up-time on Windows XP, when your Patch Tuesdays no longer apply,... Not so impressive if that was the case. Windows XP was the operating system that ended the up-time conversation. You then wonder if that was a crash, or did the user just reboot into Windows 98SE for that one remaining use case?

Windows 98SE is from the same era of Windows that would BSOD on stage during a demonstration by Bill Gates himself. And don't let old sly Bill fool you, this was still quite normal for Windows 9x after it shipped.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW7Rqwwth84&t=5s

[xSOSxHawkens]

Originally posted by CJM:

Originally posted by xSOSxHawkens:

...booting 98se... ...only had one reboot in the 90+ days of up-time.

90+ days of up-time for a 9x Kernel version of Windows is seriously impressive. That was back in the day when nerds would actually brag about their up-time, especially the "neckbeards" running Unix and/or Linux.

90+ days of up-time on Windows XP, when your Patch Tuesdays no longer apply,... Not so impressive if that was the case. Windows XP was the operating system that ended the up-time conversation. You then wonder if that was a crash, or did the user just reboot into Windows 98SE for that one remaining use case?

Windows 98SE is from the same era of Windows that would BSOD on stage during a demonstration by Bill Gates himself. And don't let old sly Bill fool you, this was still quite normal for Windows 9x after it shipped.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW7Rqwwth84&t=5s

The uptime was a mix. As quoted it was 90+ with one reboot. The reboot was a change over via dual boot from XP >>to>> 98se at about the 30 day mark. So 9x held on for over 60+ without any reboot. User felt XP was too slow and heavy, and was OK with 98 and office 97 as long as I loaded on the Media Player 9 beta for 98 so they had music lol.

[Viking2121]

Mine is monitors, I got a Asus gaming monitor I've been using for close to 10 years now, its my secondary now, I got a headset about that age as well, Cases Its hard for me to stick with the same case for a long time.

I buy and sell overstock PC hardware, pallets of it sometimes, and Cases are one of them things I always get, they sell fast. I just recently moved to a Coolermaster Cube 500 I bought at an Auction that only had one issue which was a stripped out hole to mount the spoiler bar thing in the back which I didn't like anyway. Even bought a White version with pink and green and orange panels for 10 bucks that im building another system in.

[jeffpmaxs6]

2002. Iiyama Vision Master Pro 454 19” crt monitor. It lost its brightness, but I still use it for security cameras.

2003. Creative MegaWorks THX 6.1 650 speakers. They lost 6.1 support after WinXP, but I still use the Sub and 2 speaker’s.

[Senator Armstrong]

Originally posted by Illusion of Progress:

I saw a similar thread on another community asking what the oldest thing you still use is, and I thought I'd make a similar thread here, but with a distinction. Age doesn't mean much if you weren't regularly using it the whole time, so in order to qualify, something...

1. Must have been used "regularly". I'll leave this up to you to define, but something you're not using anymore, or something you own but don't use often, doesn't count. Something you relegated into in a second PC you barely use (or someone else uses now)? An optical drive in the main PC you almost never use? I wouldn't count those.

2. Is only counting the time you used it. Date of manufacture or introduction to the market is meaningless. Date of original owner is meaningless. It goes by the date you got it, and ends when you stop regularly using it.

The idea is to ask yourself what single piece of hardware you got the longest use of time out of. How long was it, and what was it?

As a bonus question, what's longest out of the hardware you still have? In other words, if your "record holder" is in the past, then the purpose of this question is to ask out of the stuff you still have and use now, what has been in your use the longest?

Mine in both cases would be my monitor, a Dell UltraSharp U2410. It was manufactured in August 2009 but I got it second hand sometime in 2010 (I can't remember when in the year exactly). So I've been using it for somewhere between 13 and 14 years, and its formally 14 and a half years old. I might be looking to finally replace it soon.

I don't use them regularly but I still have my GB Advance. It still works great since I take great care of my electronics. I regularly use my 3DS and Vita.