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How many computers have you went through?

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Bryn:
For the over twenty years I've been dealing with computers, I've went through four of them. Other than my current one which I've had since 2011 (and currently no plans to upgrade it yet or have a new one), here's the ones I've had in the past:

* An IBM Aptiva running Windows 98 SE, 2001-03. It was actually bought by my mother's ex-partner at the time for his own use (in 2000) until it was bestowed to me at the start of the new year. It was a heap of crap though, as it had very low specs and that it kept having an issue with its graphics card (meaning that the screen resolution and colour depth became very low for no reason whatsoever), and it required reformatting for that reason alone (via a recovery CD that came with it).
* A custom-built computer running Windows XP SP1, 2003-08, that was provided by a small computer firm. It had 256MB RAM and a 40GB hard drive and came with an Iiyama CRT monitor and a Logitech keyboard and mouse, with the latter that I kept for many years later (that I mentioned in another thread here). The custom-built computer tower was noted of having lights at the front of it that changed colour every few seconds and also a transparent window at the left side of it to see its insides. It did me good until in September 2007 it suffered a string of thermal shutdowns (and at least nineteen of them in total, up until July 2008 where they eventually caused the system to "faint" at start-up, i.e. rebooting when trying to boot up). Turned out it was years of dust build-up that caused this to happen.
* Another WinXP computer provided by my college through a grant, 2009-2011, where it had 4GB memory and 500GB hard drive. This was a lot better than my last one and I loved using it until that shortly began to suffer the same fate as it (even down to the fan of its graphics card making that horrid buzzing sound as a result). It was given a new lease of life when a new fan was put in it but that began to have issues also and therefore I had to let go with it.
So, what about you?

Berni:
Mine is a case of  the "Ship of Theseus" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

The machine i got right now started its life as a Pentium 4 HT with a GeForce 6600 running Windows 2000. Then over time as the need arose it got upgrades, along the way some parts broke, so they got replaced etc... So at some point it got a upgraded GPU to a GeForce 9600, at one point the PSU got blown up by lightning and was replaced, then some time later the motherboard got replaced with a Core 2 Quad along with more ram to 4GB and then 8GB. Then at some point it got a GTX 770 put in it. It got a 1TB HDD added to it, then the original boot HDD got replaced by a 160GB SSD. Then the motherboard died and got replaced with a similar board that still held the existing Core 2 Quad, along the way the PSU was replaced again as it was suspicious during the intermittent motherboard issues...

And it still goes on, the CPU was due for an upgrade so it once again got a new motherboard with a i7 4790K, but this time also got a brand new PC case (The old case did not have anywhere near enough airflow to cool the modern GPUs like the GTX 770) but it had all the other parts transplanted over like the HDDs, SDD, GPU, PSU..etc... At this point it also lost the original DVD drive since the new motherboard no longer had IDE. Then the SSD was replaced by a 512GB M.2 NVME drive, later on the GPU was replaced once again to a GTX 1070.

So including the Pentium 3 i had before it that makes it a total of 2 PCs. But it is hard to say if this one counts as 1 PC since at this point 0 of the original parts remain.

sleemanj:
Zx81
Vic20
Vz200
C64
C128
Amiga 1000,,500, 2000, 600, 3000
486dx4/100
And then things get murky with less memorable boring names in a ship of theseus

David Aurora:
Given that I just broke/replaced one this is as good a time as any for me to reply  |O

Matching the 20 years thing:
- Apple G4 466. Bought used in 2001 I think, maybe early 2002? Used it to run a recording studio for about 8 years, then passed it on to my brother for him to use for a few years. Pretty sure it would still run, it did last time I checked. At one point near the end of my time with it I thought it had died, but a blast out with an air compressor got it running again.
- 2007 MacBook Pro. Thing went through the fucking wars. Travel, getting dropped/stepped on/things spilled on it, used 24/7 for everything. Still works fine, but software has moved on. At one point after a few years the logic board failed, Apple fixed it for free even though it was out of warranty. I bought another when it failed, but when they fixed my old one I returned it.
- 2018 Mac Mini. Bought as a new studio/workshop computer when the MacBook couldn't support the latest updates anymore. Still the daily driver in the workshop, and runs my CNC machine through Bootcamp/Parallels. Like all the others has been rock solid.
- 2021 M1 MacBook Pro. Smashed the screen a few months after getting it, $1500 or something ridiculous like that for the repair (thank fuck for insurance). Copped a liquid spill a few weeks ago and died. Quoted $2700 to fix it (again, thank fuck for insurance). That said, I've got it back and had a look inside/run some diagnostics now and I think it will actually be repairable for a sane amount as it's mostly working, fault seems to be one particular section (keyboard/trackpad/etc, but it works with external controllers).
- 2023 M2 MacBook Pro. Bought to replace the above. So far so good.

Alongside these at a couple points I tried some Windows machines in the workshop to run some Windows only software, but I just couldn't get through 10 minutes of working without wanting to punch a hole in the screen so I found alternatives on the Macs.

Ranayna:
Generally, my boxes get replaced as a whole. Only rarely i upgrade memory or GPU.
I also do not remember all the details, i do not really care all that much.
I can mostly list the CPUs of the machines i owned.

Intel Pentium 166 MMX
Intel Pentium III 800
Some Athlon XP on Socket A
Some AMD on Socket 939. I think it was dual core
Intel Core2Duo E6600
Intel Core i7 920
Intel Core i7 5820
AMD Ryzen R9 5900x

So i am on box number eight since 1997 or so, and that is already 2 1/2 years old. Currently i have no plans at all to switch, except that i am considering a memory upgrade since DDR4 RAM is cheap at the moment.

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