Is older hardware ever better?

[aimeeandbeatles]

I was just wondering, if older hardware is ever better for more modern computers?

Not real fancy gaming rigs, just the normal word-processing-with-the-occasional-low-end-game type.

Just curious. Thanks.

 

[Aramazd]

No. The Pentium 3 was better than a similarly clocked Pentium 4, but most of the time newer is better.

 

[Cutlass]

There's some hardware that stays usable for a good amount of time. But software keeps getting bigger and needs bigger and faster hardware to run. So you need hardware upgrades from time to time.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

As hardware gets older, its bang for the buck becomes worse and worse. For example, an old P4 3gHz costs 80$ on newegg right now. Yet, for maybe 40$ more you can get a processor that is at least 2x as fast if not more. Generally, if you need low-end, then go with low-end for the current or previous generation, but no farther back.