Your Most Reliable Computer Parts

[Sui Generis]

Personally, I have had WD360 raptor since it was first released in 2003, and it has been speedy and reliable for the whole of the 5 years I have had it.

 

[GoodGame]

Nothing, except my Samsung 17" monitor I've had for a year and half. Liked it so much I upgraded to a SyncMaster 2253LW.

Edit: Though I did get 3 years out of Shuttle brand kit for the original P4. Second one burned their rep with me though.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Ive got a ton: HDD's, monitors, RAM. Even video cards.
Ive got a bunch of old hard drives sitting around which still work fine, albeit very slowly ( some are 4GB HDD's )
My old CRT works fine and dandy, but the non-replaceable VGA cable was starting to possibly fray on the inside because about once a month the monitor would start flickering and messing up colors. Simply unplugging it and straightening out the cable helped fix that.
Ive still got my old Corsair 64mb RAM modules, as well as 256 and 512 ones.
As for video card: I managed to get my old MX 400 OC'd very nicely ( it was loads faster than stock. The only problem is, the cooling fan wasnt adequate, but I in my young stupidity pushed the darned thing anyways. Somehow it survived 70C idle and 95C load temps for 2 years without any problems. I can probably still plug it in and run it fine.

 

[lndm]

Got a 50MB HDD in 1990, was in regular use until 1999 (Quantum).

Last year found an XT from '82 iirc, fired it up, worked.

 

[Sui Generis]

Got a 50MB HDD in 1990, was in regular use until 1999 (Quantum).

Last year found an XT from '82 iirc, fired it up, worked.

Wow, a 50mb hdd...

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Back in those days 50mb was a lot. of course, by 1999 it was probably nothing..

 

[GoodGame]

Yeah I just threw out a HDD from my grandmother's computer from the mid-90's with like 32mB of space. Boggles the mind that a very cheap stick of ram beats it.

 

[lndm]

It was spacious once. For comparison, think that by 1999, hard drives were commonly around 1.6GB or 30 times the 50MB. Another 9 years on (this year ) A thirtieth of a typical 320GB drive is 10GB which is still large enough to install Vista and a couple of games.

Also for comparison. A clean Vista install is around 5GB iirc. XP is 1GB but Windows 3.1 with all the trimmings + DOS was only 23MB.

 

[lndm]

Oh, and Civ 1 was only 3MB

 

[Quintillus]

It was spacious once. For comparison, think that by 1999, hard drives were commonly around 1.6GB or 30 times the 50MB. Another 9 years on (this year ) A thirtieth of a typical 320GB drive is 10GB which is still large enough to install Vista and a couple of games.

Also for comparison. A clean Vista install is around 5GB iirc. XP is 1GB but Windows 3.1 with all the trimmings + DOS was only 23MB.

Not quite on those figures. In January 1999 my family bought a computer with a 13.6 GB hard drive. It may have been larger than the average one, but I'm pretty sure the average was more than 1.6 GB - at least 5 GB or so? And the OS installs for Vista and XP are 9-10 GB and 3 GB, depending slightly on drivers and what options you choose.

That 1999 Sony computer would have to be the most reliable "part" I've had yet - it hasn't required any maintenance at all other than a single de-dusting. Original hard drive, original RAM and video card, processor, original everything. And it was a primary computer for 4 years and used pretty often for another 2 years or so after that.

Haven't had many parts-breaking problems though. A couple floppy disk drives, fans, and CD drives on a poorly-built computer, but that's about it.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Not quite on those figures. In January 1999 my family bought a computer with a 13.6 GB hard drive. It may have been larger than the average one, but I'm pretty sure the average was more than 1.6 GB - at least 5 GB or so?

the one we got in 1997 was 6 gigabytes, if that helps

 

[GenMarshall]

Heh, even my oldest USB stick (rated at 256MB IIRC) would put the older generations of the late 90s HDDs to shame .

 

[frekk]

I still have a 56k modem from whenever it was they came out ('97?)

Works great, use it for faxing

 

[lndm]

Not quite on those figures.

Brand new, no. Commonly, as I said, yes. Now that I read it it does look ambiguous so I accept your comments.

Now I recall that I bought a new 15GB drive in 2000 but it cost me over $300 at the time.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I had a Windows 98 working for 10 years before I sold it. From what I heard, it's still working.

Better than the Windows 95 that blew up on us.

 

[Aramazd]

I had a Windows 98 working for 10 years before I sold it. From what I heard, it's still working.

Better than the Windows 95 that blew up on us.

I'm not sure that counts with Windows being software.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I'm not sure that counts with Windows being software.

I meant the computer, I think it was an IBM Aptiva.

 

[Aramazd]

I meant the computer, I think it was an IBM Aptiva.

Then say the computer, which OS it runs is meaningless

 

[lndm]

I'd like a dollar for everyone I've spoken to that's thrown out, given up on or bought a new computer because their windows installation was on its last legs.

 

[Macha]

My desktop's nVidia geforce FX 5200 and my laptop's 5650. I still haven't found a game they won't run (despite some games specifically mention the nvidia FXs as being incompatible on the box)