What makes you buy a new computer? I ask because it's five years today since I unboxed my eighth computer, and I'm not sure when it'll be time for a ninth.
Computer 1:Sinclair ZX81(13th May 1981)
I bought my first computer, or rather my family did, because we didn't own one. Two other boys in my class did - Guy had a PET and Bernie had a ZX80 - but we intended to be particularly cutting edge by buying the brand new ZX81. It took eight weeks to appear, while Sinclair coped with unexpected demand, eventually arriving on an evening when I should have been revising for my O-Levels. Instead I managed to plug it in to our portable TV and spent the evening entering a simple program... which alas proved too long for the minuscule 1KB memory to cope with. But within days I'd successfully created a program that allowed two people to play Snap, even if saving it onto cassette tape proved much more problematic. It was amazing what this little plastic box could do, although by today's standards utterly not in any way amazing at all.
↓ 8 years 7 months
Computer 2:Acorn A3000(22nd December 1990)
I bought my second computer because my first was long obsolete. I hadn't had a proper functioning computer at home for some years, only at work, and decided now was the time to take the plunge. I could see a personal computer being useful, but mainly I could see it being fun, as was proven when my family encouraged me to buy a golf game with the initial purchase and then spent much of the ensuing Christmas playing that. My new computer wasn't cheap, indeed I see it cost about the same as my current laptop, which means in real terms it was twice as expensive, but it served me well.
↓ 6 years 8 months
Computer 3:RISC PC(18th August 1997)
I bought my third computer because I wanted the internet. My old set-up couldn't cope, but Acorn now sold a new machine with its own browser software and that was me hooked. It took a couple of extra days before my modem arrived, so I used the spare time to transfer all my saved data from floppy discs onto the computer's hard drive, and also used the cutting-edge CD-ROM slot to blast Chumbawumba out of the speakers. The speed and convenience were transformational, but it was the internet access that within six months had changed my life. Meanwhile my parents drove over the following week to take computer 2 away so they could play golf and patience themselves, because one man's cast off is another's cutting edge toy.
↓ 3 years
Computer 4:Packard Bell 9770(24th August 2000)
I bought my fourth computer to join the in-crowd. Acorn's hardware niche had already narrowed and a Windows PC was now the place to be. I hadn't been intending to buy one when I woke up that morning but then I saw an advert in my newspaper and decided to drive over to PC World and take the plunge. When I got home my old computer was unceremoniously retired to a side table, and I made space on the floor for my first chunky tower. The new machine again had a floppy disc drive so I was eventually able to transfer over all the photos and csv files I'd accumulated, but all my previous software was now entirely redundant. From this point on it's been Windows all the way.
↓ 1 year 10 months
Computer 5:Dell Dimension 4400(5th June 2002)
I bought my fifth computer because I fancied broadband. I could have tried to access it via my existing PC but that had started getting slower, already, so I thought I'd futureproof myself instead. I had by this time moved to London and sold my car, so this changeover required a van delivery... which arrived five days late courtesy of the Jubilee weekend. There was a lot to unbox, including a weighty monitor, two speakers, a free printer and innumerable discs containing licensed software. The transfer of files was thankfully easier this time because the old PC allowed me to burn them onto a CD, so I was up and running pretty fast.
↓ 3 years 8 months
Computer 6:Sony VAIO PCG-7G1M laptop(19th February 2006)
I bought my sixth computer because the fifth one died. The blue screen of death appeared without warning, further investigation proved that the hard drive was corrupt and (sigh) the most expensive computer I ever bought had bitten the dust. I needed a replacement fast so nipped down to PC World on the bus and lifted a laptop... and that was the end of my desktop era. My new purchase was delightfully compact but took ages to configure the way I wanted, and it also took several weeks for me to get used to how much smaller the screen was. Transferring files wasn't an issue because everything on computer 5 had been lost, but I did manage to copy some across from computer 4 because CD drives were still a feature.
↓ 3 years 10 months
Computer 7:Lenovo T500 Thinkpad(21st December 2009)
I bought my seventh computer because the sixth was slowing down. Its memory capacity wasn't all it could have been, because I'd bought it off the shelf in a hurry, so for my next purchase I went bespoke. Friends recommended Chinese firm Lenovo, so I ticked off a shopping list and they knocked up something more suitable to my needs. It took three weeks to arrive, then failed to boot when I turned it on, but I successfully earned my geek credentials by tweaking the bios. This time transferring old files was a matter of filling a USB stick umpteen times, mostly with photos (and I spent almost as long attempting to re-enter all my previous passwords).
↓ 5 years 7 months
Computer 8:Lenovo T550 Thinkpad(20th July 2015)
I bought my eighth computer because the seventh was full. One of the problems with ordering a bespoke laptop is that you might not perfectly judge all the necessary parameters, and last time round I'd failed to realise how much larger digital photos were going to get. This time I went back to the same manufacturer and upped the spec. I also (correctly) decided I wouldn't need a CD-ROM drive any more, but should have added a couple more USB ports to save repeated unplugging. Transferring old files was dead easy this time, partly because most of them were backed up on an external hard drive, but mainly because I could create a home network and simply wi-fi everything across.
↓ 5 years
I haven't yet bought a ninth computer because the eighth still works perfectly well. I'm not one for consumer churn just for the sake of it, particularly at a thousand pounds a time, but given that my laptop is the gadget I use most I should perhaps be considering an upgrade soon. The sudden death of computer 5 taught me that it's better to undertake succession planning in advance than to find yourself digitally adrift overnight. Computer 3 has also failed recently, I think because its internal battery is exhausted, but computers 4, 6 and 7 still power up successfully. This gives me reassurance that computer 8 should still have plenty of life left in it... but when is the right time to buy a new one?
