Typical useful life of your trading laptop

[smile]

I am close to buying a refurbished or used Dell Precision M4600 with 16 GB Ram and 256 GB SSD similar to this but with a 256 GB SSD:


I believe this unit is about 4 years old.

I am wondering what I can expect for a useful life for this or any laptop.

What has your experience been? What did you learn?

When you've given up on a laptop, was the repair cost so high that buying new made more sense?

Did you buy a warranty and was the worth the money to you?

If out of warranty or if you never bought a warranty were you able to make your own repairs?



Many thanks for any advice or insight.

 

[smile]

Apple does not support its products very long:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624

Fascinating article about Apple repairs:

http://www.businessinsider.com/ex-a...macs-may-be-harder-to-repair-than-ever-2014-1

 

[Ditch]

Not sure that's a good deal. I've been using dell laptops for trading for more than 10 years. I don't need a powerful workhorse, every two years I replace mine with a middle of the line type machine for business use, cause in my experience they don't last much longer than 3 years and they're outdated technologically by then anyway.

 

[learner2007]

I've been using a Fujitsu laptop every day for 10 years. Other than the fan being noisy it still runs fine. I also have 2 Dell Dimension 9150 desktops that I've being using for trading for
10 years. They still run like new!!
I do a disk clean up, disk defrag, check disk, and virus scans etc. every week. Maybe that's why they've lasted so long.

 

[sculptor66]

Apple does not support its products very long:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624

Fascinating article about Apple repairs:

http://www.businessinsider.com/ex-a...macs-may-be-harder-to-repair-than-ever-2014-1

Apple's hardware support for 5 years after the product is no longer manufactured is not much different from other companies, like Dell: "Dell provides quality hardware repairs for Dell Laptops, Tablets, Desktops and All-in-Ones that are less than 5 years old*" https://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/19/services/out-of-warranty

Of course this makes sense, otherwise the manufacturers would have to hold massive stock of spare parts for obsolete devices.

That being said, I would not buy a 4 year old refurbished laptop for regular use. One year, that's ok, but 4 years is too old IMHO. There is an increased risk of failure and that the device can no longer be repaired. Of course there are exceptions, for example if you want a machine for very simple tasks or as a 'backup' computer.

Of course, in the end it's also about the price...

 

[Pekelo]

I've been using a Fujitsu laptop every day for 10 years.

For trading? You fucking kidding me. I am a cheap bastard, but even if your laptop was top notch 10 years ago, it has been still obsolete for the last 2-3 years at least. Computers are cheap and if trading is your business, you should get a new one in every 2-3 years...

I don't even get why the OP is so cheap. If he is profitable is it really the trading laptop he is trying to save a few bucks???

 

[learner2007]

Computers are cheap and if trading is your business, you should get a new one in every 2-3 years...

I used to buy new ones every few years. But I was happy with XP when Vista came out and later decided to wait for 7. When 7 came out I was still happy with XP and heard good things about 8. But after seeing 8, I didn't like it and am now considering 10. But still happy with XP!!

 

[smile]

"I don't even get why the OP is so cheap. If he is profitable is it really the trading laptop he is trying to save a few bucks???"


This is why I started this thread.

I want to hear opinions and points of view that challenge my current line of thinking.

I make better decisions that way.

 

[Scataphagos]

"I don't even get why the OP is so cheap. If he is profitable is it really the trading laptop he is trying to save a few bucks???"


This is why I started this thread.

I want to hear opinions and points of view that challenge my current line of thinking.

I make better decisions that way.

You can buy a used laptop from any of eBay's certified refurbishers... for 80-90% off of the original MSRP. Even if it craps out after a year or two, it's still a good value for the time you used it compared to buying "new".

BTW... M4600 is probably a good bet.

 

[Handle123]

4 years? That is like a 101 year old man, that company should be paying you for taking it.
Really, you don't want to add problems to your life.

I buy new every year and donate old ones to schools. I buy cheapest, RAM is everything to me. Speed is less so, I don't play games so I don't need greatest display, get 17 inches or bigger and add ram. I have had Quads and if you just going to be running your charting and platform, this is good, I just ordered 3 for myself.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9864171&CatId=4385