My PC - HP 64 bit - appears to be in good working order. In the past, PCs were periodically replaced by newer models. Is there an argument to replace my PC when Windows 11 arrives.
I am thinking about this Trusted Platform Module and also about the file system that I believe is replacing NTFS. There was also something about a new type of BIOS. Would a new PC be more energy-efficient or offer any other advantages?
My general philosopy is 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' but I am interested in what I may or may not be missing.
It depends a bit on what you use it for. I still use my original heuristic of upgrading whenever a 3x performance increase would be obtained with new kit. That threshold is crossed now but only for applications that can run on multiple cores.
Single threaded operation the latest i7-10700 is only 2x faster than the now ancient i7-3770. Not enough difference to be worth it. You would almost certainly be better off with more memory or newer SSD upgrade.
Depends what you are doing. Video rendering and gaming is expensive in energy use likewise bitcoin mining. General desktop PC even one used for fairly heavy computations there isn't a compelling reason to upgrade. (depends a bit what CPU you already have - see CPU benchmark)
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Video cards use a lot of power so if you don't use the pC for gaming there is a big power saving using Intel internal CPU graphics.
The pain and suffering of getting to grips with yet another MS OS released too early with numerous instabilities and with compulsory multi GB upgrades thrown at you every week. Never be an early adopter of new software - let some other sucker find most of the bugs.
Why update anything stick with candles for lighting and horse back for travel. To my mind wait until those who feel they HAVE to be at the cutting edge have solved the teething problems then upgrade , Computers generally get smaller and more efficient as time goes on but for office applications they are certainly fast enough just now. No NEED to upgrade just expect to have to as software makes advances and requires newer hardware.
I can't remember the details (something about secure boot and TMP) but Windows Eleven NEEDS a new computer to run ie one with a CPU released after about 2017. And it requires an internet connection.
Linus (a well known tech-tuber) doesn't seem too impressed with Win 11.
How many people really need to "unleash the power of" a faster machine or the latest OS? Actually, those two seem to cancel each other out. As an Intel salesman once balefully said to me. "Intel giveth and Microsoft taketh away"!
At work we needed a lot of convincing that the cost of an upgrade - particularly an OS upgrade - was worthwhile. Now retired, I recently moved up to Windows 7-32 from XP. I've got an old HP Laserjet and an old scanner that work fine with this version of Windows 7. When the scanner cold cathode tube became too dim for scanner to compensate I replaced it with a string of white LEDs. The only problem I have with it is that I still have to accept that the scanner software demands a "warming up" delay. ;o
As you say, "if it ain't broke don't fix it". More to the point, don't be an "upgrade junkie"
I'd look carefully at power consumption - it can make a big difference, depending (obviously) on what you've got, what you do, and what you replace it with. My PC is about 5 years old and it wouldn't be worth getting a W11 compatible machine.
So a new machine might save you money over time. Whether it's good for the environment depends largely on what happens to your HP . . .
You mean: consider also the power needed to construct a new PC? I think I am persuaded now. My remaining question is whether (other than a fire) is there anything catastrophic that could fail in my PC that could not be replaced? Can a motherboard be replaced?
Possibly, if you particularly want to run 11. However 10 will be supported til 2025 at least.
File system is the same, but you need (as of current writing) to have the BIOS in EFI mode, and secure boot turned on.
If you went for a lower spec new one, then it might be a lower energy user, but there may not be much in it. An ultra small form factor one built using laptop spec CPU etc will need less juice certainly.
Probably not much to start with - but it may change with time. Hardware prices are silly at the moment anyway - so save purchases for later if you can.
About 6 years ago I bought a new PC. For the first time in my life it felt no different from the old PC it replaced.
Every now and again I think I'll buy a new PC and I think I would like a small, quiet, NUC variety. I check the performance and while quite reasonable it is no better than my 10 year old PC.
Now the future is a toss up between x86 NUC PC's being fast enough to be worth replacing my desktop PC and raspberry Pi style arm machines being quick enough to use as desktop, remoting into a more powerful server when required.
Windows 11 (according to Microsoft) requires a TPM and a UEFI BIOS with Secure Boot. The filesystem remains NTFS, it just uses the TPM for encryption keys with Bitlocker (which can be used with a pin instead of a TPM, if you want to use it at all).
None of this is actually required.
Windows 11 runs fine with none of these - it is only the installer that checks for them ... and that can be bypassed.
Dropping into the terminal window during the installer allows using regedit to change a couple of values and avoid the checks.
Microsoft may remove those registry options, so copying a single file from a Windows 10 install disk to a Windows 11 one causes it to install without the checks.
A change to the installer may prevent that working, so copying the main install file from a Windows 11 disk to a Windows 10 disk will work, as the Windows 10 installer will happily install Windows 11 and, of course, does not include any checks for TPM, UEFI or Secure Boot.
I currently have installed an Insider version of 11, as a virtual machine, on my home server - which does not meet any of those requirements and is running on a (supposedly) unsupported processor.
It's all very well saying "I'd look carefully at power consumption" but, in general, that's impossible. Have you ever seen a specification for a PC that tells you what the *actual* power consumption is for the configuration being sold?
You'll find a few specialist sellers of quiet/green/fanless systems who do quote figures but there's precious few.
Yes, I know power consumption varies with what you're doing but just the idle power consumption is a pretty good guide. Overall power consumption is likely to be pretty close to idle as very few users (I suppose games players might be an exception) push systems very hard.
I calculate power cost as *about* £1 per watt per year. So my Fujitsu Esprimo which idles at about 20 watts (I chose it for its low power but was surprised by *how* low it is) costs me about £20/year to run, as it's on continuously.
Unless you have a very power hungry machine it's not going to pay back very quickly by replacing it.
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