How old is your hardware?

[slaxxx]

MyLifeUncut - Windows Media Encoder won't run on macOS/x so you would have to run bootcamp or parallels and install Microsoft OS also to make it run.

flip4mac/sorenson

[LiveTwinksCam]

flip4mac/sorenson

I don't think that will work. It has to be the windows media encoder, he streams 24x7 "webcam" to our servers, which runs windows media. He isn't reading an encoded file or opening an encoded file.

[gaystoryman]

XP on all my machines, but I am not one for always upgrading either. I am cheap. so my newest desktop is a few years old. Monitor is new though.

Plan on upgrading to a new desktop by end of the year, if I am convinced that its a viable need. I'd rather spend the money on really important stuff, like toys for the wife... :kickcan:

[MyLifeUncut]

I'd rather spend the money on really important stuff, like toys for the wife... :kickcan:

That sounds like a good investment to me. The only reason I may upgrade to Vista is I got a copy for 20 bucks from school. :square:

[Xstr8guy]

My main desktop is (I think) about 18 months old. It's a really deluxe HP with 2 HD's in RAID 0 array. This was the first computer that I didn't 'step down' to save money. I bought the most computer that I could afford at the time and I have no regrets. But it is starting to show it's age now. I will probably need to replace it in another 6 months. Hopefully Vista will be mature by then.

My laptop is around 9 months old... another HP. I am officially and HP fan now. It's a nice little laptop used mostly for travel and video encoding. It's nearly as fast at encoding video as my desktop.

The third computer is my partner's. It's about 2 years old and was kind of a budget buy Sony desktop. My partner is much less demanding of his computer than I am. It's a nice backup to use for video encoding as well but nothing special.

I've really become fond of HP the past 2 years. They don't seem to be as afraid of the cutting edge as Sony, Dell and Gateway.

Btw, my sister who has a computer programming degree, bought a Gateway last year. It was built and shipped to her and immediately it malfunctioned and refused to burn discs. She tried to fix it (bad drivers) but failed. She returned it for repair. It was returned to her still malfunctioning. I tried to fix it but failed. She went round and round with Gateway until eventually she just threw it away and bought a Sony.

[MiamiB]

I have an Asus laptop. Never heard of them? They are mainly know for motherboards but they make a number of laptops which are sold mostly outside of the USA.

I bought my current laptop a year and 1/2 ago. It is a duo core and was sold as Vista Compatible. I have installed Vista Ultimate on it and it runs great. Very stable and at least as fast as XP.

Just as Luke said, I normally replace my laptop at least every 2 years just because new and better models are introduced. I also travel around so I am into the portable aspect of laptops but with them being as powerful as desktops I would never buy another desktop again.

Lee

[gaybucks_chip]

We have a Core 2 Duo machine that is primarily used for editing and rendering, an Athlon 64 which is mostly for rendering, both with 20" lcd monitors, and a P4 running Linux with 8- 750 gig drives in RAID-5 which serves as our media storage server. My main desktop machine is also a P4, 3800 or something, i think. All except the Core 2 Duo are about a year or so old.

I have an Athlon 64 laptop (HP) and an older Celeron laptop (also HP) that I use when traveling or when I just don't feel like sitting in the office. AJ just got a shiny new high end Mac laptop that can run the pants off of any of our full size machines.

Generally, we upgrade either when something breaks or when we need something new. Almost all of our machines are ones I built up from parts, which allowed me to get a faster and better quality machine than what I could have bought off the shelf.

Except for the Mac, everything runs XP. I will only switch to Vista when I absolutely, positively have to.