The Hidden Cost of Hanging on to Old Computers
It’s easy to look at a five-year-old computer and think, “It still works fine, why replace it?”
And technically, you’re right, it still turns on, runs your apps, maybe even feels okay most days.
But in business, “working” and “working well” are two very different things.
At around the five-year mark, computers don’t usually crash, they just start costing you time in ways that aren’t obvious at first. And those minutes lost to lag, rebooting, or waiting on files to open add up faster than most people realize.
What Happens Around Year Five
From a technical standpoint, performance and reliability both take a noticeable dip once hardware crosses the 4–5 year mark.
Even well-maintained systems start showing their age:
- SSDs slow down as they reach write-cycle limits
- BIOS and firmware updates stop coming
- Drivers lag behind OS releases
- Fans get louder, parts wear out, and thermals creep up
- Security patches become less frequent for older chipsets
The result isn’t one big failure; it’s death by a thousand tiny slowdowns.
A login that takes 30 seconds longer.
A spreadsheet that freezes once a week.
A morning crash and reboot that kills momentum right before the first patient or client walks in.
On paper, that PC is still “fine.”
In real life, it’s the quiet drag on your entire team’s productivity.
The Business Impact
When you keep aging systems in production, you trade a predictable capital expense for unpredictable operational pain.
That’s not theory, industry data backs it up. Studies from HP, Microsoft, and Gartner consistently show that keeping PCs longer than five years increases total cost of ownership by 20–30% due to:
- Increased downtime and support incidents
- Compatibility issues with new software or peripherals
- Lost employee productivity (the part no one budgets for)
Our general rule of thumb at iON MSP:
- Workstations: 5 years
- Mission-critical systems: 4 years
- Laptops: 4 years
- Servers: 7 years
Those aren’t arbitrary numbers, they’re based on performance curves, warranty coverage, and the point where reliability begins to taper off sharply.
A Simple Example
Let’s say you have 15 employees, and each loses just 10 minutes per day dealing with lag, app crashes, or slow logins.
That’s over 54 hours a month of wasted time, more than a full week of paid labor, gone to waiting on old machines.
Now add the cost of emergency replacements, tech support, and downtime while someone’s computer is being re-imaged.
Suddenly, the “savings” from keeping that old PC don’t look so good.
Security Matters Too
Beyond performance, old hardware carries real security risk.
After a few years, device manufacturers quietly stop producing new firmware and chipset updates. This “end of life” isn’t always announced, it just happens behind the scenes. Intel, AMD, Dell, Lenovo, and HP all maintain lifecycle schedules, and once a platform ages out, no new microcode or BIOS fixes are released.
That means known vulnerabilities in the hardware itself may never be patched. Even if your operating system is up to date, an attacker can exploit flaws in older firmware or device controllers that no longer receive vendor support.
So, while your antivirus says you’re secure, the foundation underneath is no longer being maintained and that’s the risk no one talks about.
Lifecycle planning isn’t just about speed; it’s about ensuring your hardware stays within the window of active vendor support, where real security updates still exist.
How Smart Businesses Handle It
The key is to make replacement routine, not reactionary.
Instead of replacing everything at once, spread upgrades across a 4–5 year rotation:
- Replace roughly 20–25% of systems each year
- Keep hardware standardized for faster setup and support
- Budget proactively instead of reacting to failures
That’s how larger organizations avoid the chaos of unexpected downtime — and it’s exactly how small and mid-size businesses should be thinking too.
Final Thought
Computers don’t suddenly stop working, they just stop working well enough.
The five-year mark isn’t when they fail; it’s when they quietly start wasting time, energy, and money.
Proactive replacement isn’t about buying shiny new toys it’s about making sure your team, and your business, never slow down because of aging tech.
Need some personalized help navigating this? Book some time directly on my calendar. --- Book time with Ryan Martin
It’s not about how long your computer lasts — it’s about how long it stays worth using.