Computer Hardware Depreciation/rotation

Hello,

Is there any resource that describes the approximately lifetime
of PC hardware and whatnot? I'm building a case for my IT department
for implementing new hardware, specifically CPU's. I'd like to do it
in 33% increments, meaning, i would replace the bottom-third of the
PC's in the company with new hardware.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Your best resource might be right under you nose. Do you inventory
your systems and track hardware failure rates? If you want to get
realistic numbers about how many systems can be expected to fail, look
at how many have failed already. Just keep in mind that if 1000
systems out of 10000 failed last year you now have a population of
9900 systems and could expect 990, not 1000, to fail this year. This
is a hunch, but I think you will have trouble justifying replacing 1/3
of your systems based on a component reliability argument. It will
realistically take 20 years for your equipment to enter a wear out
phase where the failure rate you currently experience begins to
increase.

A better argument to replace systems might be to watch a sample of
users work. Time how long the users with old hardware spend waiting
on systems to boot, and apps to load - then take the same measurement
on faster systems. Add up the total time wasted and see if the lost
opportunity cost justifies new hardware.

I doubt you will be able to find any published numbers about realistic
computer system reliability. The numbers you want to search for are
the MTBF (mean time between failures), MTTF (mean time to failure),
AFR (annual failure rate), or ARR (annual return rate). Good luck
with your project.

- James B
()

(Dee_Snuts) wrote in message news:<. com>...
> Hello,
>
> Is there any resource that describes the approximately lifetime
> of PC hardware and whatnot? I'm building a case for my IT department
> for implementing new hardware, specifically CPU's. I'd like to do it
> in 33% increments, meaning, i would replace the bottom-third of the
> PC's in the company with new hardware.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help.