In the good old days, we upgraded every five years or so, but that was
more 58-68-70-9x7.  Back then you needed to upgrade the CPU to have any
kind of growth path (and to get/use the latest and greatest MPE
features).  Nowadays, one can add disk or memory with no real problem
and additional users simply connect over TCP/IP rather than adding ATP
or ADCC cards.  Of course business/application growth has always been
the true driver of upgrades.  If you're doing more, supporting more
users, then you will need to grow sooner rather than later.  If you're
homesteading the same old workload, no real need to upgrade...

Glenn 

-----Original Message-----
From: OpenMPE Support Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Jeff Kubler
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 2:07 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: How long???

To all;
Appreciate everyone's response.  I wondered if anyone is a aware of a
"rule of thumb" that most would use for the average life that might be
safely expected from a computer system?  For instance, how often should
one plan to upgrade your computer systems?  Prior to HP foolish
termination of the life of the HP 3000, what had been the normal
practice for upgrading your HP 3000's?
Thanks,
Jeff