Two (well, three) things have helped me extend the effective life of a few machines for self and family. 1. (Particularly for laptops,) Purchase top-end discreet graphics processing.); 2. Max out the RAM before it becomes terribly expensive (as its form factor is passed by); 3. When storage space becomes constrained, throw a new hard drive in there.
Particularly the graphics processing on laptops. Inevitably, this ends up making the difference between a machine becoming "a little slow" versus it becoming "unusable", for general, day-to-day use.
In the next ten years, who knows? But I'm betting that going with the best graphics processing available (again, particularly in laptops, where this is often un-upgradable) is going to be a good investment in terms of extending a unit's effective lifespan.
Particularly the graphics processing on laptops. Inevitably, this ends up making the difference between a machine becoming "a little slow" versus it becoming "unusable", for general, day-to-day use.
In the next ten years, who knows? But I'm betting that going with the best graphics processing available (again, particularly in laptops, where this is often un-upgradable) is going to be a good investment in terms of extending a unit's effective lifespan.