Desktop PCs cycle onward in government offices

Waiting for a new desktop PC? PCs in government offices tend to be replaced every three to five years, a GCN telephone survey found.Eight-five percent of managers in the survey sample said their PC had been replaced within the last two years. A much smaller group, 15 percent, said it had been three to five years since they got a new PC. A tiny slice, 2 percent, said it had been more than five years since their PC was last replaced.Three-quarters of the managers we talked with thought their agencies’ PCs were fast and powerful enough to meet users’ needs over the next three to five years.More than half, 56 percent, noted a trend toward longer PC lifecycles as CPUs have become faster, more powerful and loaded with memory.The biggest factor agencies take into account when deciding to buy new PCs is their need to accommodate new applications, 48 percent of managers said.CPU clock speed (40 percent), amount of RAM (37 percent) and hard drive size (35 percent) were less of an issue, the survey found.