Yesterday I mentioned that i wanted to get dual monitors. As I started to research which graphics adapter to get, I found that my primary desktop machine is three and a half years old. It is still pretty stout: 3Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, WD 10K drive and the aforementioned ATI 8600 Pro graphics card. Sadly the graphics card is an AGP card.
This revelation led me to the question of whether I should get a new machine instead. While I can certainly afford one and would have no problem purchasing one if I wanted one, I genuinely feel that this one is good enough for my work in Ubuntu.
This is a first for me. While I haven't started the research for AGP cards, just the realization that I can continue to use a 3+ year old machine was quite surprising to me. I have always advocated that once a machine hit the magic three year point it was usually smarter to place rather than upgrade. I suppose there are always exceptions to the rule.