Laptop upgrade

How long can I use a laptop before it is time for an upgrade?

Depends, if you buy some crap laptop because it's cheap and look's cool, its already out of date.

Nah thats not cheap, thats decent, by cheap I mean $300 at Sams:

The Inspiron 1525:
2.4ghz
2gb ram (4gb possible)
and an factory vid card.

I mean it's no good for gaming, but it will stay up if you take care of it for 5+ years, it wont be top of the line come 3-4 but it will still be a good laptop.

My desktop I'm using right now I built for $469:
3.0GHz Quad-Core
8gb ram
2x ATI Radeon 2600XT (Crossfired)

It can handle any situation, but I'm afraid it's going to be swamped come next year, since they are already talking 8 core machines.

It depends on what you use it for. If you just want internet access...probably about 8 years. If you just want basic office products, probably about 5 years. For games, 1 year. On average, about 3 years.

Hmm, that all depends.
If you have an outdated laptop that happens to be cheap, I'd check around and see if you could get one that's reliable and works well. If its new for several years, then you could continue to use that until it wears out.