probably around year 2000
My last NEW consumer off he self computers where
1) HP Kayak XU's and XAs with Dual Pentium 2's
2) HP Vectras with Pentium 3 CPU's
3) IBM ThinkPad's
4) Macbook Pros
5) HP Pavillion laptops.
6) Dell notebooks.
7) Tablets, Tablets, Tablets......

After that for home computers I have purchased used top of the line Mac Pros and HP Z series workstations.
I would like to buy a NEW computer again if they would just make something I like at a reasonable price.
I was hoping for the NEW Mac Pro but it seems uncertain now that the M1 chip is out.
I guess I am old as I still call them “laptops”

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-03-29, 10:44:

I was hoping for the NEW Mac Pro but it seems uncertain now that the M1 chip is out.

We’re waiting on the M1(x) / M2 / M64—whatever they decide to call it—Mac Pro refresh for my studio. Ideally it’ll be in a smaller size with significantly better performance at launch than the old Xeons that were obsolete as soon as they were announced.

A second distant hope is that it might mean a slight price dip in line with the M1-powered MacBook Pro and Mac mini, though I wouldn’t hold my breath on that...

Absolutely brand new, fairly rarely. About every 5-8 years. In between I just upgrade what I have. I prefer platforms with good upgrade paths.
Also, the last about 15 years was really generous. For web browsing one can still get by with a Core2 Quad or Phenom 2 X4.
Same with gaming. Between 2007-2017 you didn't have to break the bank to play most games.

Since the release of the AMD Ryzen progress seems to pick up so I don't know if I can keep my upgrade schedule.
I bought my current daily driver last year and I can upgrade from Ryzen5 2600 to 3700 if necessary. Currently I'm satisfied with the 2600 so I expect this platform should last for me for about 2024.

I've only ever owned 1 PC and 1 laptop new.
1995 The family upgraded from the Apple IIe to a DX2/66
1998 For my birthday I got my own PC a P2 400, Ram was maxed out and Video was upgraded from 16MB TNT to 32MB GF2MX during its life
2006 Got a Laptop at cost price from work, kind of a leaving present to myself before going off traveling. Stolen a year later 🙁
2007-13 Compaq D510 P4 non HT. Free decommissioned PC from a customer. Browsing was SLOW in its last year.

I've also had at least one but often more laptops since 2007, all work hand me downs. Sometimes due to age sometimes due to a failed HDD which I can salvage from somewhere else.
So haven't spent any money on a "daily driver" for over 15 years! it helps I don't play any recent games.