The most amazing thing is how in each case the passage of time saw each machine become slower and slower until eventually they are nothing but a relic.

The weird thing is even a smartphone running basically stock apps and nothing else will still exhibit the same effect. Blistering fast out of the box, frustratingly slow by the time it's replaced. I wonder sometimes if the CPU isn't clocking itself down based on some cycle count, or maybe the flash is literally wearing down and losing IOPS.