QOTD: What Determines Your Upgrade Cycle?

[Onus]

[citation][nom]Twoboxer[/nom]When something significant breaks or my PC cannot do well something (eg, a game) that I want it to do well.That approach is bad enough lol, and anything more is certainly a waste of time and money.[/citation]
That's about it for me too, although rarely does anything significant break, as I only do mild OC and try to buy quality parts. I'll get a new GPU if I think I'll benefit from it now and in the immediate future. The HD4850 I got 5-6 months ago is still more than my current games/apps need, and may be for some time.
I also have gotten to upgrade by passing my current machine on to a family member (e.g. my father got my last one), but there's no one left in my family who needs a PC, particularly not a Q9450.

 

[matt87_50]

I upgrade when I need more awesome in games.
I never just buy a whole new box.
I last "upgraded" cause my computer broke, sadly with PC gaming the way it is at the moment (full of crappy console ports) there has been little reason for me to upgrade to play the latest games

I think its really sad whats happening to PC gaming, the PC has always been the people's system, consoles are the corporations' systems (also Macs and Laptops on the hardware side).

 

[fausto]

full upgrade when your motherboard can't grow anymore. Chances are i will use my e6750 until it becomes a bottleneck...hopefully by that time the core i5 and i7 are down to 200 dollars and 100 bucks for a motherboard...so i can make that upgrade....ddr3 would have to come way down too. i guess for me it has to be serious bang for the buck and actually needed. right now my system does all i need at full settings.

 

[ravenlord]

money... how much i have vs how much it costs to upgrade is the most important factor for me. I will not upgrade if i cant afford it, and if i can, i have to get value for my money. It always comes around to about a 3 to 4 year cycle where money is good enough to upgrade and value for technology is right where I can afford it (best components for the price).

 

[wasteoftime]

Every two years.

 

[the_one111]

[citation][nom]mcnuggetofdeath[/nom]Whether I really and truly want to play a game well. At the moment, nothing intrigues me and I can play 90% of what I play at or close to max settings. Since there havent been any major releases recently that i wanted, Its been awhile. Also not having money puts a damper on that sort of thing. Currently waiting for DX11 cards.[/citation]
True. I'm planning to build a completely new gaming system in the next 4 years or so (after TES 5 comes out, Modern Warfare 2, etc.)

I tried jumping into the console gaming... needless to say I will never go back. Too much "DRM" and restrictions. Give me a PC any day.

 

[afrobacon]

Once my computer seems noticeably slow compared to a 'normal' prebuilt (and overclocking doesn't help the situation) a chain of events usually leads to me breaking down and doing an upgrade.

 

[JasonAkkerman]

Two things:

1. what does my bank account look like.
2. and most importantly, what does the wife say.

 

[FSXFan]

I pretty much upgrade as I can afford to. All the parts in my system now were bought at different times. First came the PSU, then the GPU. Last year I got a new q6600, mobo, and memory. Earlier this year I replaced both DVD/RW's when the old ones quit and I got four new hard drives (3 at once and 1 more a month later) to replace my old ones. It's all still in a crappy old Raidmax case that I bought back with my Athlon 64 single core when they came out.

I would have to save for a long time to buy a complete new system, but I can't seem to do that. Whenever I get a little extra money it either goes to my Bronco Fund (cause I have no choice but to save for parts for it since nothing's cheap on that money pit), or I want to put it right into the computer. That usually means something that's gonna make it perform better, hence the old case. I really would love to have a nice new Antec, but I need more memory, I want another monitor, and when the next generation ATI cards come out I'm there.

 

[Bullheaded67]

In the past it was game performance or a major step in technology. With my current system now I anticipate upgrading only to add storage and major GPU advancement. I am thinking of exploring greater sound quality as well which has never been a driving factor for me. I might explore water cooling too but not before the newer GPUs are out. At this point my focus is fine tuning and optimizing.

 

[eddieroolz]

I will upgrade whenever a game that I really want to play comes out and I can't play it at anything higher than medium-low.

For me, that would probably be Spring 2011.

 

[doomtomb]

Every 12-18 months I upgrade about 3 areas that need improvement, and then after about two times of that, it is time to build a new box. For right now with my system, I'm planning on holding onto my Core 2 Quad until the new standards come out like 6-core processors, SATA III, USB 3.0, PCI-E 3.0 (possibly), SSDs become perfected, DX11 cards. Once those things get settled in over the next year or so I will make some big upgrades.

 

[royalcrown]

My last upgrade was triggered by a need for more usb ports. the one before that was more ports / modern conveniences (like a card reader)

 

[the associate]

I upgrade under 3 conditions.

1) If I can't enjoy a game with decent settings and a decent frame rate, ex: I recently upgraded to a quad core just to play GTA4

2) If I am more than 2 generations behind, I start to ponder upgrading, ex: I upgraded from a 6800gt to a 4850

3) How much money I have to waste, ex: bought myself an X-Fi XtremeGamer sound card about a year and a half ago for fun

 

[universalremonster]

I do full ground up builds only when I have to change to a new CPU socket, or something like when we transitioned from agp to pci-e. It seems I dont really upgrade parts like HDD's and stuff unless something dies, at which point I like to buy whatever is nice at that time. I am fortunate to have a couple friends that also enjoy pc gaming but are on a slightly tighter budget than me so I always have someone to sell my video card to when its time for a new one. Generally I will switch video cards if I can at least double the performance for less than $275 (I went from an ATI X1800 to a 3870 then a 4870)or if there is a new OS giving us a new DirectX, I'll wait for the 2nd gen cards to come out and try to pick one up. I will look for a new DX 11 video card with next years tax return I'm guessing and will probably roll my i7 rig for quite a long time until it becomes the bottle neck.

 

[Caffeinecarl]

For individual parts, it's almost pure desire mixed with being able to hit the price point I want. (ie - graphics card below $200)

For the whole machine, It's when the whole mess is no longer functionally sound and I can't use any of the core parts (PSU) for anything practical. If I'm getting a new system and the motherboard and PSU are just plain dying but other parts are still good, I use them to help friends who just need anything better than what they have and they really appreciate it.

 

[redgarl]

Mostly when I fell I need a change, my computer doesn't respond to my need or I got a hell of a deal like my new rig.

Still, I try to never do impulsive buy...

 

[adchac]

My upgrade cycle:

Every 1.5 years: video card.
Every 2 years: CPU, Mainboard and memory.
Every 3 years: PSU or mouse and keyboard or HD
Every 4 years: Sound card or fans or CPU Cooler.
When X dies: monitor or speakers.
I don't know when: case and DVDRW

 

[hemelskonijn]

There are several major indicators but the most important are:

1. When something breaks and the replacement is more expansive then an upgrade in example going from a nice system running with PC-100/133 RAM or even DDR. (buying sufficient RAM costs as much as a new budget mobo+RAM+CPU)

2. When i get bored and feel like i have money to spend in combination with walking in to some really interesting hardware like in example a terratec DVB-T+analogue system that includes a CI module.(which i used for one day ... the day i bought it to be exact but its a nice dust collector)

3. When i am getting pissed at my pc (as in WOW wont run at more then 12fps and even so has extreme frame drops on my latop and i got sick of trying to tweak it out of the frame drops and thus bought myself 2x 1GB pc3200 SO-DIMM's and have 15fps now and no frame drops so it is playable though now i do have a horizontal line stretching from the shoulders of any thing that fly's that i really cant tweak away)

 

[reasonablevoice]

MONEY! Its cold hard cash that determines, for the most part, when/what I'll be upgrading.

If I had the cash I'd upgrade every other generation. When I was poor I went 5 years without a new rig, though I did upgrade.

In 2001 when I went off to my freshman year at UCSC and put together a system with a T-bird Athlon @1.33Ghz, 256mb of DDR-266, Asus A7A266, Geforce 2 Pro, Combo drive, 40gb hdd, and Windows 98SE and I though I was balling.

Being a poor student I kept that rig with minimal improvements (RAM, ODD, GPU, XP) until 2007 when I put together my current rig:
e8400 @3.6Ghz, 4gb DDR2-800, 2xWD6400AAKS RAID 0, HD4890, DVD-RW, Vista Ult. 64-bit.

I'll probably be keeping my current rig for the next few years, though I'll probably put a quad core in once Intel switches to Core i3 branding and we see some lower prices and it'll probably see one more video card and Windows 7.

 

[adchac]

Oh, i forgot, my upgrade cycle depends on money (of course) and if a really really really need it. The Video card is the only thing that i buy without a particular need, i just buy it if i can pay it.

 

[AdamB5000]

I used to go every three years, but after buying a house my money goes toward other things that now seem more important. My current pc is now at least 3 1/2 years old (I forget exactly) and I don't plan on upgrading any time soon.

 

[Guest]

My upgrades are when I feel that I can "double" the performance of my system- and afford it. For me this is about a two-three year cycle.
Video cards I upgrade in between i.e. about every 18 months.

The last cpu upgrade was from a Athlon X2 2800 to a 3.2ghz i7. The computer feels twice as snappy but who knows.

 

[Guest]

Until it can't run anymore! Actually, I'm hopping on the Core i7 Bandwagon myself here by years end. What got me to this conclusion is that its been 5 years. My Tank of a gen2 P4 runs really well, however, its time. The p4 Will get relegated to Server and VM duty. Do I need to upgrade? Yes and no. My current system works fine, however, I feel like I need to stay with all the new standards (PCI Express, Dual and Triple Channel, SATAII, everything, as my P4 is AGP 8x, and IDE only) Just more or less as a refresher for common knowledge. I think its silly to upgrade when a certain BUS is upgraded (When AGP went to PCI Express, then 4x, then 16x, then SATA killed IDE, and then SATAII killed SATA, Memory constantly gaining speed, etc) But My Board, CPU, and Chipset are now way behind the times. I would like to see a Jump in HDMI technology before I really go (get the Audio on it, and working, WELL, damnit) But Everything else is so past tense, its time for a good refresher. Windows 7, Core i7, SATAII, and SSD, here I come!

 

[Guest]

First, I need to be able to get double the performance, but computers are so fast these days that I may have to start waiting until I can get triple the performance of my current PC. Second, I need to be able to get this performance from buying mid-range components. I don't think I can ever justify buying top of the line components. Finally, I will continue to upgrade my current PC until I reach a point where I simply can't upgrade anymore. My last PC was a socket 764 based motherboard with an AGP slot and DDR memory.