QOTD: What Determines Your Upgrade Cycle?

[makotech222]

Waiting for:
32nm cpus
Cheaper SSds
Lucid Hydra
Gt300
120hz monitors to go cheaper.

 

[Kyle B]

Considering my computer is over 9 years old.... I don't really have an upgrade cycle

 

[randomizer]

When I find a fantastic deal on something, which usually means I bought 1-year-old second-hand parts.

 

[QEFX]

When a new program comes out that I have to be able to run to make money (not just a game I want to play) = new system.

Desktop systems get a HD upgrade every 12 to 18 months, with the old HDs becoming 2nd, 3rd, 4th or external backup drives. Video cards get upgraded every 3 years or so (it has to be at least 3 times the framerate to justify $$$). Memory is already maxed with the new system, so no upgrades there. Everything else gets upgraded when I absolutely need it or when I get a sale price that is just to good to pass up.

I'm just too old to spend good money on expensive upgrades for games or to make my system all of 10% faster.

 

[magicandy]

Ideally I like to upgrade my parts when the new part is at least twice as fast, especially in the CPU and GPU areas. Unless I'm getting at least a 100% speed increase, I don't consider the upgrade worth it. There are exceptions of course like HDD and RAM where increases in performance are traditionally minimal, but apply the same logic to size or whatever reason you buy a specific part. Basically the new part has to be at least twice as good in whichever is the most important measurement for that part.

 

[magicandy]

To elaborate, my last CPU was a Q6600 meaning I'll be thinking of an upgrade to that soon, however my current GPU is a GTX 280 so it will probably be a good year until I see a single GPU that is at least twice as fast.

 

[lifelesspoet]

I have a three year plan. I build the most optimized system my budget will allow, trying to match specs to leave the smallest bottleneck possible. I don't do partial upgrades as by the time they are needed, they are overkill for my system. I game the hell out of it the first year then game very little in the third year. When I build the next one I go back and catch up on the previous years games that wouldn't run.
I Just want to squeeze out the most life out of the system as I can before I sent it on its way.

 

[ben850]

i plan for games that are coming out in the future. for example: diablo 3. even though it won't require a very strong system (based off of what we have seen) i would still like to run it at full settings and still have plenty of room to grow.

 

[baracubra]

Great Q. I upgrade whenever I can't run any game I want at max settings. Since I got myself a Crysis rig, (near max) there hasn't been anything to challenge my PC. When there is, then I'll upgrade.

Also I don't get why people upgrade only certain parts of a PC?? Every PC I've built so far has been matched so that each part is performing at its max, and any upgrade I would do would simply be bottlenecked by other parts :S

 

[juncwil]

When my computer stops running games that I want to play at decent settings, then its time for total overhaul. So its generally about every 4 years for me.

 

[one-shot]

When I can convince myself it's worth the investment. I edit pictures and encode video as well as some CAD work, so my i7 920 works well. I had a Conroe @ 3.6GHz, but didn't do so well with those tasks. The investment has been worth it so far

 

[stephenciauri]

I feel that software scales evenly with hardware, depending on what you are doing. For most basic educational uses, any 5 year old box would work great, granted the hardware isn't dead yet. Only reason Microsoft Office has gotten more heavyweight is because of its bubbly happy interface.

My upgrade cycle is correlates with the software that I use and its limitations. My OCd Opteron 170 works faster than most of the computers that I have used at work (Geek Squad), even after they have been formatted. As long as you take care of your unit and perform the proper maintenance, you should rarely ever have to get new hardware/software, unless the companies stop providing support for the respective product, or if you require a new feature that is included in the new version of the software. This is what I believe.

 

[chaohsiangchen]

Gaming computer: overhaul about every 3 years, when it can no longer run games released a year ago with decent frame rate.

Working computer: no upgrade until it's demise.

 

[Neggers]

Money I would say have been the big factor for me.

Up until this year I had been unemployed for 3 years, and the PC I was using was a AMD AthlonXP 2400+, 1GB DDR, Geforce 6800GT, So Basically it could run anything new.

I however have a new job this year (Finally!), and in the past month just upgraded to a brand new box, i7 920, 6GB DDR3 1600Mhz, GTX285, OCZ SSD, 24" HD LCD.

So I would say in future (as long as I'm still employed), I will prolly upgrade as I get new games that require more power. I'll probably pick up another GTX285 later in the year and run SLI. And then look at a new processor maybe early next year. And I would probably only look at starting a new box when this current one can longer be upgraded.

 

[Neggers]

Ugh, why isnt there an edit button for these, so many typos in my comment above.

So Basically it could run anything new

Should be "Couldnt run anything new"

and

current one can longer be upgraded

Should be "can no longer be upgraded"

 

[derek2006]

When I play a online game like an fps that requires fast movement and no lag, and I die because my computer lagged due to an explosion or to much action or whatever. Also I need 4x AA at 1680x1050 to always work with good graphics to my eye, doesn't necessarily have to be maxed. If it does not fulfill those requirements then I upgrade.

 

[Honis]

Since I went with AMD and the AM2 socket in 2004 I was able to upgrade part by part for the last 5 years.

It has been, Video Card 8800GTS 320MB (2005), PSU (2005), AMD 6000+ CPU (2007), Added RAM 2 gigs (2008), Video Card ATI 4870 (2009), Motherboard (forgot info) (2009).

My setup now has an AM2 socket so I feel another CPU upgrade coming on.

The PSU I got on the original build was to weak for the video card. The Motherboard was only upgraded because the original Motherboard took a static discharge when I pressed the power button. Learned my lesson in both cases. The PSU is name brand and 700W, more than enough for multi video cards and a 125W CPU. The ground on the power switch now has an exposed wire loop around the power button and is connected to the case (a metal button would be a better alternative).

 

[Zoidman]

I upgrade whenever I can find a buyer for my old parts, or want to increase frame rates. Typically my old parts are still far beyond anything the average user will ever experience or need, so its a good deal for them, and it pays for my future upgrades.

I'm currently in the processes of selling my current system (Q6600, Nvidia 680i mobo, & 8GB's of ram) and upgrading to an I7 system with 3GB's of DDR3 and the Mobo for only about 220$ after the old stuff is fully sold. This is beyond what most common (even power users) need, I have yet to physically see with my two eyes someone else who has a quad core beyond my own...

In short, money, but only when money I get from selling my computer stuff to upgrade to the new computer stuff. Also, I like the gloating rights to be able to max out all my games to show off... (except crysis d@mn that game lol)

 

[Guest]

About one year for past few years for a GPU swap, $120 around that for a medium-high upgrade, about that amount for rare ancient-to-obsolete rest of system swap.

 

[asgallant]

I don't think I've ever built a "completely" new system - every build uses at least a few components from the previous machine. The closest I ever came was my last major upgrade (going from an Athlon Xp 2000 to an Athlon 64 3000 skt 939 system) when I tossed everything but a hard drive, floppy drive (which is now in its 17th year or so), sound card, and DVD drive. Since then, I've had 1 CPU upgrade, 2 video card upgrades, 1 sound card upgrade, 2 HDD upgrades, 2 DVD replacements, and 2 ram upgrades.

I'm coming up on a major upgrade again, as my Athlon X2 4200 is getting long in the tooth, and I've noticed dramatically lower performance in newer game titles. I'll need a new MB and ram to go with a new CPU, and likely a new PSU as well. Assuming the timing works out as I expect it to, the build will coincide with my 18-24 month replacement cycle for graphics cards. I could end up keeping my sounds card and wireless network card, but since both are based on the old PCI bus, I expect I will need to upgrade both of those as well. My RAID 0 array (constructed with 2 1st gen Raptors) is slower than the high performance terabyte HDDs available today, so they will likely be replaced. If I throw a BluRay drive in there, that will replace the DVD burner. Since I won't need a floppy drive to install RAID drivers anymore, the FDD is going to go, leaving me with a case and a pair of storage HDDs (which might only stick around long enough to transfer their data to the new system).

Of course, that's only the plan - reality will likely differ, depending on how much disposable income I have (big factor, seeing as how I am currently unemployed). That would put my system at around 5 years to completely change out all components.

 

[effel]

I'm relatively new to the computer scene. My first build was 2 years ago with an e6400 and a 8600GTS. Since then I upgraded to an 8800GT a little over a year ago, most of the internals have stayed the same however. I'll probably be doing an upgrade when the mainstream DX11 cards hit the market ($150-200 price point) and I might switch motherboard platforms when my dual core is strained too much.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

A fresh start .... did that in 2001, and then semi in 2004 (kept some harddrives), and that's about it.
I upgrade when I find I need to. Last upgrade was a HD because I ran out of space and WD was about to launch a 2tb drive. And the last thing before that was a new 4870 when my 8800gtx broke. And before that was a psu and memory change because a bad psu broke both parts. Yet before that I changed from an opteron motherboard/cpu/ddr1 combo to conroe/p35/ddr2 and earlier I replaced a s478 board with p4 for the opty to get a board that could power the 7900gt that replaced the x800pro that I started with in the 2004 build.

In short - when needed (breakdown or too slow). Buying second best available, and living with it till you can't anymore.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

Whether or not I have extra cash. Rent and food come first. Can't really eat DRAM modules to sustain myself.

 

[Guest]

Usually I will do a minor upgrade (CPU/Memory) yearly and a major upgrade every two/three years. This is driven by build times for my software development.

 

[shotgunpadre]

Half-Life 3 !!!