QOTD: What Determines Your Upgrade Cycle?

[danny69t]

[citation][nom]Chrisleeeiorwio[/nom]First![/citation]
seems you gorgot to refresh before posting =)) n00b.

i still have my 5 years old AthlonXP 2600+ proc and nforce 2 mobo, in time i upgraded RAM, HDD's, and video card. this year i want to upgrade the proc, mobo and vid card.
the reasons i want to upgrade: 1. want to watch HD movies without skipping
2. i also want to play new games.

 

[Guest]

I usually build a system to last about 2+ years, but will usually wait for a significant architecture change before upgrading to the "next big thing" so that it is good for at least another two+ years. However, I still go for the mid-to-upper range components instead of the highest rated parts because that is more often the best bang-for-the-buck. Although I don't play PC games, my system activity is otherwise reasonably heavy duty (Java development, local database for testing, etc.), so having a reasonably up-to-date HW/OS environment is important, and later versions of software do in general tend to place greater demands on a system.

 

[doomhammr]

I normally do a full overhaul and/or get a new PC every 3 years and a minor upgrade once a year on average.

 

[mickey21]

About every year, although my last build almost made it to 2years based on the badassesness of the 8800GTX in triple SLI... Cost is to some extent but I am probably more of an early adopter than even the early adopters. Already using i7 overclocked with triple crossfire 4890's and 12GB of RAM with 12TB of storage.... Me likes to have what most would call a beast of a machine.... I dont like to fall behind and have parts that are worthless on ebay or sold to friends who are normally behind me in terms of adoption rate...

 

[odin607]

When games I play religiously demand more...and my bank account can support it, my main rig will get an overhaul.

I also have a "playground PC" (mostly a HTPC/fileserver/workhorse) which I continuously add small things to as budget allows.

Cant go too long without SOMETHING new.

 

[DjEaZy]

... a good motherboard... i have a good AM2+ board with was gone from Ax2 6400 > Px4 9600 > Px4 9950 > PIIx4 940... from Corsair 2Gb 800Mhz 4-4-4-12 > Corsair 1066Mhz 5-5-5-15... from HD3870 > HD4870...
... it is nice to have some one, who are glad to buy your old parts... but that means, you must have tha part in good condition...

 

[leon2006]

The main incentive to build a new one is driven by necessity. Work, multimedia requirement, then game is the order of importance.

 

[jhgoodwin]

I don't play high end games, so I use my computer until the market offering is too enticing to pass up. Often a big technology plateau will push me over the edge once it stops being so new it costs a large bankroll. At this point, SSD is on my radar for my next likely upgrade. If that Terascale chip from Intel was released for a reasonable price, I'd probably buy one of those, too.

 

[zdzisio]

When a new component, significantly faster than previous one, comes to the market and is reasonably priced. My graphics cards for example: S3Trio->Voodoo->GeForceMX2200->GeForce5200->GeForce6600->GeForce7600->GeForce8800GTS640MB->Radeon4870.
Processors: 286->386SX->486DX266->Pentium75->Pentium166MMX->Duron700->Athlon1800->Athlon643500+->Core2DuoE4400->Core2DuoE8400.
Motherboards changes depend on processor changes.
RAM - I buy when I feel I need more.
HDD - -\\-
Screen - 15"CRT->17"CRT->17"LCD->19"LCD; now I'm trying to find something good enough; I've never liked 16:9 so it MUST be something good. Still searching.

 

[hillarymakesmecry]

Necessity and money.

 

[cyb34]

Usually after 2-3 years I start changing the MB+CPU. If the PC can't cope with the current multitasking stress, I go for a full system upgrade.

Also if there's a new game I like and my PC can't run it properly (AoC case and my P4) I will upgrade the CPU+GPU.

 

[flightmare]

Every 3 to 4 years. Parts that get replaced in the meanwhile will be built into my server.

 

[rodney_ws]

When a game I REALLY want to play comes out and my current rig can't handle it AT ALL. Oblivion (many years back) forced me to upgrade to a (then) monster rig.

 

[Guest]

Price / Performance / Game & Do Work Benefits / Geek Factor / Drivers & OS

The cycle has definitely slowed down. Infact, if anything my Dual Core system got better over time as software began to become 64 bit and multi-threaded.

It is time to go Quad Core soon... I expect this system to last 3 years as once again, more software is forced to become multi-threaded increasing its life expectancy.

If anything, now is the time to grab a 9550 before they are discontinued and prices go way up... this CPU is awesome compared to the coming mainstream crap known as i5.

 

[keyfinder]

I will only upgrade to a new machine when motherboars start comming with USB 3.0 and Sata Rev 3.0 6gb/s.
Graphic cards need to be DX11 and more energy effecient.
CPU need to have 3GHZ+ in each core for a price below 200$
And SSD need to be available at decent prices.

Then i will change my actual box for a new one

 

[dirtykid]

I upgrade when things I expect to work, don't. My last upgrade was to switch an AM2 mobo to an AM2+, due to the fact that the manufacturer of the previous board had no bios upgrade to allow more than 2Gb of RAM to work properly (4Gb = 2.99 in BIOS, 3.27 in Windows x64 and crashed every 2 hours).

The old mobo also didn't support AMD-V (required to test 'XP mode' in Windows 7 RC), despite my CPU having the feature.

I buy a new hard disk every year or 2 as an instinctual purchase. I then swap out my oldest drive and mirror the least oldest with the new one. I use the oldest for temporary files (scratch disk, browser cache, transcoding workspace, etc... My timing has usually been pretty good as that disk usually suffers the click-of-death within 6 months, so I've saved myself some panic...

Other components are budget and cost dependent.

 

[estanenmi]

I just upgrade my computer when there are good and reasonable prices, where to play another game and one that is not possible with my current gpu, ram and processor when bargains, but it touches the hand of a q6600 to i7 and 4gb ram to 12GB, 8800gts and a gtx280 ..
and all this depends on the money!

 

[suppliesidejesus]

I replace parts as they age. I don't ever have enough money saved up to do a full rebuild, and usually end up rebuilding my machines over time. It took me about a year to fully upgrade my current machine, and it's now that time again to start slowly upgrading. Shame I have no money.

 

[Guest]

money. money. money. there so much stuff i always "need" for production or gaming, there is never enough time or money.

 

[Guest]

Money. I have a socket 939 motherboard(a very good one) and thanks to my friend he supplied a Opteron 185 form Japan(I had a 3800+ x2) 2 years ago. I cant afford to buy a new motherboard, ddr2 or ddr3 ram, cpu so I am good with it. I can play most of the games.
Between 2001 and 2007 I changed lots of CPU, motherboard, ram , power supply etc...(Dont think that I have lots of money, I bought them with my mounthly payment from my dad and I sold my previous parts to my friends when I was in university) I recently bought a 4850 and I am good and happy with it. Almost all the parts are special (DDR 500 for example) and except GPU there are not much parts that can be upgradable. I think I will stick and be able to use it for about another 4 years.

 

[Cloned]

I will usually only upgrade the video card (unless something dies) every 12-18 months. Typically I look for at least a 30% performance jump based on upgrading to a current mid-level ($100-$200) video card. I rarely go for top-of-the-line equipment since it become mid-level so quickly.

 

[TwoDigital]

About every 2-3 years... more frequently if a new CPU or GPU (or RAM) comes along that is significantly faster and Intel changed the #*#$@&*(#@ socket standard again.

 

[SDSUMarcus01]

When I have to run games at a lowered resolution and on low settings, or I notice drags just messing with the OS doing basic things... usually around 4 or 5 years.

 

[thearm]

A new game that I really like that I can't play at decent video settings.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

For me, the question is not really what determines but who determines. Who can I borrow from, who will lend me cash to buy a GTX 295?