When does it become a new computer

[unplanned bacon]

I was just thinking about upgrades and thought at what point does your computer become a new one? Is it when you change the CPU, the GPU or what?

I priced up how much it would be to SLI and overclock my build as an upgrade and it came to £700 or something like that which got me thinking when does it become a new computer

 

[blue_smoke]

When your system is 7 years old and there's many more new platforms that came out in recent years.

What do you have now?

 

[nozzy7]

Well your not really making it a new computer unless you replace every part even the case. So really your just upgrading. Basically its a new computer when you get a new computer.

 

[Deleted member 904905]

Technically it becomes a new computer when you change the motherboard. Until that point you're only changing peripherals.

 

[Zerk2012]

To Microsoft it becomes new and requires a new OS license when you change the motherboard , unless it's fried and you install the same model.

 

[unplanned bacon]

When your system is 7 years old and there's many more new platforms that came out in recent years.

What do you have now?

Asus GTX 780 DCUII (a friend told me the 9 series cards were coming, but if I remember right, I thought they'd be too expensive to wait for. Amazon aren't even selling my 780 anymore, so SLIing becomes that bit harder. It's more expensive by £300 to SLI/overclock my build anyway than just get a 9 series card if I wanted to)
i5 4570 (to bring down cost and because the i7 didn't have any advantage in gaming an i5 was picked)
16 GB Corsair Vengeance RAM DDR3 1600 MHz
Gigabyte H87 HD3 (conscious decision to not overclock when I put it together, but I was unaware that it didn't support SLI. To be fair, didn't really know what SLI was until after building)
Antec 750 W 80+ Gold Truepower PSU
TP Link 802.11 2.4 GHz WiFi (was planned to be dual band, but costs had to be cut somewhere)
120 GB Samsung 840 Evo SSD
2 TB WD Black
2 TB WD Green
16x LG Blu Ray drive w. included Blu Ray software (got the PowerDVD free with the drive. Actually have two of these drives because I thought the first had gone bad, found it wasn't and couldn't be bothered to return one of them, because they were going to decide if it was return-worthy if I remember right)
Zalman Z11 Plus case
Bluetooth 4.0 USB adaptor
Logitech K360 keyboard and M235 mouse (I use controller to game, may change when I get a gaming m/kb at some point)

think that's it
To date it's done what it was designed to do. Max out games at full HD and 60 fps (it fluctuates on the frames in some games), but then I got thinking about 1440p and higher (resolutions I didn't care about on console). Then today I saw Arkham Knight's requirements :/

 

[unplanned bacon]

To Microsoft it becomes new and requires a new OS license when you change the motherboard , unless it's fried and you install the same model.

Watching your avatar whilst listening to music. Looks like the cat's playing 😛 😀

 

[Karadjgne]

Would depend on your view point. If you have the same games same apps, same hardware, but a whole new OS, the entire 'feel' of the pc is 'new'.

But you can pull an old hdd/SSD with old OS on it, replace every other piece of hardware from case to cpu with all brand new, upgraded, faster, stronger stuff, and yet it'll still feel 'old', because what you are working with and looking at is the same as it was before.

 

[blue_smoke]

When your system is 7 years old and there's many more new platforms that came out in recent years.

What do you have now?

Asus GTX 780 DCUII (a friend told me the 9 series cards were coming, but if I remember right, I thought they'd be too expensive to wait for. Amazon aren't even selling my 780 anymore, so SLIing becomes that bit harder. It's more expensive by £300 to SLI/overclock my build anyway than just get a 9 series card if I wanted to)
i5 4570 (to bring down cost and because the i7 didn't have any advantage in gaming an i5 was picked)
16 GB Corsair Vengeance RAM DDR3 1600 MHz
Gigabyte H87 HD3 (conscious decision to not overclock when I put it together, but I was unaware that it didn't support SLI. To be fair, didn't really know what SLI was until after building)
Antec 750 W 80+ Gold Truepower PSU
TP Link 802.11 2.4 GHz WiFi (was planned to be dual band, but costs had to be cut somewhere)
120 GB Samsung 840 Evo SSD
2 TB WD Black
2 TB WD Green
16x LG Blu Ray drive w. included Blu Ray software (got the PowerDVD free with the drive. Actually have two of these drives because I thought the first had gone bad, found it wasn't and couldn't be bothered to return one of them, because they were going to decide if it was return-worthy if I remember right)
Zalman Z11 Plus case
Bluetooth 4.0 USB adaptor
Logitech K360 keyboard and M235 mouse (I use controller to game, may change when I get a gaming m/kb at some point)

think that's it
To date it's done what it was designed to do. Max out games at full HD and 60 fps (it fluctuates on the frames in some games), but then I got thinking about 1440p and higher (resolutions I didn't care about on console). Then today I saw Arkham Knight's requirements :/

naw. You'll be fine. They will send out patches, etc.