Does anyone put money away for their PC upgrades?

robfosters

robfosters

robfosters

Caporegime
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Buying my new system is hitting the pocket hard.

I'm considering putting away £20 a week from now on. This will give me about £1000 a year, plenty for upgrades. Or I could wait 2 years and build a monster with over £2k.

Anyone fund their PC's this way or do you not worry and just spend without saving anything?

Inly problem I have is I'm murder for buying things. I will definitely need a savings account where you cant access your money for 2 or more weeks.
 
My philosophy at the moment is to see what I have left over when my PC doesn't do everything that I throw at it, and see if I can justify an upgrade.

I could upgrade every component in my system now to a better one, and I only bought it last year. But its still doing everything I ask of it without failure so I see no need.

If I had a fund dedicated to my PC I'm sure that I'd end up spending much more than I do currently
 
I saved up for my first rig about £50 a week when i was working part time, and for my current rig I noticed how much money i had in my bank account i wasn't using and fancied an upgrade :)
 
loltim said:
no i'm not poor.
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maybe not in money, but you do a have a poor attitude.

It's not about being poor. I'm not poor. Got a £30k a year job. It's just that with running a household with mortgage, bills and 2 cars I'm not left with too much change. I just imagine that for me and a vast amount of users on this forum, plucking a grand out of the air willy nilly can be a bit difficult.
 
Well said rob, completely agree with you.

I personally haven't saved as I've been in education all my life. But like birthday money and presents I put towards it.

I have been contemplating something similar though, just putting a bit away each week once I get my first "job". I don't think I'd wait 2 years for a full upgrade though. Would more likely be a case of change the component when I need/want to. And I guess £1000 would be more than enough to ever build me a PC I need anyway as all I'm ever going to do on them is game/do work/browse web/watch films. Won't need any higher end hardware to video edit or render stuff and all that jazz. So I guess as time goes on and inflation rises the £1000 a year would probably rise too.
 
I keep money aside for luxuries. Nearly all gets spent on computer. I don't need to but I always think it's better to have a good idea so I have a budget I am certain about.
 
robfosters said:
It's not about being poor. I'm not poor. Got a £30k a year job. It's just that with running a household with mortgage, bills and 2 cars I'm not left with too much change.
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Guess it depends how you define 'poor'. I'd agree you don't sound poor in the literal sense, but earning a decent income doesn't necessarily prevent you from being 'poor' - you've said yourself that you are not "left with too much change" after bills, which some might argue contradicts your statement that you are not poor.

Anyway to answer your question, no I don't. I just buy stuff when I think it is decent value, I don't ever remember explicitly saving for anything (pc components or otherwise) in my life.

edit: I realise the above sounds a bit 'silver spoon', but what I'm getting at is that I tend to save money without an explicit purpose, so it's there when I need it, rather than the otherway round (identifying the need, and then saving towards that goal). So although I spent a lot of savings on my house, it wasn't like I said right, "I'm gonna save £x for a deposit on a house", it was more "I'm gonna save some money so it's there when I need it".

Buying stuff for me has always been about "What can I buy [that I want] with the money I have?" rather than "How much money do I need to buy what I want?"
 
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I would say its best to keep upgrading rather then buying all the best bits in one go. I brought an amazing PC all in one go, would have been more efficient to upgrade the bits that need upgrading.
 
I don't explicity save for pc stuff, I just save what I don't spend after food/going out, etc. Then if the time comes where I think the pc is lacking, then I might upgrade. Otherwise I save / spend on other stuff as and when I feel like (if I have enough). I'm not a hardcore gaming so putting 2 cards in sli/xfire seems a waste of money for me. Hell, even one powerful card I don't need; the 5770 is fine for me atm. For me it seems HDDs are the thing I buy the most.
 
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Evoss said:
I would say its best to keep upgrading rather then buying all the best bits in one go. I brought an amazing PC all in one go, would have been more efficient to upgrade the bits that need upgrading.
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Disagree. Better to get all the best kit in one go, or you end up having to rebuy a motherboard or something because the one you had no longer works for the current CPU you just bought etc.
 
EVH said:
Disagree. Better to get all the best kit in one go, or you end up having to rebuy a motherboard or something because the one you had no longer works for the current CPU you just bought etc.
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That is the way I've done it recently and it does stop a lot of faffing around with upgrades. Having said that I am eyeing up one upgrade which I don't really need but we shall see whether it actually takes place.

In answer to the OP, no saving in the past, upgrading would come as and when required.
 
I don't save, but I only buy second hand as I think it gives better value for money.

e.g.

On MM there was

i7 920
6 Gigs of Corsair
and a £200 mobo (as priced in the shops)

for £200

So I just buy a gen behind everyone else
 
I buy it on finance, then spend 6 months putting money aside to pay for it lol. Usually I save for big components and then the small stuff just gets bought if I have spare cash sitting around.
 
loltim said:
no i'm not poor.
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Even people with money sometimes need to save. Your posts shows a poor attitude as there is always somebod richer than you!

robfosters said:
It's not about being poor. I'm not poor. Got a £30k a year job. It's just that with running a household with mortgage, bills and 2 cars I'm not left with too much change. I just imagine that for me and a vast amount of users on this forum, plucking a grand out of the air willy nilly can be a bit difficult.
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You sounds like you are over-committed to me. However I appauld you sensible attitude of saving rather than using credit cards.

Oh and as EVH said. A complete rebuild is always best. No bottlenecks that way.
 
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