Does everyone really upgrade their builds?

Yeah, I'm still on my 1st PC, originally built 26 years ago, which contained a zip disc ! I've occasionally changed mobo, CPU and RAM at once, but GPU, storage, cases, PSU etc always overlapped. Of course, the last original component disappeared nearly 2 decades ago, but it's been a continuous stream. I've often done a CPU upgrade within a socket and sometimes changed cpu and mobo while keeping RAM.
 
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i tend to upgrade when i can and theres a decent improvement, be it any component really my last am4 board i started on a ryzen 3600 and went to a 5700x plus i doubled the ram and got faster ram as well plus various ssd upgrades and other random stuff.

for the moment nothing needs upgraded on this rig i went all in on am5 and reused a lot of drives etc from my old rig, think my next upgrade will be a gpu but nothing is really tempting me out the new crop over the 7800xt i already have for 1440p :)
 
I tend to upgrade things like the GPU and storage a lot more than CPU/RAM these days.

Although that is partly because for the last 12 years or so I've put quite large amounts of RAM in the machine at build (my last one in 2012ish had 32gb and my current one has 64gb).
 
I've had a number of PC's over the years starting with a 486/33 Never done any significant upgrades [ignoring adding storage, RGB, dvd drives etc] on any till this year. Swapped out a 5600x to a 5800X3D and again on the same PC swapped out its 3060Ti for a 5060Ti

Plan is to buy a new case soon (hate the current one) then at the end of the year new motherboard, CPU, RAM and power supply. Finally after another few months a better graphics card (if my gaming would benefit) or an OLED monitor.

Of course plans change ...
 
yeh really depends how much cash i have but im always budget minded so i could go buy a 9070xt or something but i dont see the point as my 7800xt is handling things like a champ, maybe the next gen will be twice as powerful but more likely the one after that and double performance if priced reasonably would get my attention, then i can give dad the current gpu :)
 
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MostlyHuman said:
I've had a number of PC's over the years starting with a 486/33 Never done any significant upgrades [ignoring adding storage, RGB, dvd drives etc] on any till this year. Swapped out a 5600x to a 5800X3D and again on the same PC swapped out its 3060Ti for a 5060Ti

Plan is to buy a new case soon (hate the current one) then at the end of the year new motherboard, CPU, RAM and power supply. Finally after another few months a better graphics card (if my gaming would benefit) or an OLED monitor.

Of course plans change ...
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yeh i feel yah on the case went from a intel i5 6600k to a ryzen 3600 then a 5700x and temporarily as my new case was lost in transit also a 7800x3d, the old case got boring as hell and the front header usb slots were knackered :)
 
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I try and incrementally upgrade different bits at different times. The earliest part of the machine I'm typing this on is from 2011, which is when I junked the whole of my previous PC and started again.

- Case is from 2011 and has held all of the parts below at one time or another
- Power supply was 600w at first, then upgraded to 750w I think in 2013 ready to support an additional graphics card in SLI. Had that 750w one ever since.
- Motherboard & CPU first was for an Intel 2500k in 2011. Kept that for ages, before moving to an AM4 motherboard and AMD 2500x in 2018. Then put in an 5700x in the same board in 2022 which is still there
- Memory started at 8GBb in 2011, then upped to 16GB In I think 2013. Then swapped to a new 16GB set when I put the AM4 motherboard in. Kept that since.
- Had a few graphics cards. Started with a HD 6950 in 2011, then added a second in I think 2013 to have them in SLI. Then got a Raedon 575 in 2016(?) and a 1080ti in 2018 alongside the new AMD CPU and m'board. Got a 3070ti in 2021 which is the card in there now

You could call my gaming PC Trigger's Broom (or the ship of Theseus for the intellectual among you). I'm at the end of the road now so the next upgrade will refresh everything - the m'board is AM4 so will need a new one for latest gen processors. Power supply probably won't support latest, most power hungry cards. Case is small (it was chosen to fit a desk I no longer have) so could do with upgrading. Will be picking components that will hopefully support incremental upgrades again!
 
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i dont get that this can even be a question, i assumed everyone did! Obviously im wrong.. but i always upgrade bits and bobs until i need a new big upgrade... ryzen 3600 -> 3800 -> 5700 -> 5950 then to am5, same with GPU's

my case is probably 10 years old and has seen 1x intel and 2x amd platforms in it
 
Not as much as I used to. Early 2000's when I started building my own rigs, I was a fairly early adopter of CPU's, but only if I thought I was getting value for money. I was slightly into PC gaming back then and so were 2 small boys who are my Nephews back then. These days they are still both PC gamers with rigs I have built for them. When SSD's were launched I bought a 80GB intel model, regular upgrades slowed right down. When a Nephew wanted a new rig, I upgraded and said nephew got the hand me down. When they went to uni that more or less stopped. I'm not into PC gaming anywhere near as much anymore, I just need a rig for office/youtube/web admin & other stuff. 5600g is more than enough for that, Not planning to change unless dad wants a change as his rig is a hand me down too.
 
I tend to upgrade mobo/CPU/cooler at the same time, but everything else gets upgraded around them. More memory can be a cheap and effective way of eeking out more life from an aging platform. I buy SSDs/HDDs when I run out of space (or if they fail). GPU gets upgraded when I want to play a game that doesn't run well with what I already have. Haven't found a need to buy a new case in 15 or so years. PSU gets replaced at the decade mark, or thereabouts. Trigger's broom / Ship of Theseus about describes it!
 
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I have always upgraded my computers. Back in 2017 I bought a bonkers i9 7980XE 18 Core CPU (speed binned and delidded at OCUK) at the time with the thinking of future proofing my build, and it worked out for me.

Over the years I have upgraded the RAM to 128GiB.

Graphics from an 2xAMD 295X2(Quadfire) to dual SLI TitanXp to 3090 to 4090.

Added Hipoint RAID card, then an HBA card to run my 16*500GiB SSD’s array, I replaced my boot NVME with an Intel Optaine u.2 SSD.

Upgraded my networking from 1GiB to 10GiB.

I did downgrade my cooling though as I went from a dual 560 radiator dual d5 pump liquid cooling to an ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420 as the old cooling was getting on and was probably near to failing, and I lost my interest in custom liquid cooling.

PSU was replaced during that time as my overclock destroyed my TUF X299 mother board, and at the time I was hoping it was just the PSU :-( when fault checking and decided to keep the replacement PSU as the motherboard VRM's must have gotten damaged.

Motherboard was replaced twice ASUS rampage VI extreme which kept crashing to a ASUS TUF x299 which died during a Handbreak [email protected] and then to my current ASUS WS x299 pro/se without the overclock.

Its only now my CPU is bottlenecking my Graphics and why I won’t get a 5090. Not bad for and 8year old rig.

The only constant is the i9 7980XE and it is still going strong.

My next rig will probably be some sort of Threadripper build but I am happy with the performance I have just now thanks to all the PCIe Lanes on HEDT.
 
RavenLunatic said:
My next rig will probably be some sort of Threadripper build but I am happy with the performance I have just now thanks to all the PCIe Lanes on HEDT.
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Yeah, getting a bit frustrated wth the lack of PCIE5 lanes on desktop boards/CPUs at the moment. Now that Zen5 Threadripper is a thing, may go that route myself in time, even though I probably just ought to hold on for a future gen anyway...
 
jammir said:
I'm curious, in the last 25 years of me building my own PC's I cant really recall a time that I upgraded a cpu, ram or gpu in any of my builds, if anything survives my "upgrades" its only really the psu and storage. I've built over 30 rigs in my time and usually have minimum of two PC's at one time usually three and I dont even reuse the case. Am I just in the minority of PC enthusiast that overhall their whole rig every 12-18 months just to try out new hardware and new esthetic ideas? Most build I do are unnecessary and overkill I know, but thats what I enjoy most about the hobby and journey.

I've never factored upgrade path or buying into a dead platform into my buying decision. I may seem like a Intel fan as im doing the 285K blasphemy build right now (as 80% of my builds have been Intel), but I buy not only what performs well but largely also the esthetics of the parts in the build. I just want to see if anyone else shares my approach to PC's or am I just a weirdo?

So I guess my question is does everyone buy based on spec's/performance and longevity in mind, do you buy what you need at the time and leave space to grow upgrade in the future as your needs change, build something that also looks pleasing to you or dont care how it looks as long as it does the job?
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I update my PC in stages. Basically I will replace things as they age or something of much better performance comes out. Also, every four of five years I will replace the case because a new case is like buying a new PC! I did that at the start of this year, new case, new AIO Water cooler and new fans. A £500 upgrade if I remember correctly. Next upgrade will be a new CPU/Motherboard/RAM next year, I suppose.

I used to religiously update my GPU every two years, but NVIDIA's Tomfoolery has put paid to that.
 
In my quarter century of PC gaming I've probably upgraded the CPU about 3 times without doing a full platform upgrade. Intel put paid to that for a long time in the 2010's.
 
I get bored easily. I build a new system all the time and upgrade, it’s a disease. Doesn’t help when I see a new case I like and before I know it it’s a whole new system.
 
rare said:
I get bored easily. I build a new system all the time and upgrade, it’s a disease. Doesn’t help when I see a new case I like and before I know it it’s a whole new system.
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ive been guilty of that in the past. find a nice case get it then see tech tubers talk about a new case do builds in it etc and then I end up pulling the trigger.
 
Upgrade path was a big factor in my decision to go AMD with the 1700 when it launched. I'd expect to get at least 1 cpu upgrade with my current mobo, assuming my 7800x3d starts to be a bottleneck at 4k.

I tend to pull the trigger too early on high resolution monitors, so GPU upgrades are just a fact of life.
 
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