Habitual big time upgraders, how do you justify your purchases?

I'm about to go through a really big upgrade. The way I justify it to myself is that I view gaming and computers as an important hobby. I have enough money to afford it, so using money to buy something that I will enjoy greatly, but is not strictly necessary, is not a problem.
 
Well it depends..

When I bought a 30'' monitor I ummed and ahhed for ages about dropping 1k on a screen but then i realised that there was no upgrade cycle with it and it would last until it broke because there is (or was) no sign of any better screens out there, and its proved a good investment.

For normal components I guess i spend most on graphics cards, I went from SLI 7950gtx to SLI 8800GT to GTX295 to 4970x2 (hated it, sold it fast) then to current gtx590 and i look at it this way, I use my pc at least 40 hours a week for gaming and general web stuff so thats 960 hours per year, if i spend £1000 a year to keep my system up to date and relatively high end then I'm spending £1 per hour for my entertainment and i really dont spend the full £1k usually.

Now tell me, where can you find customised entertainment for under £1 per hour?

As an aside I also keep all my old gear for spares, my 8800GT's still work fine and my GTX295 can still handle most things i throw at it and my gtx590 will only get upgraded if the forthcoming GTX690 seriously outguns it.

Buy well, buy quality and it will last and repay your investment
 
Before I had kids (I now have 2; a 5 month and 2.5 year-old), I used to spend thousands upon thousands upgrading all the electronic kit (computers, TVs, speakers, stereo system) and my cars which I also used to change practically yearly for newer/better models. I enjoyed it immensely but there is no doubt about it, it was a huge waste of money and largely unnecessary. I justified it to myself as a "hobby" and the fact that I was a tech and car geek. Back then, I used to care whether a game ran at 80 fps vs 60 fps on the highest settings and I would strive to have the kit that would make it run as fast/well as possible.

Since getting married and having kids, I just don't care that much. Nothing to do with finances, if I want something I still get it but the desire to have the best and latest thing has gone. I also used to be very anal with online gaming and took it far too seriously. Now I only game casually.
 
The best part for me is trying some new equipment or installing something new. Its the pursuit of speed and making things faster and more efficient that gives me the most joy, good framerates and better graphics in games is just a nice side effect. It's not a case of whether I need to spend the money, its a hobby after all.

I wouldn't spend top dollar on a 680 though. It doesn't make sense when I can save money buying a 7850 and clock the living daylights out of it!
 
pandem0nium said:
Lots and lots of my money has gone up the wall over the years and I wouldn't change it for anything :)

There should be a balance between gaming and a social life.
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Does a social life have to involve drinking yourself silly though? ...I appologise if that's not what you meant, but from what you said, it sounded like it.
 
I think it depends on whether there's anything else you should be spending it on. If not, spend away. You only live once, and you're a long time dead, so why not have what you fancy. And to be honest, if it's just you and your girlfriend at the minute, spend your disposable income on what you like, 'cos maybe at some point, kids and a mortgage will come along, and you're disposable income will drop off a cliff!!

So enjoy it while you have it I say!
 
matsquatch said:
I think it depends on whether there's anything else you should be spending it on. If not, spend away. You only live once, and you're a long time dead, so why not have what you fancy. And to be honest, if it's just you and your girlfriend at the minute, spend your disposable income on what you like, 'cos maybe at some point, kids and a mortgage will come along, and you're disposable income will drop off a cliff!!

So enjoy it while you have it I say!
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Exactly this :D
 
King Damager said:
I know plenty of people rationalise it on depreciation.

If you'd sold your 580 just before 680 release you would have got about £250-300 for it second hand. Buy a 680 for £400. Net cost £150. Let's say you do that for two years (not a ridiculous GPU cycle), then your net cost is £300.

Alternative: Buy a GPU, two years later, sell it for maybe £100, and buy the top of the range GPU for £400... Net cost £300.

Works out the same, but you end up top of the range for longer with habitual purchases. To be honest though, if I had that much money, I wouldn't run more than SLI. For a start, after SLI, scaling becomes ridiculous, and I doubt I'd ever be using more than 3 screens, which to be honest, for most games, a single card can run most of the games I play happily....

kd
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My thoughts exactly
 
The only justification is lack of performance from the current part for what you need to do. That is why I am still on AMD x6 processor, 2 years old and a 6950 graphics card. I do upgrade CPU and motherboard every three years so in 12 months or so I will probably justify the spend. In the interim, I upgrade the odd part, buying secondhand often and try out other hardware spending as little as possible.

It is quite easy to stay one generation back very cheaply, profiting from the people who do pay for the latest kit so good luck to them and long may it continue.
 
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Moeks said:
Does a social life have to involve drinking yourself silly though? ...I appologise if that's not what you meant, but from what you said, it sounded like it.
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No don't worry, it probably sounded like that. Should be separate points really. Just I'm all for pubbing and clubbing. Lots of good times and memories and I met my missus that way :)
 
I spent 1.6k on a new pc back in Feburary. The pc i was using at the time was 4/5 years old, it ran like a bag of **** and drove me up the wall. There was no issue spending that money on an upgrade because I use the PC every day without fail.

If you have the money available for a new gfx card, you know you are going to be getting a lot of use out of it then seriously go for it!
 
J-FRO said:
Like this: "it's my money, so I can do what I bloody like with it."
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pretty much yup if you earn it spend it how you want to .. my gf just said how much for a monitor im like how much for the weekend away with the girls in dubai .. etc good job we all have different priorites or we would all be clones
 
I don't upgrade all that often (a few items a year) my justification usually consists of two things, the selling on idea and I also generally look out for best value and bargains.
 
I rarely upgrade (apart from a new GPU every now and again and lots of external hard drives)

It has been 5 years since my S775 purchase.

I am about to pull the trigger on a 1300GBP Z77 build and the amount of humming-and-hawwing about parts is crazy. I may just press buy and worry about the cpu next week :)
 
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