How often do you upgrade your PC?

darael

darael

darael

Soldato
Joined
10 Jul 2010
Posts
7,303
I was reading the comments of [url="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/28/30_years_on_the_story_of_the_memotech_mtx/]this[/url] article and came across this:
I was speaking to a chap today that shifts several thousand PCs a month. He cant shift stuff quick enough, doing crazy business.

Whats he selling?

Reconditioned dual core 2GB Dell business desktops circa 2008/9 with Vista or 7 on them. The hottest computing tech around at the moment. Like gold dust apparently.

According to him no one wants new i5/i7 stuff. It just sits there. Folks have wised up that the new stuff is largely pointless.

I bet Intel isnt happy about this.
Click to expand...
I have to admit that I upgrade my PC a lot less than I used to. I think my last CPU upgrade was about three years ago, possibly four. Before I upgraded my graphic card, I had the last one for easily three years.

Does anybody else find that their computer fulfils there needs more adequately these days?
 
Well, I have a 2500k and 3570k build in my house, so I think it's safe to say I don't fall into that category. I do also have a dell C2D workstation acting as my htpc though.
 
I do a complete upgrade every 5 years. CPU, motherboard, Ram. I upgrade tiny things along the way such as HDD or GPU but thats every 2 years if I do.
 
I normally upgrade when something breaks. I'm using an itel Q6600 which is capable enough for me. Bumped up ram recently and have been using an SSD. Good enough for me.
 
I used to jump between CPUs like nobody's business; even went from a Q6600 B3 to a Q6600 G0 within six months. But for the past two years I've been running a 2600K and I'm unsure on Haswell.

It's more important for me to have stability and lack of hassle than cutting edge speed, cos she's very fast anyway. The graphics card is the thing that has changed most recently, and even then only three times in two years.

I think if the rig starts behaving erratically or breaks down completely, I'll upgrade, but until then I cba with the hassle of taking the whole rig apart, reinstalling Windows etc.
 
When I get bored of what I have.

Or when i'd like some more money for my car, so I sell parts, downgrade, then build the pot back up and buy all new again. :p

Partial to an impulse buy on the MM too.
 
Last edited:
Every two years or so, Although i sort of do it in stages. I am still on an i52500K at 4.4 GHz and see no reason to change platform/motherboard/ram/CPU yet. I have had it since March 2011 as well. Going to Ivy or Haswell is just not worth it to be honest.

I am however installing a new GPU (GTX 770) and a 500GB SSD to breath even more speed into this 2 year old rig :D

To be honest, unless there is a break through with CPU tech or my current mobo or cpu breaks, i doubt i will be changing platform for a while....
 
Last edited:
I've got a Q6600 with GeForce 8800GTX that I bought just over 5 years ago.
Only upgrades I've done in that time are expanded the RAM from 4GB to 8GB and added an SSD and an extra 2TB HD.

I'm not a massive gamer, so it still does me fine.
Have been tempted to upgrade to a new Haswell PC, but I don't really need to at all. I reckon my current machine would do for another few years yet.
 
Last edited:
There is very little difference since the i5 came out between an old and a new computer. As long as the old machine has an SSD running windows/boot times e.t.c will all be acceptable (anything other than games really)

I upgrade when I feel the need too, since every game that comes out still runs fine on my 3 year old machine then I don't feel the need. I have however upgraded SSD twice, ram twice, graphics once, e.t.c.....
 
I think the key thing is an SSD these days, not processing power. My machine at work is an Ivybridge with 16GB of RAM and even though it's faster on paper than my home PC, my home PC blazes it because of the Samsung 830.
 
Not really a set time for me. I usually upgrade depending on my requirement and cash flow.

I never buy under finance or credit, if I don't have the money saved, I dont get the toys!

I want an Xbox ONE and PS4 this time around, So may look into a PC upgrade also. I have a case, storage and SSD, DDR3 and a 1200watt PSU that are transferable. Would just need a mobo\CPU and a nice new GPU.

So it's not too much of an upgrade cost really.

So yeah, completely depends :p
 
I think the need for raw power is getting lower for the average home user (and gamer) Back when I got my first PC even normal everyday tasks could for a min or so use 100% of my cpu. Now I'd only see that benchmarking or maybe encoding. But even then most of those programs don't use all the cores to max.

If buying today I'd still buy the best I could afford to make it last.
 
Whenever the need arises. My CPU is a 2500K at 4.5GHz, it won't need to be upgraded for a very long time. Last year RAM was dirt cheap so I sold my old 8GB kit for £35 or something like that and paid £80 for 16GB of DDR3.

The 256GB SSD was well under £150 as well this year so the old one got upgraded.

I only recently bought a new GFX card because a couple of games ran like dogs at this resolution. That's GFX sorted for at least 2 years for me.

I think some people consider an upgrade a whole PC refresh, this isn't needed if you've bought good components in the first place and saves you additional costs in the long run.
 
My last upgrade was 3 or 4 years ago to a used Q9450, used motherboard, RAM and used GTX260.

I used to always keep upgrading to the newest stuff but since my gaming days have passed I can't see the point anymore. I'm thinking of moving to a dockable laptop next ( probably refurbished).
 
Still on an e6300, thinking of ditching it totally. A shame as I only got a 24" 1080p monitor the other month, which is so nice. But I hate being tied to a desk. I haven't played FPS games in years and that's about the only thing I need a desktop for, got a laptop and can sit at dining table if needed.

Hardware has out accelerated software.

All I really want is my laptop in a tablet form factor with better battery life and high res screen. Should be available by the end of the year.
11.6", hd3000, i3
Haswell tablets will easily surpass that.
 
Last edited:
Until a few weeks ago I was running a Q6600, now it's an I7 4770 with oodles of ram.

I'm not too surprised that older spec machines might be selling well, if the price ir right I suspect something dual core will probably do most of what an awful lot of people want from their PC (let them check their email, buy stuff online and post updates of myfreindsfacebookspace.doh).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom