How often do you upgrade your PC?

LordSplodge said:
Sure, and that's all most people need a computer for (hence the rise of popularity of tablets like the iPad) but if you actually push your computer then it's night and day.

My rMBP crunches video astronomically faster than the 2009 iMac I have. I suppose video editing (or other CPU heavy creative work) and gaming are the two main reasons you need to upgrade sooner rather than later.
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It's why I bought a new iMac. I am on a 3/4 year cycle.
 
Mobo, CPU, RAM and GPU every 2 years or so depending on if I need the extra grunt.

Other parts get upgraded when the wife aint looking.
 
CPU/motherboard/RAM was bought January 2010
GPU July 2010

The only upgrade since then was a cheap(ish) SSD

I used to upgrade GPUs every 9-12 months when the killer mid-range cards were £110-150*. For me, It's only just getting to the point where I would get another GPU but with the PS4 around the corner, I think I'll see what does for me.

Slightly off topic but I think mobile phones are fast heading this way. I can't see how they can carry on at the pace that they are going for much longer. More and more people will start getting sim-only deals

*before anyone steps in and says it's the £/$ exchange rate, I don't care. I don't care if it's Elvis Presley setting the prices from the grave. The reason won't make any difference to me buying one.
 
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Still rocking an old E8400 but I don't really game so no reason to upgrade. Would quite like USB3, SATA 6 Gbps and a UEFI BIOS mind so maybe I need to upgrade :D
 
Update roughly as follows

Case: As required (usually every 5 years or so)
PSU: As requested (rarely more than once every 4 years)
Motherboard, RAM, CPU = Every 3 to 4 years.
HDD - Usually one change a year (I have 8 HDDs).
Graphics card - Every 2 to 3 years.
Peripherals - Every 2 to 3 years, although finding Logitech stuff is lasting longer now.
Monitor - Every 5-6 years as technology changes and cheapens.

I but most of my equipment second hand, in my current setup only the monitor (HDTV) and motherboard ( Asus P8Z77-WS ) and my keyboard is bought new, everything else including all 8 HDDs are second hand. This drives the cost down and I tend to upgrade using OCUK MM as the guys who like to be at the cutting edge are shedding their year old gear. I then resell my old PC to someone, never had a problem shifting it in the past.
 
I use to do it yearly. Then when games stopped needed bleeding edge systems to run I only upgraded broken parts.

Now that I don't have a desktop anymore I'll mostly likely do that TommyV does, or get an iMac eventually.
 
I built my current PC in summer 2008 so pretty much 5 years old now. Q6600, 2GB RAM, Radeon 4870 512MB, 1TB HDD, Win XP. It's had a few upgrades: 8 GB RAM, Radeon 5870 1GB (only did this because I thought the old card was faulty which it turned out it wasn't), SSD drives though they packed up shortly after so back to old HDD and Win 7. Orginal Mobo did go bang in 2010 and got replacement on warranty but then I've had 2 boards go in the past.

Still don't see any need to upgrade even now. Definitely the longest running piece of hardware I've had and I won't be surprised if something fails at this point. While it make struggle with playing the latest games with the highest details it still copes well and I'll just use in for another couple years until something inevitably blows up, probably the mobo again. :p
 
I only use a laptop these days so very rarely. I have an i7, 16GB RAM, decent graphics card and an SSD, so will be absolutely fine for me for a few more years.
 
Once it no longer does what I want it to do, like when upgrading to a new graphics card and consistently seeing low gpu usage when gaming and / or unsatisfactory performance. That then tells me I need to look at the underpinnings of the rig (cpu / mobo).
 
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The guts when a new Rampage Extreme motherboard comes out. Other bits as and when required but I do have weakness for graphics cards. :D
 
Interesting, everyone is pretty similar. The Pentium/athlon era was a bit before my time and there have been a few that have mentioned slowing down their upgrades, I wonder how prevalent this slowing down has become and whether maybe we're all just old and boring dinosaurs now. Is "meh, it does fine" the main idea now?
 
I bought my first laptop in 2009 and it was a Sony Vaio, 4GB of ram with a 250GB HDD. Absolutely loved that machine, I eventually upgraded from Vista to 7 and slapped a 128GB SSD to make it boot up faster, so that's the extent of my upgrade on that machine.

That laptop is still running, I've given it to my mum to use now, but I toy with the idea of installing 8GB of ram to see the difference.

Don't have the need to own a rig currently.
 
mobo,cpu,ram - every 3 years
gpu - normally every 2 years however this time around it will be about 18 months as its struggling with my new 1440p monitor
psu - whenever needed

had the same case for nearly 5 years now and still does the job

Finally changed my mouse and keyboard after about 8 years to good mouse and keyboard..now regret not updating them sooner
 
You had the same mouse and keyboard for 8 years?

That's both impressive and disturbing. Did you turn the keyboard upside down to see what falls out? :D
 
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