When to upgrade?

Aloreth

Aloreth

Aloreth

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Joined
16 Aug 2005
Posts
1,372
I was wondering when you guys generally upgrade your computer? I bought my kit below about 2 1/2 years ago and it is starting to get to the point where it chugs just a little on the latest games. I was thinking I would keep it for anothe 9 months or so.

What do you do with old PCs?

Here are my specs (not copied from my order form honest!)
Product Name Price Qty Line Total
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz
(Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Samsung SH-S203BEBN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Corsair HX 620W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri): £14.95
VAT: £158.00
Order Total: £1060.85

Just realise that whilst i was thinking about computer games in relation of when to upgrade, it might be more appropriate under hardware......oooops! Sorry!
 
I usually do a complete overhaul every 3 years or so, however my pc gaming is not quite as frequent as it was, currently I have:

E6600
2Gb Ram
x1950 256mb

I'm planning a small upgrade around xmas with Windows 7, a mid range graphics card and possibly another 2Gb Ram.
 
What size screen and what resolution do you game at?

I currently find my 8800GT is adequate for my 19" 1440x900 screen, but im fancying a 22" or 24" screen, so I can give myself an excuse to buy a 5850 :p
 
I'll usually do a complete mobo / cpu / memory change every three years aswell, but generally upgrade the graphics card more often.
 
i have a very similar spec to yours, bought maybe 1/2 a year later, so mine came in at about £700.... plan to upgrade? No time soon. I have only switched on my gaming PC about 20 or so times in total since I spent that £700... feels like a massive waste of money to me.

I think realistically I would 'upgrade' to a console for gaming, probably the 360 or its replacement, and just use my 'gaming' PC for work.

Doesn't seem so long ago that the thought of writing what I just did would have been considered personal treason!
 
Games that I am massively looking forward to
1) Global Agenda
2) Borderlands
3) Dragon age

If any of these run at less than perfect there is a good chance i will upgrade :D

Mossy - how come youve lost your way? What went wrong? Gaming on the pc is vastly superior to consoles (N.B. I love consoles and consider them an excellant gaming platform, the comment was not in any way intended to offend console fanboys)
 
OC the CPU to 3GHZ and maybe upgrade you GPU its still a very solid build atm.

Old PC componets wind up selling or upgrading my families.
 
I'm probably going to wait till something like Mafia 2 or APB lands, then I'll look at more ram, a new gpu, possibly a cpu. I can't see my e8200 lasting much longer. But these days, I only bother with an upgrade if I really have to.
 
To be honest unless you're having trouble playing any games I'd say there is no reason for you to upgrade any time soon, there aren't enough games on the horizon to warrant it. Unless your playing >1920x1200 in which case upgrading your GPU may be worthwhile. In the mean time I'd say a clean install of Windows 7 and see how performance is on current games, I'd speculate that it would be good. :)
 
With those specs it should be fine playing games. What OS are you using? You really need 3gb+ of RAM. So just OC the processor and get 2gb more RAM. If you're playing on 1680 res or higher then maybe get a new gfx card.
My pc is fine for me atm (in sig) gaming at 1680 res.
 
Razor-BladE said:
With those specs it should be fine playing games. What OS are you using? You really need 3gb+ of RAM. So just OC the processor and get 2gb more RAM. If you're playing on 1680 res or higher then maybe get a new gfx card.
My pc is fine for me atm (in sig) gaming at 1680 res.
Click to expand...

Your setup is almost identical to mine, but I've not overclocked anything. I've got a tuniq tower I was in the process of lapping before I got around to it, then I gave up and just got lazy.
 
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