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How long do you wait until you build a new computer?

T

tehandydumke

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 6, 2004
Messages
255
Ya I was wondering if it was like a year, 2 years, or if you just keep upgrading your same computer.

I know I really want to build a new computer already, just built mine 2 months ago.
 
I wait as long as humanly possible myself. I am still running my 1.2 ghz Tbird and Geforce 2 PRO 32 meg. It runs UT 2003 OK in really low res, nothing to write home about, but I am pulling the trigger when HL2 or Doom 3 come out. Frankly there have been no high requiring PC games I would go nuts over in awhile. I play my Counterstrike, Tribes 2, and C&C Generals. Use my Xbox for most of the big games.
 
Until I feel that I need more power, or until my computer won't handel newly released software.

... Okay, so I'm lying. That would be the logical thing to do... Every cent I can get my hands on is spent on my rig. :D
 
I hold out until I can double my speeds. My first computer was a compaq presario(sp?) and it was running at 700mhz. Then my uncle built me an AMD system which is my current computer now. An Athlon T-Bird 1.4. All of this was before I knew how to build a custom computer. The only major upgrade I did a few weeks ago was go from a Geforce2 to an Sapphire 9800 Pro:D

Now that I have knowledge on how to build a computer, I plan on building a socket 939 system in the upcoming months.
 
I try to skip a generation between upgrades. For instance, right now I'm on a good ol 1.6A + Ti4200 mix. I skipped the 2.4C generation because the performance increase wasn't worth the cost (though I'm really tempted to do it now). My next upgrade will be a Socket 939 or Socket T Prescott with watercooling + NV40 or R420 part. It'll be a lot more expensive than my 1.6A build though. Hopefully the performance increases will be worth it.
 
I upgrade when I am ready ... not a day before or after ...
 
I hold out until I can double my speeds
Click to expand...

Agreed that is the way I do it also. In the meantime I may do incremental upgrades like a better sound card or vid card, bigger hard drive ect. On average it's been about 2 years or so from one new system to another.
 
im holding out for a 2nd gen 9nm A64, and a 2nd gen R420 card. ive had my comp for 1.5 years, and its a 2.66@ 3.22 with a 9700pro at 432/355, its gonna last until next january i hope.... maybe december. that would make a nice xmas present ;)
 
i'm just gonna wait until my current system just can't handle it anymore. and after paying 300 dollars for my 9800 pro, it better be a looooooooooong time.
 
I usually upgrade as time goes by.. a piece here a piece there... but as far as a whole new system at one shot? Probably every 2 years...

My only problem is that my wife hates my upgrades because I usually do it in two's, as in both systems at one time leaving me with 2 systems or cases laying there..
 
I usually go a year or 2 at the most before upgrading. Last few upgrades were because my sister and parents needed computers so i passed my current rig at the time down to one of them and rebuild for myself ... :)
 
In the past I've waited until my parents or brother have bought a computer faster than my current one and then wait till they've bogged it down with enough crap that my old puter runs faster than theirs. that's when I upgrade :p

Peace
 
Throughout my computing life, it's been 3 - 4 years between upgrades. I hold out for as long as possible, wait for technologies to change, basically outdating my stuff.

1st comp: Apple 33 Mhz notebook or something like that (monochrome screen too).
2nd comp: P1 150
3rd comp: Pentium 4 1.3 Willamette (some will say that this comp is probably a big mistake (what with the willy core), but I've been most happy with it)
4th comp: 1.4 Ghz P4-M laptop (nice notebook)
5th comp: see sig

I'll slip in upgrades, but eventually I'll just feel performance isn't "there" for me, and it's more feasible just to build or buy a new system. Things are so much easier when you actually have a job and money to feed your habit.

I figure that after I graduate college and go for my Master's, I'll be building a new primary system again.
 
ideally i try to upgrade mainboard/cpu when something twice as fast becomes the mainstream part. usually end up going a bit longer though. other things (video, hard disk, burner) i do more on a want/can afford/need basis. like when i needed a dual head card for solidworks i picked up a gf2MX, and when i wanted to play warcraft 3 i upgraded to a gf4 ti4200
 
Whenever I win my next MB/CPU combo:D

I won one at an AMD event, and last Christmas won another. So who knows.
 
Well, I built my current box back in...July '02?

Cost back then: $900

Upgrades to date:
Koutech PIR133 SiL680-based ATA controller: $30
WD1600JB: $130
Fortron 300W 120mm: $35
Lite-On 52x24x52 CD-RW: $40
AOpen 16x DVD-ROM: $30
SLK-800-U: $40 :p
A7N8X Deluxe: Free. :D (Courtesy of a very nice man on these forums)
A bunch of fans

Upgrades for the future:
A $200 graphics card
A gig of fast RAM
Faster processor (I'm probably just going to stick to Socket A)
Beefier power supply?
 
...about every two or three years; usually when some new hot s#!t game comes along and the "old dog" won't run it fast enough....:D

Cheers - B.B.S.
 
Look at my sig... a very long time.
I don't have time to game or really anything right now, so I will wait till I do have time and there is a game or app I need/want to use but cant. Current rig does what I need right now just fine.
 
Originally posted by BlindedByScience
[Bthe "old dog" won't run it fast enough....:D[/B]
Click to expand...
Those books had some of the worst science of any SF-type books EV4R!!! :mad:

But yeah, I agree with the evolution bit—my computer will probably one day get a new processor type, but everything else will stay in place. It probably won't be replaced (as in 100% of the original internal parts have been removed) for years to come.
 
Usually stay 1 generation behind. Parts are usually cheaper and if there are problems hopefully there are solutions.
 
If whatever new game I'm playing currently is at 800x600 with medium settings and it's still not able to manage a solid 40+ FPS, I start thinking about upgrading.
 
i only upgrade if something breaks
even if something does break, i find a subsitute or something very very cheap until i can afford the good stuff
for example, my 4200 is starting to crap on me (artifacts @ stock so ima wait until i can find a 9800 pro for <$175
 
im holding out for a 2nd gen 9nm A64, and a 2nd gen R420 card. ive had my comp for 1.5 years, and its a 2.66@ 3.22 with a 9700pro at 432/355, its gonna last until next january i hope.... maybe december. that would make a nice xmas present --ATi_Loyalist
Click to expand...
I really would like to see AMD come out with a 9nm athlon 64, i'm waiting on it too. that would be some great feat of cramming.
 
I built a new machine some weeks ago (see sig). I was thinking of upgrading for months, piling hard earned cents, and when my previous Duron died, I almost had it all, so I VISAed the balance. :rolleyes: Only things I kept from the Duron was the DVD drive, the case and the floppy drive, so it's what I call a fresh start.

I had my Duron 850 for almost exactly 2 years, all made from new parts, except the CPU. It had an A7V133+C mb, 256mb Kingston RAM, SounbBlaster Live! 5.1, Radeon 7000 32mb, 40Gb WD, ASUS DVD player and Yamaha burner. All this wraped in a generic case with L&C 350W PSU (came with the case). Running Win 98SE and 2K.

It still managed to play some cool games (Simcity 4, NFS underground...), even in 1024x768 with average quality settings.

In the Duron's life, I added a 60Gb WD drive and changed a dead RAM chip. That's it.

Before that, ahem, had two 386 (SX's, I think), one with 2mb of RAM and 2 40mb HDs, the other with 4mb of RAM and a 137 mb (? or somewhere near that) SCSI hard drive. Windows 3.1 powered. :eek: And DOS 6.2 with 4DOS. Yes, I played Stunts and Doom and Wolfenstein (1st one!) since about 3 years ago! :D
 
I did a lot of upgrading and downgrading. Back in 99, I bought my 400 mhz PC from compaq. Well, it sucked, was slow. So approximately in 2001, I built my own system from scratch with P4 1.8ghz and 512 mb of ram.

I don't know what overcame me but I decided to spend money and built whole new computer. At first I bought P4 3.06B ghz. It was great and hyperthreading was really useful.

So then, C chips came out with 800 mhz fsb and I decided to downgrade because I heard 2.4C overclocks very well. First one I bought 2.4C and it overclocked up to 3.2 ghz stable. Guess what? I wasn't satisfied since I see not much difference between 3.06ghz and 3.2ghz. So then I sold that one on ebay and bought another one from staples. I popped it in and my processor was overclockable to 3.4 ghz at stock voltage. I am finally happy.

I previously had 9700 pro and then upgrade to 9800 pro. I was in a budget crisis at the time and had to sell my 9800 pro, and replaced it with geforce 4 ti4200. But now I regret of selling 9800 pro. But I think it was a waste of money buying 9800 Pro because I don't use anti-alias at all. My ti4200 does the job perfectly in every game except rainbow six raven shield which I played it and it lagged, so it just collecting dust.

Most of the time I upgrade slowly by buying every 2-3 month a hard drive, cd rom, or dvd rom. I don't plan on upgrading until P5 will be like 4.5 ghz or so.
 
Usually i do a major PC upgrade every 2 years (about 3 years for Mac).. curent machine was suppose to last until the end of this year(or futher)..but since Doom III is comming out.. i might get a new display card soon.. say.. a 9800XT.. computer stuffs life cycle is getting Shorter and shorter!!


also hope my P166 box can last... this little fax machine/MP3 server box being trusted for 5 years..
 
if i can get my 2400+ mobile to around 2.6ghz thanm it will be equifelant to the new 3700+ coming out, so in the next year ill prob just upgrade my ram hopefully my 9800pro wont be obselete next year, ill prob have to upgrade to a 80 gig hd or above seeing as games these days are gettin so hd hungry. Id say in 2 years ill make a mobo,cpu, and vid card upgrade i really dont plan on building a whole new system as i wanna hold on to this piece of sentimental value im using right now.
 
I upgrade when I get sick on my computer.

Right now I have an Athlon T-Bird 900MHz with a GF2 Ti. It can barely play any new games because of performance and because what the video card can support.

I'm going to be upgrading a new motherboard (Ultra Infinity) new CPU (Barton 2500+) new RAM (who knows what kind. I can only afford 256MB though) and a new video card (actually used. My friends old GF4 Ti4200 8X)

I think thats a big enough jump considering what I can afford.
 
Well it's been about 5 years and I'm still running the same system.

P3-450
TNT2
384MB SDRAM

I think it's finally time for a new system. I should be putting one together in the next few weeks.
 
Only ever had one computer.

Since it's inception early 2001, it's been overclocked from 866 to 975, had it's ram doubled to 512, had a voodoo5 then a ti-4200 gf4 then back to the original tnt2, had a burner added, floppy drive changed, case fans added and that's about it.

Current plans are to try and find the fastest socket370 cpu and add in an 80gb hd and it'll last me until I've got the money saved to toss this and buy a modern computer :) Possibly 6 years away.
 
i usually wait until i can get good deals on stuff that is decently better than what i have. i used to do this every year, but now im just another broke college student so its been slightly over two years... and its driving me crazy. my system can run most games decently (2000XP, GF 4200), but i miss fiddleing with it :)
 
Personally, I upgrade when I can afford it. I just upgraded my 2500+barton NF2 to a ABIT IC7-max3 P4 3.0HT. I didnt part out or anything, I just decided that before the other machine was obsolete (heh), I would go better. Soon enough, the need for upgrades will catch up to me. I like to stay ahead of the game though. My next upgrade will be to take the 2500+ box, sell it, and use the $$$ for the start of a 64bit AMD box. (Linux server) Sure the drivers aren't all that great, but for a server, I can already feel the need. :)

Needs. Wants. The only difference between the two is your wife's opinion.
 
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