How often do you do a major computer upgrade?

LordBritish

LordBritish

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How often do you do a major computer upgrade?

A major upgrade is at least the following: Motherboard, CPU, and Memory.

Some folks can get away with just MB and CPU and use exisitng memory but all the times I've got a new MB and CPU, my exisiting memory was out of date anyhow.

I usually do a major upgrade once a year - last major upgrade was August 2004.
 
I try to go as long as possible. I usually find that a new vid card and/or cpu go a long way. :D I think 2 years.

 
> "A major upgrade is at least the following: Motherboard, CPU, and Memory." <

Given that parameter it's been about every 3-4 years for me.
Roughly once the "cost-to-performance" improvement is large enough for me to justify
spending money on a completely new system.

I don't play the hardware manufactuer's "you gotta have the latest" advertising game. :D
 
I agree. I usually don't upgrade unless I see a real benefit. I just relaced my laptop after almost 3 years.

Honestly I would consider building a new computer once prices drop on the dual core chips a little more, they're still too pricey and my 2.53 533Mhz FSB Penty still does everything I need.
 
Asian Dub Foundation said:
every 2 years.. the last couple of months of those 2 years is PAINFUL! ;)
Click to expand...

Exactly the same here... actually I go a bit longer sometimes. Now things like monitor, keyboard, and speakers... I'll be old and decrepit before I get around to upgrading that stuff.
 
when the games start lagging, I start upgrading.

So thats about every 2-4 years. Some systems last me longer, some don't.

When it comes to monitors/keyboards/mice/speakers/desks/networking...

I get a different monitor when my old one starts to get blurry/looses colors.
New keyboard when they keys on the old one dont work.
New mice when they make me mad
new speakers as soon as I blow up my old ones
new desk when my heavy ass amplifiers fall through this one and break it

And im still on a 10Mb ethernet hub I bought at goodwill for 3.99, Hey, it works for me just fine.

My new desk? I think I will make myself one of these : http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=880676&page=1&highlight=reclining+desk

But more... portable or able to dissassemble it and move it. That is the most bitchin desk. Get a cadillac car chair with rolling massage and heated seats...Mmm... drool...
 
About 2 years. However, I have passed my upgrade up (due in October) because I just graduated from school and moved cross country to find a job :D. I need a new computer!
 
built new sys in 95 upgraded in 98 built new in 2003 major upgrade in 2005 .. so about every 2.5 years.
 
About 2-3 years or so, depending on what I have and how the newer stuff performs comparatively.
 
Im kinda stagnent currently due to not wanting to front the cash for pci-e, sata, 64 bit, all in one build... but im alway upgrading someting... new hd... new drives.... new sound card etc... i find that it keeps me pacified from dropping 6 or 7 hundred every so often....
 
Got this rig almost three years ago now..and then I plan on jumping on the M2 wagon before I go to college..soo..three and a half years? :eek:

That will be my first complete system overhaul though..so I guess that doesn't really count.

I pick up parts here and there though..new RAM here...up video card here...but mobo and cpu have stayed the same.

 
I don't do "major" upgrades just a little bit every once and awhile. In fact I am looking to do an upgrade here soon, going to increase my ram to at least 1.5gb.
 
When my machine just isn't good enough for what I want do. My usual computer upgrade schedule is every 3 - 4 years, and when that rolls around, all the tech is so far ahead that upgrading really just means building a new comp. Yearly major upgrades really wouldn't jive with me since most of that would be incremental performance increases at best.
 
Every four to six months. Since last December I have had:

P4 550@ 3.9GHz w/Abit AA8XE/1024MB DDR2
A64 3800+ w/Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe/1024MB DDR1
2xOpteron 246's w/Tyan K8WE /4096MB Reg. ECC DDR400

All for my main gaming machine. In that time I've owned these as video cards to go with those above combos:

X700Pro
6600GT
2x6800GT PCI-E (SLi)
2x7800GTX PCI-E (SLi)

I had the X700Pro and the 6600GT while I was waiting on my 6800GT's to arrive in PCI-E. This was during the shortage of high end cards we had last year. That really sucked.
 
I do incremental upgrades. I am still running a socket A system right now. It does everything I want it to do. I basically quit playing games, so there really isn't a huge need for me to upgrade. The x2 is really tempting though. I love the idea of being able to run more programs at once. I find that my system slows down a little when I'm scanning for viruses, scanning for spyware, and have VMWare loaded with 3 virtual machines up and running. It doesn't become unuseable, but I do notice the little bit of lag.

Lyquist
 
I'm about to upgrade my current socket A system to... socket A ;)

I'll be going from a 266 MHz FSB to 333 MHz, though, and I'll be using SATA HDDs as well :D

It's hard to believe I first assembled this system about 4 years ago.
 
2 to 3 years unless I get an awesome deal on something.
The main parts in my second rig came from a complete machine I bought a few months ago for $200 so I couldn't pass that up. The processor alone was almost $200.

Also, when I upgrade, pretty much all my machines get upgraded from the trickle down effect.
 
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