Do you find it harder to justify upgrading these days?

[Hulk]

I have to say I do. I've been on the upgrade merry go round for years. Part of it because I really needed the particular upgrade, be it hardware or software, and part of it because I enjoy using the new technology.

But these days I really want to NEED to upgrade but can't justify. My "old" C2D at 3.2GHz is really doing fine. Rock solid running XP with all the apps I use day-to-day.

Word, Excel, Quickbooks, PowerDVD for BD's and other HD media, Powerpoint, CorelDraw, Photoshop, Soundforge, Internet Explorer all run great. No waiting that I can really complain about. I mean I can load up something in Photoshop to slow it down for a bit, but that's not my normal workflow so I'd really be making an issue out of it.

The *only* application that I could use more power would be Sony Vegas Pro when I'm editing HD video. And even then it's not like it's a painful process or anything. Sure it would be nice to have faster preview and rendering but it's not like it was when I was editing SD DV video on my Celeron 300A overcocked to 450.

I don't do much gaming these days but even if I did I have a feeling my CPU would be fine if I simply upgraded my GPU to something more current.

So there it is. I want to upgrade but am having a hard time spending the time and money when my current rig is so solid and fast still. The C2D is such a great processor that this is the first time I've gone a few years and didn't absolutely HAVE TO have the latest and greatest.

Although with all that rationalizing I'm still kind of wanting to build a rig around an i860. mmm 8 cores. Don't know why I need them but I feel like I do.

Anyone else having a harder time pulling the trigger these days because what you have is fast enough for your daily needs?

Or am I getting old? Have I lost that desire to build and simply have the newest baddest ass overclocked rig on the block?

 

[fffblackmage]

For the most part, my E6320 is "enough." But at the moment, I'm playing Dragon Age, and I can tell my E6320 is struggling with it, barely keeping up most of the time. Framerates are playable, but it often drops below 30fps.

A friend of mine noticed a decent combo deal on the Phenom II X2 550 + AMD 785G-based mobo at tigerdirect, made sweeter with 15% bing cashback. He picked up the PhII 550 + Asus mobo and managed to unlock the other two cores, so he got himself a nice quad core. With that kind of success, I just couldn't help but try rolling the dice and getting myself a quad core upgrade for cheap, so I went for the PhII 550 + Gigabyte mobo.

I get what you mean though. Before this new cpu+mobo, I've been wanting to upgrade my gfx card to a new, though somewhat pricey, 5850, but didn't. I also wanted to upgrade my cpu, but old socket 775 cpus are all still pricey despite a dying and aging socket. Moving to a new platform wasn't cheap enough. And then of course, my E6320 was still running pretty strong. But now that Bioshock 2 and Mass Effect 2 are finally out... this is a good time to do some upgrading.

 

[dguy6789]

Definitely.

PC games are less entertaining now than they've ever been, system requirements aren't increasing because of consoles. I can't think of more than five PC games coming in the next several years that I care even a little about. Consoles are so much more cost effective that PC gaming is barely even an option in comparison. There are no longer any benefits to gaming on a PC over a console because every console game coming to the PC(that's the only kind of game that comes to PC anymore) now is just as confined as the console version.

All non-gaming tasks run well on my system.

No reason for me to spend money on computer hardware at all.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Old rig : E6420 @ 3.6GHz, Gigabyte 965P-DS3 Rev 1.0, 4GB DDR2-800
New rig : i7 920 @ 4.1GHz, Gigabyte EX58-UD3R Rev 1.6, 6GB DDR3-1600
Why? : Needed guts for a new fileserver

 

[MrK6]

Nope, not at all. If something comes out that piques my curiosity, I'm grabbing it. In September I upgraded from a Q6600 @ 3.6GHz and overclocked GTX295 to my current rig. I probably only netted a 10-20% performance gain overall (generous estimate), but I'm finally back to a single GPU, this new rig pulls half the power of the old one, and I was able to finally move to a SFF case. I also grabbed an SSD this fall, and while not a price-conscious decision, I have no regrets.

I think what we're seeing here is computational power is developing much faster than the applications that use it. While it might be harder to justify upgrades purely on a performance basis (e.g. I need this upgrade to play this game), there are still plenty of reasons to upgrade.

On a side note, there's nothing wrong with the PC gaming industry. Don't like console ports? You don't have to. I just played through ME2 at an extreme resolution only available on the PC with cranked image quality, experienced quick load times and stellar performance (no FPS drops, unlike a console), and enjoyed the control and ease of use of a mouse and keyboard. I now just started STALKER: CoP and Global Agenda, two PC only titles that have been tons of fun so far.

 

[Acanthus]

I have been disappointed with the pace of advancements in the last year or so.

SSDs will be a nice upgrade when they are affordable.

Nothing really challenges the current CPU so ive been sitting on my hands and waiting for 32nm quads.

DDR3 is a very small performance bump, but at least its coming down in price.

x58 has been out forever now, i'm looking forward to a new Intel chipset.

It has been a long lull of drab titles and lackluster hardware advancements that have kept me from upgrading.

 

[ShreddedWheat]

My e5200 oced to 3.4 with a 5850 @ 775/1125 is doing fine for me in majority of games though I feel that I would have been fine with my 4850 @ 1920x1200 rez with most of my games awhile longer. It is harder to justify upgrading but when you get that upgrade "bug" it is hard to deny it. Though with current setup I should be fine for awhile.

 

[bob5568]

I think its certain that hardware evolution has outpaced entertainment software evolution. This is pretty logical, making hardware faster, providing larger bandwidths, this seems like a challenge whose goal is clearer, than evolving the "fun" of a user to a higher level from within the software. Of course, back in the dark ages, when no one had seen high resolution, shaders, and high level programming, we swooned. However, once those techniques have become ordinary, its harder to produce the swoon feeling with still more tech concepts.

So, our hardware advances...we get higher synthetic scores, higher fps readings on the same games as before, but there is less overall change in our reaction to entertainment.

The natural reaction seems to be to view your home computer like a business views the computer, as a tool to achieve a result. I didn't upgrade my core2duo for a long time, and only finally did when I needed to do high resolution renderings. On my core2duo, I kept a good book going at my desk. During the renders, I'd read at least one, sometimes two chapters. I skipped xp altogether, but broke down when win 7 came out, and upgraded the os at the same time as building the new box. Now the renders are pretty snappy.

I do note the alternate "value" for computers to me, as each time I do a build and subsequent overclock, its a memorable and really fun period of time. I always feel some sadness when I reach a natural resting point for the box, and it begins a long term life at my choice of optimum settings. Kind of like how it feels to finish an awesome book.

I'm at that point right now with my Lynnfield, and I sense it will be some years before I get to have this much fun handling components and exploring settings again.

Cheers,
Bob

 

[KingstonU]

Definitely. Went from A64 3200+ to Q9550 @ 3.5 . I love building new rigs and reading up on the latest tech and will always feel the itch. I am making myself wait for Bulldozer and even then I will be upgrading simply because I can (god I love not being a poor student anymore). My last upgrade was a HUGE jump in performance because they were 4 years apart. I will not notice a difference between a C2Q and an i5/i7 with the programs I run. Best to spend my money on SSD's and video cards, and even video cards theres no point right now.

 

[soccerballtux]

ya had no need besides gaming to upgrade past my Sempron 3100+ @ 2.3ghz, that proc did everything.
Since then went to e2180 @ 3.4Ghz to a e8400 @ 3.9Ghz (was given to me) to my current quad rig. I'm happy with my current processor though, I probably won't need to do anything but upgrade GPU for at least 2-3 years. I envy the people that bought a q6600 and got it OC'd to 3.4ghz 3 years ago. That'll probably be the best investment they've ever made, could keep it for another 2-3 years...6 years total...amazing...

 

[jinduy]

i'm still waffling between upgrading or sticking with my old amd x2. i have no good reason to upgrade but the itch is very strong.

the only game that might force me to upgrade is starcraft 2 and even then their rumored recommended specs is near the level of what my system can handle.

 

[LoneNinja]

Only processor I've replaced in the last year was an Athlon X2 7750, I upgraded to an Athlon II X4 630. The upgrade wasn't really needed, I just wanted to get a quad in my last desktop. I also wouldn't have upgraded if it wasn't for the fact my gf needed a computer, so I picked up a nice X4 630/785G combo, and gave the new board and old 7750 to her.

I still feel my Phenom 9850 is more than powerful enough for everything I do, even at stock clocks.

 

[Cogman]

Things really seemed to have slowed down in the past little bit. Perhaps we are going through a techno dry spell.

 

[Hulk]

For me it's not so much that the technology isn't there, I think it is, it's more my need. My current rig is still quite fast for the apps I run. Sure an i860 will show significant performance improvement, especially considering the turbo feature, but 99% of the time that power will go wasted for me. So a render will take half the time? It's not like I'm putting out video files for a living so that's not really a huge factor. In addition my NLE of choice, Vegas Pro, still isn't really optimized for multicores when previewing. And THAT would be my biggest reason upgrade. To see all 8 cores of a Nehalem system at 100% during a complicated video preview.

What got me thinking about this was the yearly stop over my father-in-law's place on Friday to sort out some computer issues. It was actually a mess as he couldn't get into Windows. Anyway, after getting him sorted out I usually look at his computer specs and recommend he get a new system. This has been going on for nearly 20 years with him. And a new system every 3 or 4 years.

So this time I look at his computer specs. It's a Dell with a C2D variant at 2.16GHz if I remember correctly, 4200 or something like that. Anyway for his needs that's way faster than he requires. MS Office, tax software (he's an accountant), and internet surfing? He doesn't even need dual core. So he was like "should I get a new computer?" And I had to say no. This system is still absolutely fine for you. That was a shocker even as the words came out of my mouth as I was so used to upgrading for him.

Strange as it seems we are almost lucky that there is still a lot of sofware bloat out there as it keeps Intel and AMD striving to produce faster and faster cpu's. Voice recognition, HD video editing, and probably gaming are the only "mainstream" apps that really require some serious CPU power. I don't think 3d rendering is a mainstream application but I could be wrong. And I'm sure there are other apps I've missing but those three come to mind.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

As others have mentioned, the number of quality PC titles seems to be dropping every year and because many of the games are console ports, hardware requirements don't seem to be going up drastically. Because of this, I have a really hard time justifying any upgrades until a component dies.

 

[Ozark_86]

LOL - I just pulled the trigger on a i5 750, moving up from my opy 170 @ 2.75... that old system is generally about 5 years old now, but in the past, I'm sure 3 years would have been max. I'm mostly upgrading because my 8800 is bottlenecked by the processor and I can find a cheapy 8800 somewhere to do sli. It's a long way from my asus t2p4...

Definitely. Went from A64 3200+ to Q9550 @ 3.5 . I love building new rigs and reading up on the latest tech and will always feel the itch. I am making myself wait for Bulldozer and even then I will be upgrading simply because I can (god I love not being a poor student anymore). My last upgrade was a HUGE jump in performance because they were 4 years apart. I will not notice a difference between a C2Q and an i5/i7 with the programs I run. Best to spend my money on SSD's and video cards, and even video cards theres no point right now.