Have you sped up your upgrade cycle, slowed it down, or neither?

[VirtualLarry]

Just curious what other people had done with their upgrade cycles.

I've probably sped mine up, buying, well, what some people consider crap, that I don't really need, in search of smaller / lower-powered systems.

But by the same token, I've slowed down my desktop upgrades. Been sticking with a pair of Q9300 CPUs for the longest time. Could have bought a 2500K, ended up buying a Thuban 1045T, and then another one. (It's nice having a Microcenter nearby.) Don't use the Thuban much, except for DC. I use the Q9300s more for day-to-day stuff, as well as DC in the winter.

Now, some people are ditching their 2500Ks for a 4790K or 5820K.

I know BonzaiDuck is holding onto some 775 rigs just like me.

 

[Spungo]

Longest upgrade cycles ever. I had a GeForce 8800 GTX for games since 2008 or so. I'm still using it in my secondary computer, but it's more for casual games instead of hardcore games. It was only upgraded this year, so that's about 6 years with the same video card. I've also had the same 6 core CPU since 2010, so that's 4 years and I have no intention of upgrading any time soon.

We are truly in the golden age of computing. My mom's computer is 4 years old and it's nowhere near needing an upgrade. I'm going to buy her a faster hard drive, but that's it.

 

[BSim500]

Just curious what other people had done with their upgrade cycles.

Like many others, I've slowed right down. Went from an Athlon64 -> X2 -> i3 530 -> i5 3570. Previous chips were upgraded virtually every generation (ie, 286 -> 386 -> 486DX, etc. Had a P3, and the infamous Abit BP6 dual socket + 2x 366Mhz Celerons each OC'd to 550MHz under Windows NT 4 trick. A couple of AMD's along the way (K6-2 I think), a Cyrix, a VIA, etc, during the original Pentium era). Sticking with the i5-3570 until I see at least a 25-30% improvement at same clock (or much better perf/watt due to 14nm). Biggest recent upgrades have been : large 1TB SSD, new IPS monitor, dGPU, new Sennheiser headphones, and the most important component of all - a new comfy chair.

I think the biggest thing is to know exactly what you want, set a personal "upgrade figure" and then stick with it. For me it's 25-30%, ie, I see zero point in "benchmark chasing" for a +5% boost if you can't actually start to feel a difference until the 20-25% mark (outside of benchmarks). Buying habits have also changed. 10 years ago during rapid improvements, I'd buy "bang per buck" low-mid end stuff knowing it would only last 12 months. Today, like many others, I'd rather spend a bit more, buy an i5/i7 and enjoy it for 3-5 years, which is often more cost efficient in the long run than regularly "churning" budget stuff.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Same as always.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Like many others, I've slowed right down.
I'd rather spend a bit more, buy an i5/i7 and enjoy it for 3-5 years, which is often more cost efficient in the long run than regularly "churning" budget stuff.

I suppose I should do that too. I used to go for "bigger" upgrades, but for whatever reason I've become unhealthily obsessed with trying to stretch "budget tech" as far as I can.

These little Atom quad-core Win 8.1 tablets are rather quite usable though.

I dug out one of my C-70 NanoPCs, running Linux Mint 17.1, and it was using 50% CPU just idling with Skype and Firefox and system monitor open.

In contrast, my quad-core Z3735F CPU hits 33% while in a Skype call, with Firefox idling.

Edit: I'm starting to learn the value of buying more than you need at the moment, just to ensure a reasonable lifespan for that PC. That, and the performance advantage of buying Intel.

 

[NTMBK]

I've just been incrementally upgrading an AM2+ system I got second hand a few years back. Replaced the dual core with a quad core, then added a new GPU, then replaced the motherboard, then fried the quad core and had to get a new one

But I don't see any real need to upgrade beyond a Phenom II.

 

[AtenRa]

Slowed down,

I used to upgrade my Main Desktop every year, Athlon X2 4200+ @ 2.5GHz in 2005, to Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3.4GHz in 2006, to Core 2 Quad 6600 @ 3GHz in 2007, to Core 2 Quad 9450 @ 3,2GHz in 2008, then to Core i7 920 @ 4GHz in 2009 and then to what currently have the Core i7 3770K @ 4.44GHz in 2012.
Already 2 and half year old CPU/Platform and i dont see any need to upgrade them any time soon. Ivy could outlast even my Nehalem as things are going now. But i have my eye on the Intel 14nm 6-core and what ever AMD will bring in 2016+.

GPU upgrades were also slowed down, i used to upgrade each year from HD3850, HD4850, HD5850, HD6950, HD7950 but now I keep them for 2+.

I believe GPU upgrades will be faster than CPU upgrades from now on, im already thinking for a new GPU for some time now.

 

[steve wilson]

I think I've seen this conversation (or similar) about 5 times over the last year and it's still the same. Slowed down a lot. Got an i5 2500k and there is just no reason to upgrade it, since all I do is gaming at a max of 1080. Waiting on skylake and Oculus Rift before I even consider an upgrade, but whether it will be worth while upgrading then I have no idea.

 

[Sunaiac]

Slowed down a lot.
I have an X58 setup with a 980X, since ... 2011 ?
Improvements since that have been ridiculous. Last CPU I kept that long (4 years) was a DX2-66, When I changed it for a Pentium II, I saw a 500% improvment...

GPUs have kept me moving lately (GTX275 --> GTX580 --> HD7970GHz --> R9 290X). But even there, it starts crawling. I was exited about the GTX980, until it turned into a 10% improvment over my 1yo 290X for 66% more than the current price of said 290X...

 

[Brunnis]

Slowed down considerably. My computer (i7-860, 8GB RAM) is basically the same as when i bought it in 2009, except for a larger SSD and new GPU. I had an HD5870 1GB that I replaced with a 280X about a year ago. Although I've always loved to play with new tech, there really hasn't been much incentive at all to buy something faster, CPU-wise. I can see myself getting a new machine for Oculus Rift, but other than that I think I can keep the machine as is for a good while longer. My personal criteria for doing an upgrade these days is that my old stuff really needs to feel slow and the new stuff is at least twice as fast. A 4GHz Skylake and big Maxwell should easily be twice as fast (comparing stock to stock performance), but it remains to be seen if games will be demanding enough to actually make good use of that extra performance.

I fired up Elite Dangerous yesterday and it defaulted to the "Ultra" preset. Pretty nice for a 5 year old machine with a 1 year old 300 dollar upgrade.

 

[Yuriman]

Slowed down. PC is basically untouched for the past 2 years. Bought a laptop with a Haswell Celeron, wife is still using a Core2Duo laptop. Will probably go 2.5-3 years on the phones.

 

[mikeymikec]

Mine has slowed down (purely desktop):

P133
P166MMX
Celeron 300A @ 450
P3-550
P3-866
AthlonXP 1800+
AthlonXP 2500+ (this was my last 'quick' upgrade)
AthlonXP 3200+ (I picked this up second hand for free, 2007 or 2008 I think, times were hard financially for some time)
Athlon II X4 630
Phenom II X4 960T (originally bought as an upgrade for a customer that ended up not working in his machine so I used it and sold him my CPU)

I've been feeling a small upgrade itch, but I've managed to improve my setup enough so that it runs extremely quietly, and apart from getting S3 sleep without sacrificing power efficiency (my board won't maintain the CPU underclock after resuming from S3), I might get a 10fps improvement in the games I play, I just can't justify it to myself.

 

[scannall]

Slowed way down. There really isn't any compelling reason to spend a ton of money, aside from the upgrade twitch my inner computer nerd brings out. Upgraded my i7-920 to a Xeon 5660 because it was cheap, and fun to tinker with. But that's about it.

 

[hawtdawg]

Went from a Q9550 to a 3770K. Don't see myself getting a new CPU until at least 10nm

 

[Eeqmcsq]

Slowed down to a standstill. Phenom X6 1100T. 16GB RAM. Samsung 830 SSD for the Linux OS. A couple of 1 TB HDDs for the data files.

I'm so overloaded with computing power for my needs, I won't be upgrading my computer until it breaks.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Slowed down,

I used to upgrade my Main Desktop every year, Athlon X2 4200+ @ 2.5GHz in 2005, to Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3.4GHz in 2006, to Core 2 Quad 6600 @ 3GHz in 2007, to Core 2 Quad 9450 @ 3,2GHz in 2008, then to Core i7 920 @ 4GHz in 2009 and then to what currently have the Core i7 3770K @ 4.44GHz in 2012.
Already 2 and half year old CPU/Platform and i dont see any need to upgrade them any time soon. Ivy could outlast even my Nehalem as things are going now. But i have my eye on the Intel 14nm 6-core and what ever AMD will bring in 2016+.

GPU upgrades were also slowed down, i used to upgrade each year from HD3850, HD4850, HD5850, HD6950, HD7950 but now I keep them for 2+.

I believe GPU upgrades will be faster than CPU upgrades from now on, im already thinking for a new GPU for some time now.

You have Intel CPUs ?!

 

[DeathReborn]

I used to upgrade every 18 months but staggered to cover the many systems (LAN Room) to upgrade. Now I upgrade every 2 generations or so as the performance uplift just isn't there to justify the upgrade prices.

Current gen is Haswell, Hawaii/Pitcairn/Maxwell/Kepler, Patriot RAM & Gigabyte Motherboards. In August I finally ditched all but 1 AMD CPU system as their high performance CPU's just aren't there. Kept the 50/50 ATi(AMD)/nVidia split though.

 

[AtenRa]

You have Intel CPUs ?!

I have both AMD and Intel CPUs, as i have both AMD/ATI and NVIDIA GPUs.

Shocking ???

 

[Genx87]

Slowed way down. I used to build a new box about every 18 months. I am going on nearly 4 years with my current setup.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Yeah, not a new topic and as has been said above, my answer is still the same - slowed well down. My last upgrade cycle was replacing my Q9450/Q9550 with 4770K/4790K. Those C2Q lasted me 6 years. 0_0

Moving on forward I think I'm going to upgrade a little faster though. 6 years is a bit too much IMO. I think I want to tie my hardware upgrades closer to OS upgrades. So I think I might build new rigs shortly after Windows 10 hits the shelves. New OS new computer. And I'll be able to sell my 4770K/4790K before they lose all their value. Or maybe I'll decide to keep my 4770K/4790K until Win11 comes out. Who knows. Having Microcenter and Frys within driving distance makes it a lot cheaper to upgrade if you manage to get in on BF/Christmas/End of year sales (Frys had 4790K for 229 this year).

 

[thilanliyan]

Slowed down. Only reason to upgrade before was for gaming and some video encoding. Lately I've done very little of both so no point in upgrading. Do get the itch every once in a while though lol.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

I have both AMD and Intel CPUs, as i have both AMD/ATI and NVIDIA GPUs.

Shocking ???

Very much so!

 

[III-V]

Slowed down. I used to be getting free rent by living at my parents', but since moving out however many years ago, I haven't been able to afford anything other than the occasional SSD.

If I could though, I'd be upgrading every cycle or every other generation, and timing things so I'd sell off my old hardware before new hardware launches, to minimize cost.

 

[Bradtech519]

AMD 486 DX4 100
Intel Pentium 1 166 with MMX
AMD K6 2 450
Pentium 3 800
AMD Thunderbrd 1.4 GHz
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
AMD Athlon 64 3700+
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (Sold to friend for that needed gaming rig & built AMD rig)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+
AMD Phenom 2 965 BE
AMD FX 8350

These were my main rigs. I have almost always had another PC & laptops (Cyrix PR166+, Pentium 4 2.0 GHz etc). I used to upgrade at faster intervals because I enjoyed new gaming titles in the late 90s & early to mid 2000s.. I've slowed down some riding out the Phenom 2 965BE until last year for years. Honestly PC games of this era don't interest me as much. I find myself clinging to older titles still doing multiplayer in quake 2 & urban terror with the occasional MMORPG binge. I mainly upgraded for Distributed Computing & I basically got a killer deal I couldn't turn down that let me almost break even upgrading to an FX 8350 from a Phenom 2 965. I've skipped Thuban/Bulldozer & the I5/I7 era with Intel. I do have multiple laptops with Core I5 & Core I7 mobile variants though.

 

[CHADBOGA]

Slowed down tremendously.

Part of that slow down is due to hardly any games interesting me anymore, and the other part is the feeble improvements in Single Core performance of CPU's.

I suspect that I could happily live with my i5 3570K for another 6 to 8 years.

If Half Life 3 ever comes out, I will almost certainly upgrade my GPU for it.