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

[tential]

5-7 years has been my upgrade cycle. Mostly because I don't PC game that much and when I do, I end up playing Dota mostly or I just turn down settings when my PC gets old.

It'll probably speed up though as I go out less and stay in more.

There are a TON of games I never played before so I have a large backlog to keep me busy all the way from 2003 probably.

You have Intel CPUs ?!

Hey, even Aterna needs to get something done sometimes.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Planning on slowing down. Typical upgrade cycle averages 3 years, but the rig in my sig was built in 2011 and upgraded with some new components early in 2014 with a goal of remaining my main box through 2015 and possibly well into 2016. That would put it between 4 and 5 years old. Unless there is a huge leap in performance or my board or CPU dies, I think I'll stick to my plan.

Edit: Also, the case and monitors predate this system and may make it into my next system as well.

 

[TechFan1]

My upgrade cycle hasn't really changed, but only been building/buying computers since around 2006. The gpu I upgrade as needed (around every 2 years). I don't really need more performance for anything except gaming.

First computer I built had an AMD Athlon 64 X2 - Probably around 2006
Second computer I built was Sandy Bridge i5 2500 - 2011
Third computer I plan to build will likely be Skylake i7 system - 2015

 

[boozzer]

my cycle is every 3 to 4 years. I am no longer a heavy gamer like I used to be. my next upgrade would be my ivy cpu to skylake if at all. I am 100% certain I would do a complete upgrade if I need it when a single gpu can power 4k resolution in gaming, with mostly max settings. that is at least 3 to 5 generations of gpus away.

 

[ctsoth]

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.

I built my Lano system not long after Sandy Bridge hit the market. At the time I didn't want to spend up for a sandy bridge system. In retrospect I would have saved money had I done so, for sandy bridge is still and excellent platform, yet llano is too anemic for modern games.

Switching to a Haswell 4790k tripled my gaming framerates with the exact same video card.

 

[Wall Street]

I find that my main PC upgrade cycle is a little slower than it was 15 years ago, but I have been doing more peripheral upgrades. I use three different processors and three different video cards on the same cheap monitor, keyboard and mouse in the 1990s. In the past few years I have bought a Unicomp mechanical keyboard, several mice of different design, an oversized gaming mousepad, a monitor mounting arm, Klipsch speakers, a lamp for bias lighting behind my monitor, a DXRacer chair and a new desk - which in my mind still count as upgrading the PC experience.

 

[Polar2002]

My past upgrade cycle was every year, nowadays, it is skipping four generations. My current computers, tablets, smartphones are more than fast enough.

 

[Spydermag68]

I was about to upgrade this summer to an i7-4790k but then the report came out about the bug in one of the instructions. Now I am waiting for sky lake.

 

[cbn]

I am actually in a downgrade cycle, now that I have been using the LGA 771 Xeon mod in Pre-built Slim form factor and SFF desktops.

Its been interesting to see how far a person can actually go with hardware that is so ultra cheap.

$16 to $17 Xeon X3323 (equivalent to Q9300 core 2 quad, but with 80 watt TDP instead of 95 watt TDP)
$22 to $25 Xeon E5440 (equivalent to Q9550 core 2 quad, but with 80 watt TDP instead of 95 watt TDP)

In a Pre-built desktop that can be as low as $30 shipped without OS and $52 shipped with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

P.S. The Dell OptiPlex 755 won't take the E5440 Xeon, but it will take the X3323.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I was about to upgrade this summer to an i7-4790k but then the report came out about the bug in one of the instructions. Now I am waiting for sky lake.

The TSX bug? Or something else?

 

[Shehriazad]

My upgrade cycle is always and never.

I always wait for very specific technological advancements or advantages (at affordable price points) before I switch...sometimes those happen 3-4 times a year and sometimes I won't upgrade anything at all.

Just raw performance is rarely a reason for me to upgrade...I upgrade if new and exciting technology comes with the new hardware.

I also sometimes downgrade "gaming" performance in favor of other advantages...It's really hard to say.

I did 14 upgrades/sidegrades/downgrades this year. Last year 1. That one before...not sure how many...but a lot.

I guess I'm an oddball.

 

[KaRLiToS]

Slowed down and still holding myself.

 

[cbn]

My upgrade cycle is always and never.

I always wait for very specific technological advancements or advantages at (affordable price points) before I switch...sometimes those happen 3-4 times a year and sometimes I won't upgrade anything at all.

That is how I am.

Recently I acquired two 1280 x 1024 monitors and now I have three 1280 x 1024 (in total) for a poor man's Eyefinity or Nvidia Surround set-up.

If my overclocked G3258 is not sufficient to feed the video card necessary to push those pixels (3 x 1280 x 1024 = slightly less pixels than two 1920 x 1080 monitors) at low detail settings I will think about upgrading my cpu to something more powerful.

 

[tnt118]

Slow down.

I would typically start to notice the computer being slower than I wanted at about 3 years, struggle through one more, and upgrade at 4. I'm currently at 5 years in and largely this rig does everything I need it to do. I did upgrade the graphics card but the i7 860 is still a champ for everything except the highest-end gaming.

 

[cbn]

For my upgrade/downgrade strategy I think this post nicely sums up the two categories I am looking at:

That is basically my strategy:

1. Larger more powerful PC for heavier "enthusiast workloads" and general work (connected to multiple monitors)

2. Smaller and more quiet secondary PC for lighter "enthusiast workloads" (connected to TV).

For #2, I am looking to compare my budget LGA 771 Xeons (and GT 630) in a refurbed Pre-built SFF PC to any new low power desktop processors coming from Intel and AMD on various metrics. At first this may seem a bit apples and oranges, but when I factor in cost the LGA 771 and GT 630 will likely be cheaper than the new Intel and AMD low power budget desktop processors. Of course, that still leaves performance, noise and power consumption as a few of the remaining metrics (certainly the new tech will do well in the last two categories).

With that mentioned, I think both categories will be very interesting to compare.

How much competition does a surplus Xeon Quad core in a dirt cheap refurbed Slim/SFF desktop (with dGPU) give something like Intel Braswell for gaming when connected to a TV? (I am thinking mainly Linux gaming because that is what I most do with my Xeon X3323/GT630, but will no doubt check the Windows gaming as well)

How much video card can the overclocked G3258 feed (stutter free) in a game like BF4 MP when connected to a poor man's Eyefinity set-up? Right now my R7 250X can handle 1080p low stutter free so I am thinking I will probably only need R9 270 or R9 270X for triple 1280 x 1024 low. But how well will the OC G3258 be able to handle a low end R9 card?

 

[Hulk]

Stopped.

A year ago I picked up a 4770k for $200 at a Microcenter sales and it's still pretty much top of the line without going to hex cores.

It's been a year and a half since Haswell's release and there isn't a new desktop chip even on the horizon? I know Broadwell is coming but I've heard nothing about desktop parts.

 

[moonbogg]

I slowed down quite a lot, and upgrading from 2600k to 3930k was fun, but not needed for gaming right now. I bought 2600k on day of release and would be just fine with one still. I expect this 3930k to last a really long time unless I get a real itch to upgrade. Glad I got 6 cores moving forward though. Its likely to hold up longer despite having less IPC and for gaming I could ignore CPU releases for years to come I bet.

 

[CP5670]

Like everyone, I've slowed down a lot. I recently did my first CPU and video card upgrade in 5-6 years, and even then the CPU upgrade (4ghz 920 to 4790K) was far from essential. From 1998-2007 or so, I used to upgrade major components every year, but there is little reason to do that these days. This setup should last at least 4 years, probably longer. I still have a lot of older peripherals in the system (the case, keyboard, sound card and one HD are from 2006) and have no plans to change them either. I only keep one desktop that does everything I need, and a 2011 laptop that I primarily just use for travel.

Most of my gaming these days is with older games, indie titles and mods rather than modern AAA releases, although the latter types of games do occasionally catch my interest and I want them to run well when I choose to play them. However, games generally stopped growing more demanding a long time ago (or are simply crappy console ports that are intensive but don't look good).

 

[escrow4]

I spent a few thousand in 2012/2013 building close to a dozen PCs - G1610, 3870K, i3 3220, non K 3470, non K 3570, non K 3770, FX 6300, 3930K with assorted GPUs - GTX 650, GTX 680, 280X, Titan and assorted chipsets from B85 to FM1 (or 2?) to H87 selling them all. Then I got bored and settled on my 2 main boxes:

#1 5930K @ 3.7GHz | 16GB DDR4 2133MHz | 780 Ti GHz @ 1215MHz | 500GB EVO

#2 4770 @ 3.4GHz | 16GB DDR3 1600MHz | HD 4600 | 2 x 1TB EVOs

It was fun, now I've gotten lazy. What, it wasn't THAT many PCs. :awe:

I still will upgrade my gaming GPU annually if there is something at least 30% faster, but otherwise meh.

 

[bononos]

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.
.....

It depends. I've slowed down upgrades for my main rig but bought more smartphones/tablets in the meantime. My gaming wants have slowed down which affected my purchasing cycles, so it wasn't just the relatively anemic progress in cpu performance which kept me from buying more.

 

[Spydermag68]

The TSX bug? Or something else?

Yes it was. I know this is a very small chance that it would occur and their is a update of some kind that would make disable the execution of the instruction, but I am a programmer and I tend to keep my computers for a long time. The current one I have is six years old.

 

[III-V]

Yes it was. I know this is a very small chance that it would occur and their is a update of some kind that would make disable the execution of the instruction, but I am a programmer and I tend to keep my computers for a long time. The current one I have is six years old.

The "update" is optional, you know.

 

[sequoia464]

Desktop wise, slowed way down, recent history on my main work computer is 960T > 8320 > i54440.

Probably not going to see any changes here for years, having said that, I might swap out the 4440 for a G3258 that has been sitting on my desk for a while now, (couldn't pass it up for $50) . My needs have changed recently; email, QuickBooks and office is pretty much the extent of what I use my desktop for.

These days I can pretty much do everything I need to on a laptop or tablet, typing this on a tablet.

 

[Dravic]

Slowed way down...

still I'm on an old overclocked 8150... going into what year 4 or 5...?

Will probably grab an 8320 or 8370 this year just to have the last available and most efficient AM3+ CPU for when it becomes the Linux Workstation replacement.

 

[Shadowjump]

Till 2008, I was upgrading like mad.

Latest part I remeber is Athlon 3200+ -> 3500+ -> 3800+ X2 -> 4400+ X2 -> Core 2 Duo E6600 -> E6800 -> E8500 -> E8600 -> Q9450 -> i7 920 -> i7 950 and that where it stopped.

I just upgraded my CPU/Mobo since 2009 with a 4790K.

Of course I changed loooooots of stuff on my secondary computers, but I do not count them since they were never high end like my main rig.


One thing that I change more often are GPUs. Last of them I remember are 7800GTX SLi -> 8800GTX -> 8800GT SLi -> 8800GTS 512 SLi -> 280GTX SLi -> 285GTX SLi -> 480GTX SLi -> 580GTX SLi -> 7970 CrossFire and then have stopped since then. Sometime in the next 6 months I hope to upgrade to 970GTX SLi.