How much money do you sink into your computer(s) each year?

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D1gger

Diamond Member
Oct 3, 2004
5,411
2
76
I own and support 8 PC's in the house and spend between $3,000 - $4,000 per year.
 

MDE

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
13,199
1
81
Too much. Last year I bought the following:

eMachines M6805 $1250
6800GT $400
Logitech MX1000 $60
Plus other random crap
 

Regs

Lifer
Aug 9, 2002
16,665
21
81
Depends - i always splurg on the next generation video cards. This year I spent around 800 dollars. 400 for the GT, 320 for a 939 set up. Sold my old set up for 200 dollars, then I just ordered a 160 GB segate drive.
 

seasea

Junior Member
Aug 21, 2004
23
0
0
Originally posted by: PascalT
hmm why do you need to keep 6 comps upgraded? :p

so what is going on with those computers? finding a cure for cancer? researching world peace?
 

ddviper

Golden Member
Dec 15, 2004
1,411
0
0
Originally posted by: seasea
Originally posted by: PascalT
hmm why do you need to keep 6 comps upgraded? :p

so what is going on with those computers? finding a cure for cancer? researching world peace?

lol ya seriously, y do u need 6 top of the line comps?
 

MDE

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
13,199
1
81
Originally posted by: ddviper
Originally posted by: seasea
Originally posted by: PascalT
hmm why do you need to keep 6 comps upgraded? :p

so what is going on with those computers? finding a cure for cancer? researching world peace?

lol ya seriously, y do u need 6 top of the line comps?
Could quite possibly be for finding a cure for cancer.
 

MDE

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
13,199
1
81
Originally posted by: sharkeeper
Could quite possibly be for finding a cure for cancer.

Nah you only need lowly clusters for that. :)

Cheers!
90% of the people in the DC forum would say, "Clusters, we don't need no stinking clusters!" The other 10% would point at their clusters :).
 

Arcanedeath

Platinum Member
Jan 29, 2000
2,822
1
76
I'd say on average about $600 - 700 buck a year, altho it depends on if I'm building a new system or not, I puchased an Emachines M6805 + 2 gigs of memory and a 7200rpm hdd for it last year so that put a big dent in my budget all I've really gotten this year is a 19" 16ms LCD. I'm still using my over clocked 2500+ ,Nforce 2 and 9800Pro @ XT speeds.
 

Duvie

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2001
16,215
0
71
I trade my old parts out so if we are talking new out of pocket expenses and upgrading at least 2 times on a year on mobo/cpu/vid card then maybe I spend about 300-400...

I never by the top of the line since I tweak and OC and I usually get 80% of what I paid from my old stuff so 300-400 is about right....early this year and I have spent alomost that...it was a whole platform change though with added drives, etc....
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
20
81
Depends on the year, but sometimes close to $1000. I bought a RAID 5 setup for my second PC, and that was kind of expensive - RAID 5 card, new case, and 5 hard drives. Several months later, a customer's 180GXP IBM hard drive died, making that the second IBM drive I've experienced the death of; the other was a 120GXP that had a severe head crash after the spindle seized up. So I am now in the process of doing health checks on the Hitachi/IBM drives that I originally bought for the array; the array is now comprised of Seagate drives.
So that was a pretty decent bunch of expenses right there.
Overall though, my PCs have been pretty stable upgrade-wise since I moved to the nForce2/Athlon XP base.
 

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
19
81
Don't make me do this...I don't wanna think about it and may loose my reputation as price/performance guru..:(

I personally spend about $2000 a year on parts...not bad i guess. It's fun to try new stuff, find the best values and talk about them... so I don't mind. I usually donate the comps or hand them down to family when done. I build a new comp every 3-6 months..One thing I like is nice monitors, keyboards and cases which gets expensive. My goal on hardware is always shooting for cheap top of the line setups.. hard to do with video cards.. but can be done trivially in processor, memory and mobo areas so that's where I save.
 

Amaroque

Platinum Member
Jan 2, 2005
2,178
0
0
Originally posted by: Zebo
Don't make me do this...I don't wanna think about it and may loose my reputation as price/performance guru..:(

Too late... Pwnd! :p
 

Amaroque

Platinum Member
Jan 2, 2005
2,178
0
0
Originally posted by: MDE
Originally posted by: ddviper
Originally posted by: seasea
Originally posted by: PascalT
hmm why do you need to keep 6 comps upgraded? :p

so what is going on with those computers? finding a cure for cancer? researching world peace?

lol ya seriously, y do u need 6 top of the line comps?
Could quite possibly be for finding a cure for cancer.

Actually, I run various different DC projects. For example, I ran the G@H project from start to finish.

IIRC I was in the top 30 when the project finished. :)
 

WT

Diamond Member
Sep 21, 2000
4,816
60
91
Somewhat depressing to sit with a calculator and add it up .... this year has been very high and I'd guess about $1,200 .... but it should average $500+ a year. Within one year I had spent $500 alone on just two vid cards .. OUCH !!!!

Also, this is just what I remember .... I'm forgetting the small details such as cables, paint and fans that add up over time. With four rigs, its not hard to blow a wad o' cash, especially if you try to maintain like functionality on all PCs.
 

Texun

Platinum Member
Oct 21, 2001
2,058
1
81
I probably spend $800-$1000 a year on 3 computers, but that's not really an average. The expense varies depending on what 3 PC's I have or patch together. In the past year I've probably spent more on memory and storage than anything else. One year it's boards and cpu's, the next it's storage or video cards. I almost never do it all at once.
 
Feb 6, 2005
88
0
0
I upgrade every two years. I am in process of getting off the nforce2 platform. Im gonna miss my abit nf7-2 and my XP2600+ Mobile. I usually ebay my older stuff to offset the cost of upgrading. I do this before my parts become totally worthless.
This year it looks like this:

2x512 CORSAIR XMS XLPT $250
MSI Nforce4 Ultra $163
eVGA PCI-E 6800GT $450
OCZ Powerstream 520 $135
AMD64 3200+ $220
--------------------------------------
Total $1218
Less old system sales -$260
____________________________
Total 2 year upgrade price $958




The I ebayed my old memory for $110 (2x256 "LL" CORSAIR XMS")
ABIT NF7-S $60 (havent sold yet)
AMD XP-M 2600+ $80-$100 (Its the good stepping, havent sold it yet
Antec TRUEBLUE 480 $50 (havent sold yet)
 

CraigRT

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
31,440
5
0
thinking i spend at least 2 grand a year

in the last few months, i've bought

CoolerMaster wavemaster w/CM side window
Ultra X-connect (sold recently)
OCZ Modstream 450W
1GB OCZ PC3500
Soltek s754 mobo
A64 3200+
eVGA 6800GT
couple misc. things (used CPU's)

prob. some more small stuff

no doubt it will be way more by the end of this year... hard to estimate.. i'd say maybe $2-3k a year
 

Baked

Lifer
Dec 28, 2004
36,052
17
81
Last year -

NEC 3520A + Toshiba M1912= $80
200 FujiFilm 8X DVD+R = $120
NexStar Ext. HD Enclosure + Seagate 200GB = $120

That's all I can remember. But then again, I spent close to $5K on audio stuff... OMFG, I'm so depressed right now.