**POLL** How often do you upgrade your motherboard/computer?

[Flakk]

by Upgrading your computer i mean getting a new motherboard (if you're one of those people who adds new hardware every day)


Just curious how often you people upgrade (or build/buy a new one altogether). For me it's been a long 2-3 years inbetween.. but then again if i had the money i'd be doing it more often!

 

[BarneyFife]

It's about once a year for me. I admit that it is a big waste of money but I'm addicted.

 

[PraetorianGuards]

Every 1-2 years I would say. Any more than that and it would be too exspensive.

 

[erub]

I can't really see myself upgrading again until processors top 5 GHz (look for at least a double increase in performance) - probably another 12-18 or so months on that one, so that puts me at about 2-3 years.

 

[Sid59]

i think 2 years is a good cycle.

 

[0roo0roo]

when a frys combo at about 100 bux doubles my comps speed.

 

[Chaotic42]

I won't be upgrading for a while. I might go SCSI, but I'm not sure about that yet. My current system (see .sig) does everything that I need it to and more.

 

[Joker81]

I upgrade way too much. I don't do any gaming. The real incentive for me is compressing to divx but as computers get faster the codecs require more of it so its always an upward battle.

 

[bgeh]

i do it once every 1-2 years

 

[Megatomic]

At least once a year if not more often. It might be 3 times this year if the nForce3/Athlon64 pans out well.

 

[Acanthus]

once ever 1-2 months on my own PC, but its more for testing platform stability and performance than for upgrading. I make ordering decisions for my store based on my personal experiance with mobos, cpus, graphics boards, etc.

 

[Challenger]

Usually about every ten months

 

[Flakk]

Originally posted by: erub
I can't really see myself upgrading again until processors top 5 GHz (look for at least a double increase in performance) - probably another 12-18 or so months on that one, so that puts me at about 2-3 years.

interesting that you brought up the doubling thing.. thats what i have been doing. i wait until speeds a little more than double then buy. My computer speed history was like this:

400 amd k6-2
900 amd t-bird
2400mhz p4

each about 2-3 years apart

at this rate, i guess my next cpu will be around 5-6ghz range? i can't wait

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
I won't be upgrading for a while. I might go SCSI, but I'm not sure about that yet. My current system (see .sig) does everything that I need it to and more.

Mmmm.... SCSI I went to a SCSI drive not to long ago. Pretty nice.


As for motherboards for me 1 to 2 years.

 

[BmXStuD]

I guess never well if i get money it will never go on a motherboard so i guess whenever i need it if i think i want it hehe confusing.

 

[DWW]

I upgrade when I need to--when my programs take longer to load and I notice the slowdown from newer programs.

I play counter-strike at 1600x1200 just fine right now and DivX, office, etc all work perfect.
I've not upgraded in 2 years. Currently run 1.33 GHz Athlon-C, GeForce3 TI200 and 512 PC133 @ CL2.

When I upgrade I make sure, at a minimal that I will notice a decent improvement like three times the CPU clock speed (twice just can't cut it). That means, my next upgrade should be around 4 GHz w/ 1000 MHz bus P4 with 2GB DDR400 (or DDR500 by then?) lol. So give it a year I figure is my next upgrade. Will I necessarily need it? Not really. But for certain tasks like games I will. Everything else should still run fine. Hell my friend who is a professional programmer and spends 24/7 on his machine still uses a PII 400 MHz. Next time I'm going to get it right and not go cheap on the "other" subsystems, namely harddrives. Raid 0 (striping) on WD Raptors 10k RPM seems a good idea. That will alleviate some disk I/O bottleneck. Figure $1500 US is the max I'll spend. That means I roughly spend $500/year if you average it out on computer hardware. I buy about as much in programming books and software easily so no biggie. Its probably better for me to start spacing out upgrades yearly though. I'd imagine $500/year would go much further in terms of performance than simply buying it lump at once. Hey maybe I'll start doing this.

 

[BentValve]

It seems I am never happy I just keep on changing out parts.

 

[ProviaFan]

I probably upgrade about every 6 months, sometimes sooner. However, it is usually just a small upgrade. I might add RAM, or a hard disk, or some other small component. The only time I get a whole new computer (or mobo+cpu+ram combo) is when the old one breaks, or becomes so outdated that adding anything to it is a waste (such as happened with my old socket A motherboard that only took SDR SDRAM).

Edit: next upgrade will probably be... uh... I don't know... I'm pretty satisfied with things the way they are now. I guess I'll just wait until something breaks.

 

[Mitzi]

I usually upgrade every 1-2 years money permitting. My (fairly recent) upgrade cycle went from PIII 850->Athlon 1.4->Athlon XP2400, just a tad short of double clock speed each time.

 

[Flakk]

i love that curve on the poll graph

guess most ppl wait 1-2 years.. makes sense

 

[techwanabe]

I think 1-2 years makes sense if you want to keep games performing well, but keep costs modest. If gaming isn't a priority, then I'd say 2-3 years makes more sense.

Probably the practice of "more frequent upgrades began for me with the first computer I built from scratch (which was a 550 mhz PIII, later overclocked to 733 mhz). I actually used that plat form for a little more than 2 years before replacing the motherboard/CPU with a 1.0 @ 1.33 ghz. My philosophy is that it isn't worth upgrading unless I can meet two criteria:

1) double speed of the CPU (roughly 2x)
2) purchase the hardware to double the CPU when it is priced well behind the curve.

I feel I accomplished that with my last upgrade (CPU/mobo cost of $130 shipped.) I anticipate my next upgrade to something well over 2 ghz, probably between mid summer and the fall. It will also be more expensive because I will need to replace memory/case and video card as well as the CPU/mobo. So that will be more like a 1 year time period since my last upgrade.

 

[Jeriko]

Usually around every 2 years. I like to puchase a system that's at least twice as fast, in MHz, as my previous system.

-J

 

[prontospyder]

I usually upgrade my motherboard/cpu once a year.

 

[pelikan]

About every six months. Whenever I'm playing a new game that won't run smoothly at the detail level and resolution I want. I wait until prices of new stuff fall so that I can sell my old stuff, buy new stuff and not spend too much.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I generally upgrade my Motherboard every 8 to 18 months ....
Usually one CPE upgrade between Mobo upgrades ...and typically I upgrade the Ram as well (If its needed)