What compels you to keep upgrading your CPU?

[tyl998]

My religious belief holds that patience is a "deadly sin". Patience is being content with waste of time, and wasted time is seconds ticking towards your inevitable death and concession of existence. Efficiency is a virtue, and efficiency of time use is better achieved if you don't have to sit and wait and wait and wait and wait for the stupid computer to finish its work.
Thus I must always upgrade my machine for it to be faster and faster and perform tasks quickly without need for wait.

Efficiency is certainly a virtue, but you must also consider monetary efficiency. Just how much bang will you get for your buck. Unless you have infinite money, being able to afford good upgrade more often compared to SUPER upgrades once in a blue moon might be better overall.

 

[Jhatfie]

I upgrade sometimes just because I want something new to play with. Generally selling my current hardware mitigates a medium to large percentage of the cost to upgrade, so I do not feel that guilty. I've given up on lots of my expensive hobbies, so I figure I can afford a hundred dollars here and there to keep myself entertained.

Other times it is for performance reasons. I upgraded my C2D E8400 to a i5-750 for gaming and encoding reasons. That old E8400 box found it's way into my son's hands replacing a E4300 system which I sold. I upgraded my HTPC from a Athlon II X2 250 to a Phenom II X2 555 that I unlocked to a X4. Main reason there was because it was cheap ($80 - $50 I sold to X2 for at the time= $30 upgrade) and I wanted additional gaming headroom since I use my HTPC a lot for gaming.

However at the moment, there is nothing really making me want to upgrade my CPU until the platforms have come out. Depending on how much they impress, then I'll most likely start my trickle down and sell process again.

 

[Idontcare]

My religious belief holds that patience is a "deadly sin". Patience is being content with waste of time, and wasted time is seconds ticking towards your inevitable death and concession of existence. Efficiency is a virtue, and efficiency of time use is better achieved if you don't have to sit and wait and wait and wait and wait for the stupid computer to finish its work.
Thus I must always upgrade my machine for it to be faster and faster and perform tasks quickly without need for wait.

Congrats on the "Lifer" status...when did that happen? 10k posts? In any event, well deserved! :thumbsup:

Efficiency is certainly a virtue, but you must also consider monetary efficiency. Just how much bang will you get for your buck. Unless you have infinite money, being able to afford good upgrade more often compared to SUPER upgrades once in a blue moon might be better overall.

Monetary efficiency does come into consideration when life's priorities regarding other monetary tradeoffs come into play.

For me buying a top of the line P2-450MHz at the time it debuted was more important than say eating at a lovely Japanese restaurant we had local for a year or two. Instead I ate a crapload more ramen and stroked my computer case containing my P2-450 (OC'ed to 498MHz of course) instead.

Now that I have kids, the choice between spending $8k on my rig per year versus spending $8k on their pre-K schooling is a no-brainer. I am typing this on a Q6600 rig and my kids know how to read before kindergarten.

 

[aigomorla]

Congrats on the "Lifer" status...when did that happen? 10k posts? In any event, well deserved! :thumbsup:

i never got to see my title change to lifer.. lol..

But seriously, i think i can say for a fact 90% of the time what compels you to upgrade is straight up greed.

If netbooks can do almost all daily tasks required, do we really require monster gulftown processors, or overclock a cpu from slow walking to fast walking?

What im trying to say, you get the monster systems why?
Because you want monster resolution, at the fastest frame rates which.
Requires you to get the highest end platforms, and fastest cpus.

That is all greed.

And since the standards to everything is constantly being raised, that greed always gets stronger.

So its greed.

Im guilty of it, many many times, and im sure 100% of the people posting in this thread is also guilty of it.

 

[taltamir]

Congrats on the "Lifer" status...when did that happen? 10k posts? In any event, well deserved! :thumbsup:

Much appreciated, thanks :$

Monetary efficiency does come into consideration when life's priorities regarding other monetary tradeoffs come into play.

For me buying a top of the line P2-450MHz at the time it debuted was more important than say eating at a lovely Japanese restaurant we had local for a year or two. Instead I ate a crapload more ramen and stroked my computer case containing my P2-450 (OC'ed to 498MHz of course) instead.

Now that I have kids, the choice between spending $8k on my rig per year versus spending $8k on their pre-K schooling is a no-brainer. I am typing this on a Q6600 rig and my kids know how to read before kindergarten.

Excellent points, I am sure I will deprioritize it when I have kids too. And even today, I don't buy the FASTEST on the market, check my specs in my sig, its far from the most expensive rig. I would have to work a lot to earn the money for a 4000$ rig and the time it will save me will be less than the time i spent... so I don't

That is all greed.

And since the standards to everything is constantly being raised, that greed always gets stronger.

So its greed.

Certainly, and just as patience is a deadly sin, so is temperance a deadly sin.
The lack of material desires leads to technological and economic stagnation, which results in countless innocents dying due to lack of food, medicine, and shelter. The virtue of Greed is why we don't have to worry about malnutrition in developed countries.
I don't NEED a faster computer, I WANT a faster computer... if it wasn't for millions of people wanting faster computers, companies wanting their money, and engineers wanting to be paid by those companies we would never have made the massive advances in processing technology... we would be still using computers to perform basic math, and would not have the medical advances that require massive computational power.

 

[Rubycon]

i never got to see my title change to lifer.. lol..

But seriously, i think i can say for a fact 90% of the time what compels you to upgrade is straight up greed.

If netbooks can do almost all daily tasks required, do we really require monster gulftown processors, or overclock a cpu from slow walking to fast walking?

What im trying to say, you get the monster systems why?
Because you want monster resolution, at the fastest frame rates which.
Requires you to get the highest end platforms, and fastest cpus.

That is all greed.

And since the standards to everything is constantly being raised, that greed always gets stronger.

So its greed.

Im guilty of it, many many times, and im sure 100% of the people posting in this thread is also guilty of it.

How can it be greed when you run 400 volts through a chip and NEED another and another and...well you get the idea! :biggrin:

 

[tyl998]

Congrats on the "Lifer" status...when did that happen? 10k posts? In any event, well deserved! :thumbsup:



Monetary efficiency does come into consideration when life's priorities regarding other monetary tradeoffs come into play.

For me buying a top of the line P2-450MHz at the time it debuted was more important than say eating at a lovely Japanese restaurant we had local for a year or two. Instead I ate a crapload more ramen and stroked my computer case containing my P2-450 (OC'ed to 498MHz of course) instead.

Now that I have kids, the choice between spending $8k on my rig per year versus spending $8k on their pre-K schooling is a no-brainer. I am typing this on a Q6600 rig and my kids know how to read before kindergarten.

Well in effect you were trading away your HEALTH for better computing efficiency :biggrin: Also, I wouldn't eat ramen near my computer. Accidental spillage on 8k system = time to slit wrists.

So now, instead of spending 8k a year, save up and spend 3k every 5 years or something. Still more than enough right?

 

[deagz]

the power of christ compels me.

 

[Seero]

Have money, but not enough to buy a new house, or a new car. The cost of the CPU+Mobo+RAM+PSU+SSD < the cost of my brother's camera lens.

 

[RyanGreener]

Haha, I've started up an interesting topic. I've been resisting the temptation to upgrade mainly because I know it'll be really expensive to get farther than I am now, and also because I don't do anything CPU intensive, or even game intensive. I wish I had a use for the computer other than SC2 and basic tasks. You all do things that actually require CPU power unlike me

 

[eternalone]

running a Phenom 2 925 95 watts @ 3.09 GHz stable OCCT @1.2 volts Thats right 1.2 volts, this cpu has more than enough juice for anything I could need. But Im still gonna upgrade to bulldozer when they drop in prices, hopefully the on board video will be better than my 4830 or I might wait for Bulldozer 2 or something that way it will suit my light to medium gaming needs.

 

[muskie32]

It is a Hobby ^_^

 

[KingstonU]

1st rig (AMD 3200+) built for $1,500 CA for pure performance necessity lasted 4 years. Could not afford another upgrade until at the end of university where I was anticipating the income of a full time job shortly. So I splurged a bit and built my 2nd and current rig (Q9550) for $2,000 CA and it has ~2.5 years so far.

Gaming is the only intensive thing I use it for and even then I find myself gaming less these days, but until it gives me a hard time in the games I play I will have a hard time justifying upgrading it unless it dies. Bulldozer (and greed) will tempt me.

 

[KingstonU]

Have money, but not enough to buy a new house, or a new car. The cost of the CPU+Mobo+RAM+PSU+SSD < the cost of my brother's camera lens.

I like this answer the best!

 

[RussianSensation]

What motivates all of you to keep upgrading after every new socket/architecture etc.?

I upgrade because:

1) I enjoy building and overclocking new systems
2) I never want to be CPU bottlenecked
3) I find that it's cheaper to upgrade more often by "reinvesting" the $ from the sale of old parts into a new system. Option #1 would be to buy a $1,000 system and wait until it is worth practically nothing in 5 years. Option #2 means I spend about $200 / year in upgrades after selling older parts, which amounts to the same $1,000 as Option #1, but I have a fast system during that whole 5-year period.

 

[KingstonU]

I upgrade because:

3) I find that it's cheaper to upgrade more often by "reinvesting" the $ from the sale of old parts into a new system. Option #1 would be to buy a $1,000 system and wait until it is worth practically nothing in 5 years. Option #2 means I spend about $200 / year in upgrades after selling older parts, which amounts to the same $1,000 as Option #1, but I have a fast system during that whole 5-year period.

I like the thought process, but I am curious as to if Option #2 seems like quite the hassle of always trying to find a buyer for your used parts, plus you are risking not getting much money for them. And then you are always in a state of re-adjusting your system, just as you've probably got it just the way you want it. But perhaps I just put too much emphasis on stability and peace of mind.

 

[RyanGreener]

I like the thought process, but I am curious as to if Option #2 seems like quite the hassle of always trying to find a buyer for your used parts, plus you are risking not getting much money for them. And then you are always in a state of re-adjusting your system, just as you've probably got it just the way you want it. But perhaps I just put too much emphasis on stability and peace of mind.

Yeah, agreed. It is a hassle to sell used parts IMO.

 

[Lightflash]

I upgrade for the fun of getting a new product and seeing how much it can take. Then again I usually only update once every one or two years so the new CPU is usually done on a smaller process or better performance at a similiar price.

 

[Rifter]

Generally ill upgrade CPU's when they can no longer feed my GPU(s). I usually get 2 or 3 GPU's out of a CPU. Im currently running a i7@4.2Ghz and will have another 460 for SLI in a month or 2, and fully expect to upgrade them in 1-2 years to whatever the fastest GPU at the time is and keep my i7.

 

[Gillbot]

What compels you to keep upgrading your CPU?

Aigomorla, he's pure evil. :whiste:

 

[Rifter]

Aigomorla, he's pure evil. :whiste:

and this x2

 

[aigomorla]

Aigomorla, he's pure evil. :whiste:

:hmm:

and this x2

:O

now what did i do to you? :ninja:

Meh... fine call me out.

Now im gonna punk all of you guys and go...

MUST HAVE MOAR~!

 

[Rubycon]

:hmm:



:O

now what did i do to you? :ninja:

Meh... fine call me out.

Now im gonna punk all of you guys and go...

MUST HAVE MOAR~!

Latency and storage > raw clock speed.

 

[aigomorla]

Latency and storage > raw clock speed.

This thread is about upgrades.. lol..

I really need to get the 990X thread started b4 someone on AT's main page beats me to it.

Then that would mean i lost the first preview on 1366 cpu's.

Ive been good at beating Anand on previews since the 975 release -> W3580 -> W3570 -> Q3QP Gulftown -> 980X

 

[Rubycon]

This thread is about upgrades.. lol..

I really need to get the 990X thread started b4 someone on AT's main page beats me to it.

Then that would mean i lost the first preview on 1366 cpu's.

Ive been good at beating Anand on previews since the 975 release -> W3580 -> W3570 -> Earily Gulftown -> 980X

Right...time to upgrade the biggest bottleneck in your system!

You would not spend seven figures on a super car and let it slap the pavement with bias ply tires would you? :biggrin: