What makes you upgrade?

Khannie

For me it's games.

I wont be doing a major upgrade on my machine until Unreal Tournament 2007 comes out. When I do upgrade it'll be lock stock and barrel and everything will be high-end. THe last one was aimed at HL2 but ended up being for UT2004.

I know that hardware manufacturers love it when a new MS operating system comes out because that causes a lot of people to upgrade.

Why do you upgrade?

Stephen

Games here too. I generally upgrade my motherboard/cpu/ram every 2 years, and graphics card every other 2 years. That said, my 9800 pro is still coping very well with today's games.

WizZard

Two words: New Technology (or just stuff)

skywalker

Is there really any other reason for a home user to upgrade? I mean unless your using your machine for a business process (DB's, rendering, large graphics) havent we reached a point where gaming is the only reason for faster processors/More memory(& bandwidth).

You could easily say that as broadband becomes more available that is whats driving the need for bigger hdd's, but I cant think of another reason for upgrading other parts.

zoro

Skywalker: Bigger HDD's isn't the only requirement for broadband in a normal users' eyes. P2 233 is going to be slow as hell whether it has a 10meg line, or bogstandard 56k - even unexperienced home users expect to get something more out of their "super fast" internet connection.
Can't you remember waiting 90 seconds for IE to open fully and relinquish control to the mouse and keyboard?

Khannie: As well you know - games games and games
It'll be a UT2007 upgrade for me aswell - I'm just out of college now so hopefully I'll able to afford that DeepBlue machine that I've always had my eye on

stevenmu

General speed really with half an eye towards gaming. Whenever I use a PC that's quicker than my own, mine starts to seem really slow and gets pretty frustrating. Whenever I've done a new build though I've always stuck in plenty of ram so it hasn't happened too often, and I think I've got to a stage now where I can open as most apps and switch between them almost instantaneously so I guess future upgrades may be just game related.

Of course there's always the irresistible appeal of a shiny new widget too

odie

Speed, games, technology. I have to admit to being a gadget freak.

Fobia

Just games for me, I havent updated my pc in about 3 years since I started playing quakeworld as new ultra system wont make that look too much better than it already is, next upgrade will probably be at the end of the Summer in preparation for Quake4..

Orion

Games, games and games. I built my current one in Feb 2004 and added a few bits here and there since. I'm planning on getting an Athlon 64 3200 in the next two months but keeping all other hardware I currently have. UT2007 will be my next major rebuild with new gfx, top range cpu etc.

There is no other reason really apart from games to continuously upgrade. The latest OS from M$ is not a reason for me. I just use whatever OS will run on my box.

mp3guy

I don't. I just get a new pc... not really upgrade. Not much of a gamer, at all... infact, games suck a fair amount... haven't come across a good one in months... maybe years...

Fenster

Ditto for gaming here. I'm thinking an AMD64 processor next, with whatever the latest and greatest Nvidia card is (Linux driver support is the deciding factor on this one, hehe).

skywalker

zoro wrote:

Skywalker: Bigger HDD's isn't the only requirement for broadband in a normal users' eyes. P2 233 is going to be slow as hell whether it has a 10meg line, or bogstandard 56k - even unexperienced home users expect to get something more out of their "super fast" internet connection.
Can't you remember waiting 90 seconds for IE to open fully and relinquish control to the mouse and keyboard?

I dunno about that tbh. Id say once your talking about a standard 500mhz machine for instance. I dont see the average user noticing much difference between that and the lastest and greatest machine. Other than the box in the corner is shinier.

WizZard

Nah skywalker, I use a P3 1Ghz machine with 512mb RAM at work, and it's slow as hell compared to my home system. Running just Firefox it's ok, but once I have a few apps open, stuff in the systray (LookOut, AV, Skype, etc) it's terminally slow starting up anything new.

Then again, maybe I just expect too much?

Lord Oz

Normally I'd upgrade when my PC isn't capable of playing the games anymore - I don't see the point of buying high-end hardware every 6 months. A friend of mine went to alot of trouble buying an ATI X850XT PE and soon after he deleted windows, installed linux and doesn't play games anymore - a total waste.

steviec

I have a 550Mhz Athlon at home that runs just fine. Something like 384Megs of RAM as far as I can remember. The only thing I've upgraded on it in recent times is the hard drive(I have another machine for games). It runs Windows XP and plays DVDs and plays music and goes online just fine. And I still play networked Unreal Tournament with it. UT2004 was more of a struggle though!

JackKelly

More storage and more games!

Im going to be doing an upgrade this summer. XE800XL and the works hopefully. We'll see how it goes.

Khannie

Fenster wrote:

Ditto for gaming here. I'm thinking an AMD64 processor next, with whatever the latest and greatest Nvidia card is (Linux driver support is the deciding factor on this one, hehe).

Not to hijack my own thread or anything, but I discovered over the weekend how big the gap between ATI and Nvidia is on linux. I traded my 9800pro + cash for a 6600GT with a mate because I'm trying to make the switch to linux.

The performance difference in 3d apps was nothing short of astounding.

Orion

that's really gonna screw me - I can't afford a new gfx atm

CyberGhost

In one word, GAMES!

I don't upgrade often, like once in 3-4 years, but when I upgrade, I basically get a new pc.

Raphael

Money makes me upgrade....

chorus techy

I upgrade once new software stops supporting old OS versions, in the case of my last PC, a P1 Windows 95 . Don't play to upgrade the PC for ages though - just the OS to the new 64bit version of windows!

Nukem

Games mostly too. But tell ya the truth tinkering with computers is like a disease.Built my comp only 2months ago and the only reason havent built another one is lack fo funds. New project is try build a decent comp for the smallest price:D as soon as i get money.

Nukem

Sparky

Me, for games and for video editing, and because im a gadget freak and like new technology and speed i have to get it, but the buzz is saving up for the stuff, when bills for internet, phones, loan and bike insurance keep draining my account every so often.

the_syco

For me: when I have the spare cash

Which is dang rare these days:rolleyes:

The Real B-man

phff im a Hi Res gaming freak i can always do better so i keep pumping the money in maybe i should really stop now..

duridian

Partly for games, partly for curiosity to see what newer stuff is like, partly impulse buying.
Bugs me a bit that I haven't got a PCI-express setup yet, but I am holding out on this for now because I want to see what develops with ATI's Crossfire and NV's new cards, and also because I want to save and hopefully build a new pc sometime towards the end of the year.