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[Dawg]

How do you maintain your beast, GAF? Do you feel the need to upgrade every year because you want relevant hardware? Or do you keep the same machine for like 5 years before you get a completely new computer?

The "How much money have you spent on games and consoles to date?" thread made me realise I probably spent close to $8000 on upgrades since 2007. Possibly more if I'd include the many monitors I've replaced and keyboards/mice.

Thing is, I never lost the full $8000. The actual money I lost will be closer to $1500. Could have been lower if I did my business like I do it now back in 2007. To give you an idea, I haven't kept the same game PC for more than a year. Every single year, I buy a completely new gaming computer with a value around $1000-1200. This sounds expensive... and it is. People who know me keep asking me why I do it. Why I buy a new compute every year. They think it is an obsession.

In a way, they are right. It is an obsession to me. I like to have relevant hardware. My current rig is made of these parts:

• Bifenix Prodigy
• Intel i5-4670K
• Noctua NH-U12S CPU-cooler
• Asus GTX 770
• Samsung 250GB SSD x2
• ASUS Maximus VI Impact motherboard
• Sea Sonic X-650 v2 PSU
• 8GB DDR3 RAM

I'll admit, the GPU isn't super high-end, but the reason for that is I don't really need more at the moment. Barely any game I play needs something more powerful. If I really wanted, I could go higher... but I don't feel the need to. Anyway, the important part is that this computer of mine is still (in a way) paid by the same money I spent on my first computer back in 2007.

When I bought my first real gaming PC back in 2007, it cost me around $1200. I wasn't really happy with some hardware choices so about one year later, I decided to sell the entire computer. Because I spent a lot of time trying to find the cheapest sites etc, I was surprised to find out I could still sell the entire computer for like $1000. I didn't really know too much about computers back then, so I still bought a lot of overprices brands and all. This improved the next few years.

But yeah, every year after that... I decided to sell my computer once the new models (CPU, GPU, SSD,..) were out for a month or two. Most of the time, this meant my current computer is about one year old (give or take a few months, usually longer than 1 year). Because I'm so obsessed with finding the best price out there when I buy my computer, I always manage to sell the thing with minimal losses. About $100-200. Every now and then, I hit the "jackpot" and I manage to sell it with a profit (!) of like $20. Not much, but really good considering it's been a year.

When I add everything up, I've lost about $1500 in 7 years to keep my computer upgraded with the newest tech out there. Friends of mine usually spent several years with the exact same pc. This looks cheaper than me, but I've noticed how some of their stuff breaks after 3/4 years (they have to spend money, no warranty) and they usually end up buying a completely new machine after a few years for like $1000. In the end, I probably spend less money than them + I always have relevant hardware.

Pros
- I never have to worry about warranty (it's always like 2+ years here and I never keep my hardware that long)
- I always have the latest tech, never have to deal with slow/old hardware
- Only have to spend like $100-$150 a year to buy a completely new pc

Cons
- I have to spend some days/week(s) every year to find the cheapest prices and to find a good buyer for my current pc

So how about you, GAF? Sorry for the kinda long OP. TL;DR and all, but just wondering how everyone on this forum maintains their gaming pc.

 

[MRORANGE]

 

[GavinUK86]

I would love to upgrade every year but I can't afford to. I just upgrade whenever I have some spare cash. maybe 2 to 3 years.

at the moment I have a i7 2600k, 8gb ram and a GTX 660 and it plays everything good enough. I don't feel the need to upgrade yet. as we get further into 'next-gen' I may have to upgrade the gpu though.

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

Built my PC in May/June 2011, and the only thing I've done is add some extra RAM and an additional HDD. I'm going to do some overclocking and replace my 560 Ti with something nicer in the near future, but other than that I've not felt the need to spend anything else.

As someone that was worried about the cost of things when I jumped into PC gaming, I can wholeheartedly say you don't actually have to spend that much/upgrade a lot, unless you absolutely need to dial every setting up.

Spoiler

Don't cheap out on the case, though. I'm still kick myself for that every time I'm cleaning or maintaining my PC.

 

[rtcn63]

I don't change PC's until one dies or becomes technologically obsolete. And my most of my computer money goes to hard drives for storing my tears.

 

[John Kowalski]

I don't, i'm playing on a cheap build with an added GPU so i don't use integrated graphics. I still play most games on native res with high textures and models but without most post and AA. I don't care for graphics all that much.

I should get a better cpu one day, i have all these old ps2 games and i need somewhere to play them.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

I buy a new $200-250 GPU every two years. Anything else, I upgrade only when it becomes absolutely necessary.

 

[SneakyStephan]

Sounds like a lot of work OP to deal with selling shit every year, but hey if you don't lose super much money off of it (1500 in 7 years is pretty good if it keeps you at the high end at all times) good for you.

I made a whole new build in 2009, spent 550 euros (still have the email receipt), it was a nice rig at the time. (prices were so much better back then)
Replaced the gpu in 2011 with a midrange hd6870 for 160 euros

I'm still using it today, my only other cost has been a new hdd 6 months ago for 50 euros and having to replace my 12 year old monitor.

I'll probably replace the mobo+cpu+ram+gpu next year (keeping the case and hdd etc), spending about 6-700 euros should get me a really nice build.


Which answers your question, I really don't have to do a lot of maintaining,

 

[Dawg]

I would love to upgrade every year but I can't afford to. I just upgrade whenever I have some spare cash. maybe 2 to 3 years.

at the moment I have a i7 2600k, 8gb ram and a GTX 660 and it plays everything good enough. I don't feel the need to upgrade yet. as we get further into 'next-gen' I may have to upgrade the gpu though.

Eh, I'm not exactly Richie Rich myself. As I explained in the OP, I spend $100-150 on a completely new computer every year. I just sell my current pc and cover the losses with that budget.

 

[The Llama]

I don't, to be honest. I should, but I don't. I buy a new one every ~4 years (on my 3rd right now), and just use it until its old, slow, and won't run anything new. Then I buy a new one.

 

[clockworkinyou]

A lot of the fun comes from pushing my pc to comparable levels of newer stuff.

 

[CheesecakeRecipe]

Start with a great baseline CPU, upgrade the GPU every now and again. Which is to say, when I have the money.

I went from an 8800 GTX to a GTX 460 just as the 600 series was starting to come out, to put how long this can be into perspective. I'm now on a new rig with a 4670k baseline and 660GTX.

 

[Syf]

I usually do a full new build with high-end parts every 4 or 5 years, with a minor upgrade about halfway between those times if it's necessary. That means stuff like a new GPU or more memory.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

Pretty much this... but only when I'm doing a full re-build.

When I do a system from scratch, my philosophy is "no expense spared; but no money wasted." The idea being that I'm happy to buy the nicer things - the faster, bigger SSD; the faster processor, the nicer cooler, the nicer case... ... but I'm unwilling to spend money on things that won't actually make me notice a difference. Paying 20% more for 20% more performance, always makes sense. Paying 20% more for 5% more performance is tougher.

That said, I don't do a whole build as often as a lot of people in the game.

I typically find myself doing an entire system refresh (new case, mono, processor, ram, fans, case, etc...) about every 3-4 years. In between, though, I upgrade my video card about every 18 months.

Just going back a while, to get an idea of my GPU upgrade path, I've gone from:

5870 512MB -> 570 1.25GB -> 670 4GB -> Titan 6GB

But in that same time, I've only upgraded my processor once, and that was when I did a whole new build:

i7 920 (stock) -> i7 3820 @ 4.6GHz

***

In my opinion, the GPU is, most often, the bottleneck in trying to eek out more performance from my games. It always seems to be the first thing holding me back, and it's always giving me the biggest gains when I upgrade.

My current gaming rig:

Little Devil PC-V7
RIVFIV
i73820 @ 4.6
Nvidia Titan 6GB @ +100/+100
16GB RAM @ 2133
256GB SSD
512GB SSD
Killer NIC & BluRay Drive
Fully EK Watercooled

I built this early last summer - it's about 15 months old now. I'll probably upgrade the GPU when the inevitable "Titan II" is released.

EDIT: Important to note, though... like all things I do, I bargain hunt, bargain hunt, bargain hunt. I wait for crazy sales, great discounts, and am happy to buy used to save some money here and there if things are kept in good condition. I don't think I paid full price on one thing on the build above.

 

[Kilrathi]

The only time when I upgrade my CPU/socket is when there is major upgrade out there where gains are greater than 35% IE core 2 quad 6600 in 2008 to a core i7 2600 in 2011.

I been upgrading my video card more often then I have in past due to me working on VR project nows

 

[alexbull_uk]

I'll just upgrade when I feel I need to.

I'm rocking an OC'd Ivy i5, 8GB 1600MHz RAM and an OC'd GTX 780, so it won't be for a while. Well, unless I see a decent deal on RAM. I'd like 16GB.

 

[Dawg]

Sounds like a lot of work OP to deal with selling shit every year, but hey if you don't lose super much money off of it (1500 in 7 years is pretty good if it keeps you at the high end at all times) good for you.

Yeah, I won't deny it takes some work. The most difficult part is often finding a good buyer. Fortunately, I use a site that quite a lot of people in my country use. And because I'm lazy, I _always_ end up selling the entire computer or nothing. I don't want to spend extra time on selling the GPU to person X and the CPU to person Y. I also get a better price when I sell the entire computer.

The fun part, of course, is getting all those brand new boxes every year. It's like mini christmas, lol. And the best part? Only cost me around $150! I enjoy putting together computers and seeing new hardware, so doing this on a yearly basis is something I like doing. And it keeps me updated with all the new stuff.

 

[fedexpeon]

Upgrade graphic card usually every 2yrs.
Rebuild every 3yrs due to CPU.

This is all assuming you are buying "future proof" parts initially.

 

[Chance Hale]

Built my first new gaming PC about two years after having the same computer, save one graphics card update for four years. I plan on upgrading the CPU/motherboard next year. Did sell my 4GB 670 a few months ago for 230 dollars which I put towards a 780Ti that a gaffer was selling for around 560 dollars. 330 for one of the best cards available isn't too bad! Nice thing about buying relatively high end cards is they maintain value which heavily lessens the costs of subsequent upgrades.

We'll see how things progress though. About to start a much more lucrative job and I've started chasing higher resolutions and perfect IQ, lol.

 

[Dawg]

Important to note, though... like all things I do, I bargain hunt, bargain hunt, bargain hunt. I wait for crazy sales, great discounts, and am happy to buy used to save some money here and there if things are kept in good condition. I don't think I paid full price on one thing on the build above.

That's pretty much me, except I don't do used. Never did, never will.

 

[AmFreak]

I traditionally upgraded when games came out i couldn't play on my rig or when i had to downgrade them so much that they became ugly.
That's the reason i'm still on my 7 year old (oc'ed) cpu (by far longest time ever).

 

[The Cowboy]

I don't really maintain mine anymore, i build it around 4 years ago and wanted it to last until the new gen started , i was expecting it to not handle current gens games very well at all, but it is (I'm easily matching/going over One/PS4 levels). At the moment i bake my GPU every 6 months or so as it failed about a year ago (its been baked twice now), I'm really trying to hold off on upgrading for as long as possible.

The only upgrades i do now are based purely on finding great deals, not sale prices - I'm talking clearance prices (like i found a new Logitech F710 pad a few days ago for £3 to upgrade my wired gamepad).

 

[Tesseract]

can of air

 

[Dawg]

can of air

that tag

my eyes

goddamnit

 

[Ogawa-san]

Upgrade every five years, or when stuff breaks. Stuff around here is both outdated and expensive, trying to keep up is a waste of money.

To give an idea: I've done a full upgrade this year, paid about $300 for a R9 270. I can't find any kind of 290 cheaper than $700.

 

[Green Card]

I buy a new $200-250 GPU every two years. Anything else, I upgrade only when it becomes absolutely necessary.

I use to do a new build every 5 years but now I am going to do something like this. Build a PC and upgrade GPU every 2-3 years until I want to replace the whole thing.

 

[Herne]

Before clicking on reply I tried to go over my pc history in my head, but I've had so many hardware configurations over the years that I just don't remember. I know I bought a pc in 1997 from a friend and it was a piece of shit that never did anything right, and my mother bought me a good one in 1999 for my 21st, and that I put together my first proper gaming pc in 2002. After that, it gets fuzzy. Very fuzzy (I know which processors I had, at least - Duron 650MHz, Thunderbird 1GHz @ 850MHz due to shitty motherboard, Athlon XP 2000, 2500, 3000, Core 2 Duo E6420, Core 2 Duo E8400, Core i5 2500).

My current pc was built back in 2011 and it is more or less still going. I've changed the graphics card once, something I do every two years (Radeon 6870 to a 7970), added a sound card and replaced my headset and mouse, but that's it. Every time I think about ugprading I go to those cpu comparison sites and don't see nearly enough of a performance improvement to go spending money on a new processor and motherboard.

My mid-range beastie has been going for three years now (August 2011) and it plays every game at the highest setting with no difficulty at all. So, next year I'll upgrade my gpu again... a year after that I may find reason to upgrade my processor and add an SSD or something... but who knows.

Edit - I think the OP is insane, btw.

 

[LilJoka]

Take most of it apart and vacuum it. Wipe it down and clean fans and rads.
Upgrade times vary but it's on the 2-3year scale. I've got a good CPU now so it'll be solely GPU upgrades for a while.
I enjoy grabbing bargains and hunting for parts.

Q6600 and ATi 4850 2008
i7 920 and Asus 5850 late 2010
i7 3960x and GTX 780 mid 2013
i7 3960x and GTX 10 series prospective.

 

[Oni Link 666]

I vacuum the vent filters and over the keyboard and wipe down my monitor every week. I'll open it up and get all the dust out every few months, but my case is so good, there's hardly any dust inside.

 

[v4skunk84]

can of air

^^^This^^^
I upgrade my gpu when it starts to struggle with higher settings, i own a 7970ghz and don't see any reason to upgrade yet. Always choose cards on price/performance and always pick a single high end card.
With cpu i will pick a high end chip and currently own a 2600K@4.6ghz which has zero signs of needing to be upgraded any time soon. I owned my cpu for 3 years and had the gpu for near to 2 years.

 

[SiRatul]

I would love to update my hardware every year but as a student that's not possible for me so I have been updating my PC every 3 to 4 years for the last decade or so. The update takes from few months to a year where I gradually start changing components and end up with a completely new PC.
The last update was around a year ago but I got a 2560x1080 res Monitor a few months back and my 7870 can't handle it well enough. So I guess I have to upgrade my gpu soon and after that I'll stick to the setup for a while.

Other than that I like to take apart my PC at least once a year to clean it and and put it together again cuz it's really fun to do so.

 

[Ultimadrago]

Excuse my asking, how do you transfer all your data from your old computer (that you're selling) to your new one, OP? Cloud storage/External Hard drives? Wouldn't it get tiresome doing the complete transfer every time?

 

[Animator]

I upgrade every 2-3 years. Upgrading every year is a waste of money imo.

 

[Anteater]

I just upgrade once every generation

 

[thunder_snail]

I upgrade the whole PC, including the case, monitor and all, every 2 generations of nVidia cards. (eg: moved from 270 to 570. Now I'm on 780. Which means I'll skip the upcoming 900 series and upgrade when the 1000? series comes out).

So every 3~4 years?

Pros : New look, new tech (faster sata, faster usb, etc)
Cons: The wait can be hard sometimes.

I end up getting a new laptop every 2 years though. Even something like a Thinkpad breakdown quite fast the way I abuse them.

 

[WindButterfly]

Sadly i have no money tree, so i wait until my computer can longer play newer games on a high setting. It's far cheaper anyways after a generation or two.

 

[draetenth]

I keep the same computer for 5 years before I get a whole new one. I'm the only one in the family who needs the powerful PC so if someone needs a new PC, I just build a new one to take advantage on new tech and give them the old one (which works just fine and is still better than what they probably could buy...).

 

[M3d10n]

The OP spent more money on his PC in the past 7 years than I spent in gaming my whole life, across consoles, handhelds and PC.

 

[The Dennis System]

I just buy a new PC every four or five years. I can rarely run games maxed out, but that 's not a huge deal for me.

 

[fijim]

Upgrade every 5 years and you will be fine. Allow for a possible video card upgrade in the middle somewhere to hold you over. Never buy absolute top of the line, get upper mid range or just below top end stuff. Usually there is a huge price jump for the best processor, the best video card etc...

Hard Drive space should be upgraded as needed.

Never had a problem playing all of the latest following that strategy.

 

[LilJoka]

Excuse my asking, how do you transfer all your data from your old computer (that you're selling) to your new one, OP? Cloud storage/External Hard drives? Wouldn't it get tiresome doing the complete transfer every time?

Take HDD out of old PC and connect to the new PC. If that HDD will be the sole HDD in the new build then external HDD will be needed so that windows can be reinstalled. If not then install OS to new HDD/SSD and slave the old HDD in the new PC.

 

[UpDownLeftRight]

I bought a 580, 2600k etc back when they came out and I haven't even cleaned it let alone upgrade it. I feel no need to upgrade for at least another year either, though I should probably clean it before then.

 

[Grampa Simpson]

I build a new one every 5 to 7 years. It was top of the line then. I invested in a 750ti recently to prop it up, but it will probably be replaced entirely in the next year at Hazaro's Enthusiast Level. Next system after that will be 2019 or 2020. Hopefully the SteamBox transition will happen in the meantime.

 

[Zizbuka]

I used to be into building my own PC, back in the 386-Pentium IV days. Now, I just buy a name brand every ~5 years and hand down my current PC to my son. I'm on an Alienware Aurora R3 (yeah, I know GAF thinks I'm uncool) that's around 4 years old. Still plays every game I throw at it, don't see myself upgrading any time soon.

I just don't have the time or patience to figure what components are compatible any more. Used to be you'd get an AT case, motherboard, CPU, HDD and GPU and hook it all up. I might be into building my own in a bit, guess I could list the components I'm considering and ask GAF in the "I need a new PC" thread.

 

[Corpekata]

I used to be into building my own PC, back in the 386-Pentium IV days. Now, I just buy a name brand every ~5 years and hand down my current PC to my son. I'm on an Alienware Aurora R3 (yeah, I know GAF thinks I'm uncool) that's around 4 years old. Still plays every game I throw at it, don't see myself upgrading any time soon.

I just don't have the time or patience to figure what components are compatible any more. Used to be you'd get an AT case, motherboard, CPU, HDD and GPU and hook it all up. I might be into building my own in a bit, guess I could list the components I'm considering and ask GAF in the "I need a new PC" thread.

It's pretty simple these days. All you generally need to do is match up the motherboard and CPU. Nearly everything else is universal (well, provided you buy a half decent motherboard).

 

[QuantumZebra]

Have had:

AMD X4 955 @ 4ghz
Gigabyte 6850OC
8GB Ram
Samsung 250gb SSD
Gigabyte 970a-ud3 mobo
Antec earthwatts 650

Since 2011. Runs amazingly well, and can handle BF4 on max pretty easily.

I see no reason to upgrade at all for another 2-3 years at least

 

[Echo Six]

I only upgrade for games I'm really hyped for that will take advantage of the power. I built my first pc in 2011 for battlefield 3 (HD6950, 2500k, 4gb ram). My next build will be for the full release of Star Citizen some time in 2016, with the aim of being powerful enough to run SC on high settings through an Oculus. So yeah about 5 years.

 

[Serandur]

My current PC is an i7-3770K and GTX 780 GHz Edition combo. Right now I'm upgrading to a 1440p monitor, getting another SSD, planning to sell my 780 and replace it with an 880 if the performance increase is substantial, and I'm already reaching for a good reason to overhaul my 3770K/Z77X-UD3H platform (fingers crossed for Skylake). I like top of the line and enjoy upgrading my PC, though I really probably shouldn't.

 

[BumbleChump]

I got mine in 2008. Was like $450. The weird thing about my computer is that I got the last and best CPU for my motherboard socket in 2008. If I wanted to upgrade my CPU, I would need to upgrade the motherboard too. They are stuck in time together.

Replaced the graphics card for a $150 budget card in 2011 because mine crapped out.

So, like $600?

Then I got a macbook pro because I realized I only play blizzard/valve games. And console of course.

 

[Faiz]

Rockin a core 2 duo e8450 with 4GB RAM and A GT560. It was originally built for Wrath of the Liche King, but the original video card burned out a few years ago. Going on 6 years and that's the only upgrade I've made. Starting to feel the itch but overall I have few complaints still.