Slashdot Mirror
When Is A Good Time To Upgrade?
Andru Edwards writes "In an article which looks at the techie's mindset as it pertains to upgrading, Hector Martinez takes a deeper look at what makes us want to buy the latest gadgets. What are your options, and when should you actually just keep what you already have?"
On the old Slashdot, there wouldn't have been any other answer.
I upgrade when I get the money.
I've been in computers for 20 years. I'm now thinking that, all along, this whole 'upgrade' thing is a pile of crap.. .. I'm not thinking of upgrading any more. I'm thinking "maybe its time to learn assembly, chuck away all this bloat, and push this metal really hard".
..
Seriously. Upgrading is bad for the environment, especially if you do it in some sorta consumerican goose-step, a fatal religion.
Lets see an "Ask Slashdot" about 'how did you bring old hardware new life'? Its much more impressive to me to see someone downgrade, albeit with new non-bloated software, than it is to see the 'latest and greatest' ricerbox being sliding off someones credit card
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
I upgrade when (1) a new model is available and (2) there's headroom on my "use for tech purchases only" credit card.
Learn to spell: nickel, missile, lose, solely, amendment, speech, kernel, probably, ridiculous, deity, hierarchy, versus
Responibility is when you ask yourself: "Do I *REALLY* need this??"
Maturity is when you answer: "No."
Problem is more deep. People tend to go with the flow and want to buy more and more stuff like competition. When I usually buy something I try evaluating my needs in future and try to compensate it with the current technology. What benefits that might have that I don't feel out of place. What problems I have is people can have better equipment than I do at some point in future. But, hey as long as I am able to do my daily tasks I am good with it. Then of course when my needs change I need to upgrade. Of course money is very important as well which similary drives this need.
I upgrade when my parents get money.
...you should upgrade your gear as soon as you can find any weak justification for it! Righto!
We all have G.A.S. Just give in to it!
After speaking with... Kevin... and going in circles for an hour, I break down, and just upgrade whatever part it is that broke.
and sadly, it is not very often. now I am running live linux distro from a slow machine which is no longer able to boot from HDD (problem is on the motherboard) and crashes every 15 minutes (probably corrupt ram). and it doesnt look like i will have money to upgrade in next 12 months :(
---if anyone still needs a gmail invite, message me, i have few to spare.
I change my computer everytime I change my underwear.
So, as far as you know, I've either got really new hardware, or really dirty underwear.
If you're not sure, the answer is no. Wait until you think you'll make use of the new feature(s) you current model doesn't have. I've decided that I'll never have the fastest/most highly featured, as having some of the best stuff a year or so later is a lot cheaper.
When urge and wallet/budget can reach mutual satisfaction, purchases should be made.
Michalangelo Progr
When the benefits of receiving new features exceed the potential drawbacks of encountering the bugs and catastrophes associated with upgrading.
Easy, when Carmack puts out a new first person shooter.
IGB: More fun than eating oatmeal!
When it breaks
microsoft tells you to. oh, its not opposite day!
But then again I use Apple products. Right now I have a 1.4 G4, and I don't foresee upgrading it for another 3 years...
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
When all the new games barely run at 640x480.... time to plunk the cash down
I'll just stick to 640KB since that should be enough for anyone...
the newest games don't run well.
I'm not a gamer, I'm not a graphics editor. What I do on the computer rarely pressurizes my computer so much that I have to update often. Thus, I update my computer whenever I start noticing slowdowns and bottlenecks in my system. My last update was over a year ago, I'd think, I'm still going good and don't think I'll be updating any time in the near future.
I never saw what was so "cool" about wasting all your money on bleeding-edge CPUs, RAM, and such, and the spending even more money overclocking it to the max. I have no need for it, I stick to what I need, easy as that.
I can see the gamer wanting to be a it ahead, but taking it to the extreme like that is kinda useless. It just wastes extreme amounts of money on just getting those few extra 5FPSs that you probably won't need anyway. I can understand wanting to stay ahead, but there's no need to stay WAY too ahead way too often.
In short: I upgrade when my system feels like it's being dominated and spanked by all teh software I run.
or Longhorn baby!!!
Purchase the older model at a discount.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
Every night I have a cron job that does
emerge sync
then every few days I do
emerge -uDva world
and every few weeks I throw in
emerge -p depclean
revdep-rebuild
just in case.
Update everything all the time. Of course, this is only for my personal desktop machine where having the latest goods actually makes a difference.
On my server I do the above very very rarely, if ever. Actually, only when there is a serious security issue or a fix for an annoying bug.
If using the system and having things work better and newer is the priority, like on a desktop, update all the freaking time, especially if that updating is effortless. If stability and functionality are important, and it already provides all necessary functionality, like a server, then update as rarely as possible.
Scale somewhere between the two extremes depending on your specific situation. This isn't brain surgery.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
The wonderful folks at the nearest Circuit City told me that the insurance I bought for the phone only covered manufacturer glitches. Sound familiar?
:/
phone insurance
sigh, and when you have manufacturer glitches they aren't covered either.
Once you factor in the excess, with phone insurance it's easier to save yourself the trouble and if the phone breaks just take it up the cracker(ass). At least you can get the latest phone.
Waking Up - There must be a better way to start the day.
The last upgrade I did at home was to play Asheron's Call 2. I got in the WoW beta last night and thankfully my computer can still run it pretty smooth even tho its almost 2 years old. Otherwise i'd have to upgrade.
My other computer at home, a pieced together AMD K6-2 500 processes my spam (and the scattered email), hosts some websites etc.
Woot, closing time! I can stop ranting and go home!
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
When do you upgrade? If you are poor, hardly ever. If you are rich, whenever you want. In fact for the rich, the hassle of setting up a new piece of equipment is probably a stronger disincentive than the cost.
personally, it's when they start to show up on the surplus market! For one thing, if something lasts long enough to be resold it's probably well built,
which usually means professional quality as opposed to consumer quality. If it's in the toy/entertainment/personal research class I could care less about owning cutting edge gear and paying the premium to get it. For example: A box of 10 18Gb scsi disks for $100.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
And AGAIN!
Wait... ...NOW!
Is it Wednesday? Then my answer is NOW!
You get the point...
"Talk minus action equals nothing" - Joey Shithead, D.O.A.
"Talk minus action equals
If you can afford it, you upgrade. If you need it, a need is a responsibility you must fulfill as an adult, so you upgrade. (Thanks to Meatwad for that logic...) If you can go without food for a while (assuming you DON'T consider Ramen to be food...) then you upgrade. A better question would be "When do you NOT upgrade?"
Things are always more expensive when they are new. Why spend the money on 3.4 Ghz today, when you can get it for probably 1/4 the cost a year from now?
I upgrade to about the middle of the road when the prices drop. I can get asus boards for under $100 canadian and AMD 2400+ were only $80 can retail.
The new stuff is always way overpriced, and will come down just before it goes out of production.
I use mostly amd xp2400+ cpus in asus boards with Nvidia 5200's or ati 9200's. Does everything I need them to do.
I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
tuesday/wednesday so you still have time to go and by something from the shops if it doesn't work :)
Sometimes it's just because I want to have the latest and the greatest - my buddy might have something cooler, and I want it too, or I want BETTER! At other times it is a necessity.
You have to strike a balance between need/want. There are times I feel like shelling out some dough and upgrading my PC so that it is bleeding edge. But then I take a step back and think, "Do I REALLY need to?"
I hate and love a store like Fry's electronics. It has a bunch of cool stuff, but everytime I go in there, I come out with some sort of gadget. It's easy to get swept away. Luckily I make full use of most of the gadgets that I have. Others, not so much. I bought a hardware MPEG decoder card for my PC... but I don't even watch DVD's that much on my computer, because I had a DVD player? So it's simply sitting there...
Like the article says, you just need to know when to upgrade. Often you can make a smart decision by not getting the "latest and the greatest", but something that is a level below. Like for example, video cards. The top of the line ones are expensive, but the ones a level below have a good drop in price. So essentially buy a new gadget if you need it, if you can justify your use of it, and if it makes sense financially for you.
But of course, that doesn't rule out the occasional impulse purchase! I have purchased things on impulse, but luckily I end up using them a lot!
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
I've been trying to decide when to upgrade my 150Mhz box to it's full 233 Mhz capacity. I would have done it some time back but the little LED numbers on the front only go up to 99 and no-one would be able to tell the difference. I have upgraded the software on it over the years from 1.?? Linux to 2.4.+. That was easy.
Utterly fucking addicted: Will it increase my FPS?
If I wasn't into PC gaming, I wouldn't be needing to upgrade every two years for CPUs, motherboards, etc. Even my P3 1 Ghz office computer does well for what I need to do that doesn't do gaming.
:P
I reuse old parts for other machine as my Linux workstation which doesn't do gaming. Basically, I reuse stuff for at least four years. Anything else older that I positively won't use again, I donate to charity, sell, etc. Anything broken (e.g., dead mice, printers, etc.), I get rid of them.
Fact: I finally retired my SB 16 ISA in September 2004. I had it since December 1993. Amazing that it still works. I can't use it anymore with the newer motherboards due to lack of ISA slots.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I think the average PC user upgrades when the computer gets unusable with spyware and viruses. Its easier to plunk down $2000 instead of wiping the computer clean. PC manufactures should thank spyware and virus writers. The average PC user would never upgrade again because all they are doing is web surfing.
I bought my Athalon four years ago when I was a Senior in CompE. I knew I would be spending endless hours on a workstation that year and I wanted it to be mine because the ones in the labs were disgusting. My old Pentium I wasn't cutting it at the time.
Did you ride the short bus? http://sh.ortb.us
I still have my old over clocked p300a running at 512mgh, with 128 megs of ram, and a dual voodoo2 set up. This machine is over 6 years old and still does everything for me. Now that i'm grown I dont game as much, more of my time is spent in spread sheet and word. The moral of teh story is dont upgrade until yo uneed to, otherwise your wasting money. I have a friend (rich) who has an apple newton, He also has a dual p4 with rambus memory, and a dvd player with teh old standard. Moral of his story is the newest and greatest doesnt' always turn out to be the best.
A good friend from childhood and myself have been locked in an system arms race for the past 20 years. Whenever I get the latest and greatest component he one ups me, or vice versa. Currently he is in the lead with an ATI X800 card, but I'll overtake after the holidays.
I'm looking forward to reading the various replies: but honestly, just do as you please. If you're a gadget freak, then upgrade whenever you want the latest. If you're not, then wait until breakage or functionality is required.
For example, I've had a GSM phone here in the UK for the last 6 years: initially a motorola tri-band that was part of a no initial cost 12 month lock-in contract in 1998: it served me well until 2003, until I took option on a free upgrade to sony ericson T68i (I'd been getting text-messages about free upgrades for 18 months or so, and finally decided to act) - I even got £20 cash back on sending back the old phone! I don't plan to upgrade again for another 3-4 years or more - that'll be 10 years without paying for a phone; and I'm still on a cheap plan from 2001 for low cost calls
On the other hand, guys I work with have been through the latest and greatest phones every 12-18 months or so - buying expensive camera/colour models. Sure they are nice and snazzy, but honestly, they don't seem to really use all the extra functionality other than as occasional toy. But, it seems to keep them happy. It keeps me happy knowing they're helping drive the technology forward until I decide to upgrade
Back to my hand, I do spend ~£500 a month at good restaurants here in London because that's my thing: when taking to one of these constant upgrade guys once, they couldn't understand why anyone would pay more than £30 for a meal.
It takes all kinds! Just do what makes you happy and just ensure that you're not doing something you might regret such
as throwing away 10 years of money on frivolous toys - some people actually have no regrets about this type of thing, I would.
Bollocks I say!
When it breaks. I still have kit running 3.11 and OS2.
Hmmm... I would say November 16, 2004. (check the games section)
"Lets see an "Ask Slashdot" about 'how did you bring old hardware new life'? Its much more impressive to me to see someone downgrade, albeit with new non-bloated software, than it is to see the 'latest and greatest' ricerbox being sliding off someones credit card .."
Or we take antique TV's and make them into computers.
My laptop doesn't really run the latest distros very well. I added more memory for about a hundred bucks. I run programs off the server in the basement or off my work computer. If I am away from both, I am careful to use programs that don't stress its capabilites. I am happy to type in emacs and format later in OpenOffice. I use iceWm rather than KDE or Gnome. I hope it is a long time before I fork out for a new laptop.
I find that a good rule of thumb is to upgrade in order to play the latest computer games well (not barely). This usually will cover all your other bases because computer games require lots of RAM, a fast video card, and a fast CPU, which will go far in making everything else on your computer (video editing/encoding, number crunching, database stuff, business apps, etc) run smoothly too.
The only thing gaming doesn't necessarily force on you is a huge hard drive.. for hard drives, I'd say get a bigger one when you have to keep deleting stuff to free up space.
And remember.. if it runs fast enough, you don't need to upgrade.
If your computer still does everything you want it to, don't upgrade.
Jason
ProfQuotes
Recently, my strategy has been to buy the very last model in Apple's PowerBook lines. It's worked really well.
I got the last PowerBook G3 model in 2000. It was fairly maxed out, with a 500MHz G3 and over 300 megs of RAM. All the bugs had been worked out of that product line, and it performed very well. As a matter of fact, that laptop is still perfectly usable as long as I'm not trying to play modern games like KotOR or WoW on it.
A few years later, I got the last Titanium PowerBook G4 model. It's maxed out, with a 1GHz G4 and 1GB of RAM. All the bugs had been worked out of that product line, and it's performing very well as long as I'm not trying to play a bleeding edge modern game like KotOR. It makes Eclipse dance and sing. Office runs quickly and nicely. All the iApps work beautifully. I have no immediate reason to upgrade, unless I want to run real bleeding edge applications on it. (It's amazing -- I can run a portal server that services dozens of simultaneous users without having the machine even break a sweat, but fire up KotOR and everything grinds to a halt.)
My next purchase will probably be the last revision of the 15" Aluminum PowerBook G4. At some point they'll do something new, like add dual-core G4s or a G5. When they do, that'll be my signal to buy the last Aluminum G4 model.
Using this strategy has given me a great balance of inexpensive, well tested, and powerful machines with some serious longevity -- as I said, I'm still using that Pismo, and it's just fine for many applications.
Half Life 2
To fight the urge to constantly be upgrading the last 6 years my rule has been I can upgrade motherboard and CPU every other year and on the off year I can get a new video card. Also, never spend more than $150 on a video card, or $200 on a motherboard and processor. Of course some upgrade require new RAM, so it isn't a perfect rule.
Other than that I get a new hard drive about every 3 years and I've had to get a new power supply in there somewhere. This has worked well for me.
Seriously, you upgrade to attract females, right?
Most of my friends upgrade because they want a faster/bettter system and can at some particular moment afford a larger harddrive, faster processor, or more memory, etc...They see their P4 2ghz and look at that new AMD64 chip and drool, and spend and spend and spend.
For me I guess I'm just different. I don't upgrade when my system seems slow but instead when something actually runs slow. For example my PC right now is a P4 1.6, 1gb ddr333, and has a 36gb scsi drive in it. Dreamweaver, Quark, Illustrator, and even Photoshop run fine. So it may be another year or so before I upgrade anything on it. But then again, I'm not playing Doom3.
If I was playing Doom3 or other games in general I'd probably find myself upgrading this month to a P4 3.06 (max my MB supports), a gb of ddr400, and maybe adding another 36gb scsi drive in their so I'd have a 72gb raid going on.
Ave Molech Setting
Thanks for stating the obvious! What a great read!
Good friend of mine who is a writer wants to upgrade his computers, so I get a call asking me to come over. He shows me the laptop, the 2 PCs, and the G3. Amazingly, the G3 is the most advanced equipment in his house.
He uses an IBM Thinkpad with a sub-100 Mhz Pentium processor for writing, a 133 Mhz Desktop Pentium for paying bills, and a Macintosh G3 for gaming (which is limited to an asteroids-type space shooter which he enjoys immensely).
He mentions his fear in upgrading is that whatever new machine he gets will cause him to go online. He does not want to go online because 1) he fears viruses and 2) he is afraid MP3s will end up on his computer (he does not support copyright infringement).
This was back in August. We end up at Fry's, we pick out parts and a case for an AMD 2800+ machine and get it going for about $400. We also get him hooked up with broadband and I don't talk to him until a week ago.
He's put on a good 30 pounds, he's in front of the computer all day IMing people, and he has about 500 bookmarks for innane Flash movies that he just watches over and over again. He still uses the Thinkpad for writing, and refuses to use the new machine for work. He now hates Mac and sold the G3 at a yard sale for $10.
I feel guilty for bringing this invasive technology into this guy's life. He used to be very social and fun to be around, now all he does is talk about computers. He seems to know more than me about hardware these days, and spends way too much money at Fry's. He has also taken up the distasteful habit of online gambling in the form of purchasing futures from an Irish web site. He's doing so well on it he's considering giving up writing.
Just as there may be times for upgrading, there are reasons for not doing so.
M
I usually try to think about what I need the computer to do (applications, games), and only if my current config doesn't support all of those things, I upgrade. Even if I had the extra money to buy a new rig, I wouldn't if my current computer can do everything I need it to.
I buy a new computer roughly every 2.5 yrs, and I usually go without reformatting it even once during that period (WinXP(yeah, I'm a tweaker)).
And obviously before I buy the new computer I would make a spec sheet of all the hardware requirements I need in order to support all of my software requirements.
Am I alone on this method?
I was powerless over technology and my life had become unmanageable...
I upgrade when it's free to do so.. like when one of my friends is upgrading, and drops off their old stuff at my place - all the while *thanking* me for taking it. Truth is, a computer is possibly the worst place to 'invest' your money - perhaps even worse than a typical vehicle.
Despite the large amount of work I do on & around computers, I find that my needs are actually quite minimal. The K6-2 475 / 96MB laptop I'm writing from right now suits me just great, and is currently the fastest machine I own. Linux (Slackware in this case) goes a long way to make this kind of strategy a reality.
Also, it seems a bit out of character for the typical liberal, environmentally concious geek to constantly feed the beast by overconsuming electronics & gadgets. We do want to keep our nice little green world pretty, yes?
There's a Starman, waiting in the sky / He'd like to come and meet us, but he hasn't got the time.
"You can download it from Apple's web site today."
right now isn't a bad time really. the next gen nvidia cards just came out. amd 64 is going to be in full swing. hardware manufacturers are moving to pci-e. i'd wait until good amd 64 mobos with pci-e are available, and grab a nice geforce 6600 for $150, amd 64 chip for about $150, and the pci mobo to go with it for maybe ~$150
- tristan
The last shiny widget I acquired was my SonyEricsson T610. Unfortunately, I allowed myself to be suckered into a two-year contract (which I am only halfway through) for the pleasure of owning it. The "ooh, shiny!" effect wore off after about a week, and I find I almost never use any of the new features on it (ie: my old rubber Nokia would do the same job).
My Palm m500 does the job, and is an essential tool at work, and with the new ones being so expensive (and I think/hope/pray I learned my lesson from the T610) - that does not need replacement. Although Bluetooth would be nice so I could read Slashdot through it on the sales floor whilst looking busy.
PC upgrade hell - is PC upgrade hell. I want to play some of the latest cool games, but I can wait two years until the game is $5, and the requisite hardware is maybe $50.
Overall, I think the article was quite insightful in addressing the issue of upgrade/update/replace, and offered some good suggestions.
No more fecking toys!
I tend to upgrade when my total system RAM is less than the video RAM on the newest card.
/me eyes a motherboard with PCI express and a P4 3.0 HT processor on newegg
Strangely enough I also seem to triple my clock speed and double my RAM each upgrade.
It is almost time too.
I try to stay away from really fast machines around me so I don't feel the urge to upgrade my computer all of a sudden.
I'm running a 1.2Ghz Athlon with 768Megs of Ram though. I forget what kind of graphics card I have but it's decent. I used to upgrade to play games but now I don't play games anymore (although I'm thinking of getting a PS2 for Christmas).
Every 2-3 years I upgrade at least the mother board + cpu of my computer...just to be able to play games at a decent detail setting. I find that I usually end up buying a great (not top of the line, but great) combo. For example, in preparation for hl2 I'll be swapping out an athlon xp 1900 for the athlon64 3000 (as opposed to a 3400 or better) this weekend.
As far as phones/pda's are concerned, as soon as the one I'm using either starts to act up, or some new innovation in the product market makes the one I'm using obsolete or hard to find replacement parts for I upgrade to the new latest and greatest.
I try to be as updated as possible. I'm the kind of guy who likes to be on the bleeding-edge of technology. However, I also like to customize everything to the point that only I can even use it. So, when Firefox 1.0 came out, I upgraded from the Pre-release version, only to have it no longer function properly for no other reason than that the way I had it configured previously had different effects in the newer version, rendering the program useless.
So, quite often upgrading has a lot to do with your priorities. For me it's a choice between customization or staying on the cutting-edge.
So what did I do? I installed 1.0 fresh and then customized that all over again.
I'd keep talking, but I'm too busy customizing Fedora Core 3...
Ill upgrade when my 486 sx starts on fire. 16 megs or ram rules!!
1) When the CPU speed has increased by at least a factor of 3 over the old box, and
2) when the price to buy such stuff descends to reasonable from stratospheric.
By then, the increased bus speed, higher/faster hard drives(?), and other up-to-date peripherals that tag along on the new motherboard (What? replace the whole box? Maybe, er... sometimes)are just icing on the cake.
p.s. Incremental upgrades, such as a USB 2 board, get added when on sale.
the company's flagship product has just came out. Most of the time, nobody needs the power of a product that just came out, such as the 6800gt/ultra. People got it for doom 3 but not everybody plays the game at 1600x1200.
Perfect example is cpu's and video cards, the most expensif parts of a computer in general, is where most people get screwed when upgrading.
A new video card comes out, and we all know another one will in a few months (or heard of) or the prices will go down. Generally speaking, consumers will buy it the second it comes out to show it off like a kid in a civic with a 10 foot high spoiler on a 115hp(?) engine.
Upgrading, I see it in two different situations:
1) Your pc is really outdated and you need something of today that delivers power for whatever task. In this case, you'll want to see what the future will reserve and WHEN will the future product be released. The when is very important. Reading reviews is the best way to get informed with what's going on in the world of hardware.
If you do so but you don't need the latest of the latest to accomplish your tasks, you can still wait for the latest gen (or latest series) to come out in order to save $$ on buying what used to be #1.
IF you are impatient, do not get the latest. Honestly, wheres the important performance boost between an fx 55 and fx53? Big price difference but is it worth it? That's your job, researching what you REALLY need and not just look at the highest of the product line when ready to upgrade.
2) You need to upgrade one piece because you believe it will improve your life by zombifying you for more hours. That's fine.
One thing: when you want to upgrade lets say, ram. You need ram, well anytime is good BUT the latest costs a lot. Look at Corsair's XMS with the leds. WHO NEED LEDS? Is your case a discotech? Again with the civic reference...
********* TO SUM THIS BIG PILE OF WORDS UP
Buy whenever, but not the latest if it has been just released cause you will just burn your cash and the corporations/companies will have a laugh.
Seriously, I recently started doing business case analyses of my upgrade decisions, even for things as basic as a digital camera or a PDA. It may be true that they're not that expensive, but they're often quite useful that cost is not the prime issue, but the functional disruption that a new model could cause to my routine use.
I have to demonstrate that there is actually good to be gained from an upgrade, otherwise I think it's best to stay with what I've got.
"We all have G.A.S. Just give in to it!"
That's me upwind of you.
I will upgrade when my city reached 300k in Simcity 4 as it has already begun to slow down at 100k. Games, that is why you upgrade, unless you are a business then you must be compliant!
I pretty much upgrade whenever a game comes out that I can't play with all the eye candy turned on. Which usually works out to every 12-18 months. Most upgrades are incremental as it usually only takes 1 or 2 components to remain current.
Gailin
I wish there was a fscking blue pill
I have a normally defined 2 year upgrade cycle for just myself. Buy whatever is good at the time with set price ranges:
Mobo, $20-$250
Chip, $200-$250
Memory, $200
Video, $200-$250
HD, $200
Case, $100
Monitor is separate, because they usually last a good long time. I will be upgrading to LCD one day, but I'm happy with my 21" for now. It was $235 though, and was bought shortly after this system, so I'll include it in the total. CD and DVD are pretty cheap nowadays, so they are in the $50 spending money splurge catagory. Besides, I'm still using my workhorse 4X CD burner. I can live with that for now. Keyboard and mouse is pretty much the same story. I've had this keyboard since my 486 days, and I'm not giving it up until it dies. Amazingly, none of the letters have worn off yet, or even show any wearing. Other then being a little dirty, this thing is as good as the day it was built. I don't get excited about sound, so the built-in sound card is fine for me. Usually about a year after I have the system, I build another hard drive for $100, usually because the first one is now full. You usually can get the same kind you bought the first time around too.
So in total, I budget about $1100-1200 for a new system every 2 years. Plus $100-$200 for extras throughout the cycle. The system I'm on now has cost me about $1400, with the monitor included. And yes...I will give you the specs:
AMD XP 2200+
ASUS A7V333
ASUS Nvidia Ti4200 128 meg
Cheapo Memory (has heat problems, but with a heat sink works great.)
2X Maxtor ATA/133 80 gig
Most importantly, it does everything I want it to. Runs a little slow with Doom3, but I'm running it higher then the computer can handle properly, so I'm not complaining. And for $1200 every 2 years, it keeps me up-to-date for a fair price.
Call me a luddite or not, but I don't upgrade (i.e., buy brand new products over $100) because I can't afford to buy a brand new computer (or even motherboard + processor) every year or so; I have other needs. Rather, I buy stuff used and work with them, and continue using them until I can no longer satisfy my needs with them. For example, my fastest PC is a 475 MHz K6-2 with 64MB RAM and a 10GB hard drive, running FreeBSD. I also have a few other computers used for different tasks; heck, I even obtained a Macintosh SE a few months ago, and (although lacking a modern floppy drive) its serves my basic word processing needs with MacWrite, and I can move files off of it by networking it with a printer cable to my Performa 6220. Even though I'd love to have a Power Mac G5 and a new iPod to come with it (I'm saving for that), my old computers and CD player would serve me well until that comes.
Now, I wonder how much a first-generation iPod costs....
We don't need no stinkin' article - you insensitive clod.
AT&ROFLMAO
I upgrade every 5 years and then I buy the best I can possibly afford.
Here is the realist way to upgrade. An Upgrade is needed only when your current computer cannot perform the duties you need it to with in a certain time frame. Upgrades usually run around periferals or new software. When my PI cound't handle an external cd burner I upgraded to a PIII. When my voodoo 3 couldn't play warcraft III with out lagging in every battle I upgraded to a geforce 4 ti. Anything more than what you need is just a dick messuring contest. PS My hobby is comp modding.
My policy is that I upgrade when there is a 7x improvement in hardware speeds than my current machine at an affordable price. Right now my 700mhz machine is holding up just fine, and I have no problem doing development on it, or playing modest games, or its normal use- websurfing and mp3 jukebox. I am fairly sure that by the time we get to 5ghz, which right now feels like will take an eternity, I will become dissatisfied with the performance enough that I will want to upgrade. CPU speed isnt really what is making me drool, but things like PCI-X, hypertransport, the new fast front side busses, usb2.0, SATA, dual core processors, 64 bit processors, etc. do make me want to upgrade.
How did I come up w/ the 7x figure? My first real machine was a 100mhz pentium. Around 2000, it started falling behind the software advances, and I could not play free cell without mp3's skipping. This was during the race to 1ghz, and once the processors hit 1ghz the 700mhz chips were a relatively cheap $200 or so, so I went for it. Thats been the standard since.
When the processor is twice as fast but you can still buy it equipped with your current OS.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
Upgrading didn't fix the problem, in the long run, anyway. The work-around has been to install an IPcop firewall, and hope for the best.
I've got a long tail of woe, which I won't bore you with, suffice it to say, Windows 2000 shouldn't ever be exposed to the internet, and you should NEVER use your real domain name for your active directory name.
--Mike--
Upgrade so it will perform as well as possible. Wait until another program requires more memory/bigger hard drive/better CPU before upgrading.
This is cheaper than buying a new box every six months.
I really don't have the cash to get new hardware often (read: most of my stuff is my parent's or it's old and I got it from school) but I wouldn't upgrade if I had the cash.
I bought a third generation iPod and I love it. I wouldn't even consider upgrading to a photo iPod or a fourth generation iPod. The third generation pod does everything I need it to, and when I need more from it that Apple's firmware doesn't do I'll get more active in the iPodLinux [http://ipodlinux.sf.net].
I have a few computers from school that they don't use anymore - a 200MHz comp and a 167MHz comp. I set up the 200MHz with Win98 and use it to do some gaming - it's decent. I set up the 167MHz box to be a webserver with OpenBSD.
I have Mac OS 10.3.5 on my iMac 400MHz and Mac OS X keeps pushing the hardware more and more, and it's no speed demon as it is. I'm going to put Gentoo on here soon and run OS X w/ Mac-On-Linux when I need an OS X app.
There is no need to have the latest OS or hardware -> be resourceful. Better to spend money on programming books or food than new hardware when your old ones can be made to do the task.
-- TheMadRedHatter
while(1)
{
}
Ah, the story of life.
Normally I upgrade part when they are either causing an insurmountable bottleneck on what I'm trying to do, or, the part has become flaky or just completely died
If the part has a replacement part that is faster or better than the current part, and, if by replacing that part I won't need to replace any other parts of my computer, and, the price for the new part is reasonable compared with what it was when it was "cutting edge" then I upgrade it.
Sometimes with the quality of new hardware though, I'm being forced into a quicker and quicker upgrade cycle as things like video cards or motherboards don't last like the used to.
The other reason for upgrading parts is when I see something that, if I don't buy it now, I won't be able to get that part for my computer again, for example I had a motherboard where the fastest CPU I could put in it was a Athlon XP 2000+, when they became the lowest available CPU and I knew stocks were running low I bought one so that my computer remained current for as long as possible.
To play games, on the other hand, requires the latest greatest.
So when is the best time to upgrade? When you're trying to decide between WoW and EQ2 (haven't played a MMORPG in a couple years...gota see what I should play).
Text documents still get written, spreadsheets still computed, and movies still get watched just fine on my real system. its nice not having bloat...
When you need, is bigger than the financial cost relative to your wealth...
I used 366 celeron until january 2004. Since at that point I was able to build 4 as fast computer for a relatively low costs, and the old one seemed to be slightly too slow, and HD was too small and every peace was below what I wanted, except sound card.
Yes I'm a student and barely afford to buy stuff... Next such thing I'll probably buy is PDA, MP3 player and digital camera, and upgrade to my mobile phone and in one package. Its just that I carry mobile phone everywhere, and I need PDA and MP3 player should be nice, and digital camera is extra but still... Yes, its expensive, but I'd rather have expensive ONE device that does everything I need than purchase hundred devices that I don't use.
Emacs is good operating system, but it has one flaw: Its text editor could be better.
I have a great scam going on in my house. Upgrade my machine, use the parts to upgrade the wife's machine, use her parts to upgrade the kid's machine... And sell those parts to the neighbor for BEER :^)
My wife doesn't listen to me either...
Whenever my default web browser starts to send my personal information out to random Russian companies without my knowledge? :-)
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
Why? It was cheap, and it's actually very, very usable. It has MS Office for spreadsheets, writing documents, and a calendar. It can browse the web and send and receive email. It can play some cool games. It does everything I need it to do.
And it's still running MacOS 9! At 233MHz w/ a 4GB drive, I wouldn't torture it with OSX. I did try Ubuntu Linux, but Ubuntu (or Gnome maybe?) wouldn't let me use any other screen resolution than 512x384-- unusable. So I'm back to 9.
My wife asked me, "don't you want a *new* computer?" Well, I'd rather save for my kids' college education. And with this Bondi Blue iMac, I have fun, indulge in nostalgia, and get work done. Why should I drop $1k - $2k for the latest and greatest?
-- In Soviet Russia, a Beowulf cluster of these would imagine YOU!
I have one that's been going now since '96 and I'm afraid that if it dies, it'll take out my machine.
The article is on my level. I still use my Creative Nomad 1 for mp3s at the gym, even though part of me wishes it would break so I could get a new iPod. But time is on my side; since I bought that thing the iPod has gotten upgraded THREE times and even gotten a little cheaper. My laptop is a Tecra 8100 from 2000, my car has the original stock tape deck.
... a solid night's sleep.
If you've ever gotten hung out to dry financially you get an appreciation for penny-pinching. My company went Chapter 7 in 2001 and didn't pay us. I was caught with about 2 months pad money (should always keep six around) and they stole our 401k, employee stock purchase, etc..
So after getting my ASS KICKED like that, I view using my old gear until it grinds noisily to a halt to be a form of purchasing something else
I met a business major once that told me about a sort of check list for decisions that they get taught...it had stuff like, "what has to be sacrificed/what can you not do if you make this decision that you would have been able to do otherwise"...it has like 10 points you go through, it was a great list but unfortunately time has erased it from my memory.
Any business majors heard of such a thing can shed light?
According to Moore's Law (loosely), computers double every 18 months. So, I'll take a simple example like SETI@home, and use the top of the line computer, and run it for one unit of time (18 months), which I'll call a Moore-year. In one Moore-year, the amount of work it can process is deemed 1 work unit.
At the end of the Moore-year, I can buy a new computer which will be twice as fast as the first computer. In the next Moore-year, the new computer will be able to compute twice as much as the first computer. But, the first computer has had two Moore-years to work, so they have computed 2 work units.
At the end of the second Moore-year, I can buy a computer that is twice as fast as the second, and four times as fast as the first. In the next Moore-year, it will be able to compute 4 work units. The second computer will have computed 4 also, but the first has only computed 3. At the end of the fourth Moore-year, the scores for the first, second, and third computers are 4, 6, and 8, respectively.
But, I don't have the money to buy a new computer every Moore-year, so I have to maximize the number of work units I can produce, while minimizing the cost. The longer I wait, the faster the computers get. So, if I wait until the day before I die, the computer I buy will be the fastest I can possibly get, and should be to compute everything I ever needed to compute in my whole life in my final day.
Now, if only I can get the IRS to understand and wait for me to spreadsheet my taxes...
Ranger_Nemo
Now I have to feel guilty for breathing?
It does feel better that at least I can recycle my old video cards (after first reusing them for the kids' computers, of course).
sigs, as if you care.
When feel like I am getting twice the performance as my current machine for the same price. I usally will upgrade.
The other important time to upgrade is at the end of a hardware lifecycle. When they stop making processors for your socket, or when the "regular" ram goes the way of the dinosaur, buy up the best there is and at least squeeze another year of life out of your computer.
I find that whenever the prices for the system that's twice as fast/etc. as the one I have, are dropping below 1000 euro, I upgrade and sell the old one for about 500.
???? 286-20 -> AMD 386-40 -> Cyrix 486DX4-80 -> Cyrix P166+ -> AMD K6-300 -> AMD Duron700 -> AMD K7-1400 -> Intel P43.06HT
RogerWilco the Adventurous Janitor
I need an article to tell me to buy a phone when my current one gets run over by a bus? Seriously, is there anyone reading this thinking,
You know, this guy is right! I *should* buy a new phone because my current one is in pieces under a bus.
I upgrade because I have no self-control, and because Best Buy is the Devil.
I have tried to upgrade my workstation when I can get 10x more out of it. In practice I have not always got 10x the raw CPU speed, but combined with the bus speed, RAM, disk, etc, it has been more likely over than under 10x more 'oomph'. Of course, when I upgrade my workstation, soon after the old one will end up as my server, and the old server as my firewall. The old firewall hangs around for spare parts for a while, and the next spring cleaning it goes out.
.... Just about everyone i know went on an extensive upgrading spree in preparation for the Doom3 launch date. ;)
:D
I can't imagine all the upgrading angst held back for Duke Nukem Forever
do() || do_not();
The most recent computer I've purchased is that I just got a Multibus card cage. It has two processor cards in it, each sporting an 8085 processor.
Before that my most recent computer purchase was an Altos 586 (8086 computer, 512K of RAM, runs a 5-user version of Xenix over serial ports where you plug in a terminal).
And before that, I finally upgraded my Laptop to a Pentium 100 machine. My previous recent laptop upgrade was from a Grayscale VGA 486 laptop to an active-matrix color VGA 486 laptop that had internal CD.
I'm thinking about moving the hard drives from my Slackware box from a Dell Optiplex that has a PIII 550 processor into an Optiplex that has a P1 233 processor (**). It would do most of what that box is needed for and I'd be able to hock the PIII for money on eBay.
(** I bought two skids, with 80 Dell Optiplex systems on them, at auction this past spring for $40. )
"What's the frequency Kenneth?"
I upgrade when Moore's Law holds twice for CPU speed relative to my current machine; in other words, when CPU speed doubles, then doubles again, I buy.
My trusty iMac DV (400 Mhz) became a server when the new iMac G5 1.8 Ghz came out; it's a huge improvement, and incidentally, it's right on target for Steve Jobs' projection that Apple owners are on a four or five year upgrade cycle.
Duh. 4th Week of January, right after MacWorld San Francisco and the edge is still on the Reality Distortion Field induced stuppor that teh Steve has left us with.
What if it is just turtles all the way down?
When Everquest pushes a new version out.
Bender: Wow! I'm finally gonna see my favourite chef, TV's Elzar. Oh this is the greatest nanosecond of my life. No, this one is - no, this one. Wait...that one was slightly worse. Ah, so far so good on this one.
Call me old fashioned, but I like a dump to be as memorable as it is devastating - Bender
I upgrade after the old stuff starts on fire. By accident, of course-- at least that's what I tell the wife.
Since the days of my 386, I've basically upgraded my computer when a game comes out that I really want to play but can't run decently. This has worked out to waiting for ~3-4x increase in clock speed (386 33 -> Pentium 120 -> Pentium 166 (magic smoke escaped from 120) -> PII 350 -> Athlon 1200). So I could upgrade now following my pattern, but I don't really have time to play many games anymore so I've lost that driving force. Without games, there is much less drive to upgrade - I still want to, but it doens't seem worth it.
Home theater stuff tends to be upgraded more piecemeal - new receiver one year, a few new speakers the next, maybe someday a new TV (someday soon; my TV only has RF inputs).
I tend to avoid electronic gadgets - no mp3 player, no PDA, though I do have a cell phone. The cell phone tends to be upgraded whenever I can get a new one for free - like yesterday. My last contract ran out a few months ago, but I was happy with my phone so I kept it. The battery started seriously dying a few weeks ago, so instead of paying ~$30-$40 for a new battery, I just signed a new contract and got a new phone for free (sicne it came with earbud, home charger and car charger, I wasn't even out the cost of accessories). Granted, I can only do this because I couldn't care less about having a camera phone, internet on my phone, or much of anything else (the damn text messaging is already pissing me off, since the provider apparently decided they needed to send me 20 messages last night informing me that my phone was properly set up and registered), but it does give me the joy of having a new toy to play with for free.
Basically the point of my long, un-interesting (to anyone but myself) email is that I upgrade whenever I can get something better for free or very cheap, when my current equipment does not allow me to do something that I would really like to do, or, like my home theater equipment, as a slow process of improving the overall system piece by piece.
I'm the only computer guy, and i have the slowest machine(s). Not a big gamer, so i can keep my 733 and my 550. who cares if one blows up, i feel free do do whatever i want with them (they're of the majority age ;-))
IANALOOA
...I'll upgrade when the thing simply refuses to work.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
...and it limits what you want to do. If you're a gamer, you're probably dropping in a new grpahics card every few months, or as close to that as you can afford. Me, I used a PII 450 for three years... of course, it had 256MB of RAM in it (back in the days when 128MB was a lot for a desktop, mind you!). Then I upgraded to my current setup: AMD Athlon 1.4GHz with 1.5GB RAM. I don't plan to upgrade this system, since it's my workhorse... runs smooth and reliable. If I want something faster, I'll build a new one. And if I do that, it'll be a box for gaming.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it! --Longbottle
Whenever I need to I guess. I own a computer shop so find myself having to keep up with the technology that is out there. One major factor for my personal computer is knowing what its limits are and where I can get parts for it, i.e. my Shuttle PC takes a Socket-A chip with a max FSB of 333MHz. Currently running a Sempron CPU, I am carefully watching the price and availability of the Athlon XP 3000+, which is the fast chip I can put into it. My theory being that I don't need it now, but if I don't get it soon then I won't be able to get it at all when I do need it.
Karma? Hey I just call it as I see it.
When the upgrade offers you something you want to do, but cannot cannot currently do, for a price you're willing to pay.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
It's time to upgrade when your stuff is so old that he "early adopters" no longer laugh at your rig, but are amazed that those antiques can be useful. This also helps resist supporting the Evil Empire!
For me an upgrade is in order when a contract specifies that I can't develop the software I'm designing on some archaic system. My professional development box was purchased in 2000 (800mhz Duron), and my box before that a P75 (ca. 1995) is running the family web station in the kitchen. (for the record Firefox on a P75 with 96MB) Now I'm looking at a contract gig that might require an upgrade if they require I deliver a Java app, but if I can get them to take my Ocaml or Common Lisp version instead, that runs on my current hardware, why should I upgrade? Moral, you don't have to anymore for most uses, and if you use the right tools, the code you write will certainly work on your client's boxes. Rather than use that latest and greatest class library, maybe you should consider if you can do the same task with less.
I can send back my Mac to Apple, they will recycle most of what's left of it. The whole process is explained in their recycle page.
...)
My computer is a Powerbook G3 400, I am still very happy about this computer, however, 7 years after I bought it, it begins to lack the vigor of before, and I am left struggling to play XVIDs for example. And actions that takes 10 minutes on my job's PC takes hours in here (thanks, no Altivec). And some parts are starting to crumble too (no more sound card, sometimes USB hangs,
So I decided to buy a new one for xmas. I plan on keeping the G3 for as long as it will support me, even upgrading its CPU to a G4 550. That way, I will be able to make this computer a perfect little multimedia station, all bundled in with TV out and many cool features like being able to go to the Internet and play MP3s. And when it will irrecoverably be dead, I will send it to be recycled by my nice folks at Apple.
So in other words, I do agree with you, torpor. I think reuse first, and recycle second. Now if white box manufacturers could do the same. *sigh*
Mike
I'm a Mac user. I'm used to getting good ROI, having low TCO. So far I've owned three primary (not counting hobby boxes) machines:
So far I've upgraded about every 5 or 6 years. Why? Not because my old machine felt too slow for what I was doing, but because software was leaving me behind. In '98 I wanted to start doing some Java programming. Nobody was supporting System 7.1 on 68k Macs anymore. I had to get new kit. In '04, virtually all classic MacOS development was done, I had to move to OS X.
Until recently I still had the 650. Whenever I booted it, it was still fine at what I wanted to do with it. I still have the G3, though it runs Linux now. It still does a lot of good work for me. If Jaguar had installed, I probably wouldn't have upgraded. If developers supported the older platforms a little longer, I wouldn't have to upgrade as often as I do. While there's something to be said for getting stuff done faster, we all know that most PCs spend most of their time just waiting for user input.
Constitutionally Correct
I've found (for me) that a good rule is to upgrade my main machine when I can quadruple my processor speed without needing to buy top-of-the-line parts.
By Upgrade, I'm referring to buying a new processor/main board/memory. All the rest of the guts get moved to the new machine. I find this works out pretty cost efficient. I went from a 200 to a 650 to a 2.4. All those speeds were fast when I bought them, but not the absolute fastest available. I'll probably upgrade again at 10Ghz.
Also, that's just for my main machine. I've always got extra Frankenstein computers lying around from parts that have been picked up at various times.
As far as accessories, I upgrade those whenever need calls. Hard drives get added frequently, fun new USB devices, and different types of media inputs and outputs are added whenever they are needed.
I think people who upgrade their processor/main board/memory whenever a "new" speed comes out just simply don't know how to use their computer. Back before I bought my 2.4 and was still using my 650 all of my non-tech friends with top-of-the-line computers (incorrectly) thought mine was faster than theirs simply because I could do more on it (video editing, 3-D modeling, yada yada). People have the false impression they need to upgrade all the time in order to keep up. Naw, unless you are into serious gaming, I just don't think you need to. I'll stick with the rule of quadruple and patiently wait for 10Ghz.
2 cents. Ka Ching!
--Jon
3 running machines..
--1 GHz athlon. SBlive, GeForce 4200, 1 gig ram, DVD+- burner, cd burner, 4 HD's. (windows 2k mainly)
Main windows support machine. It plays games ok, and gets the Windows crap done. The people I support use windows, so if I want money, I have to support it too.
--Dell Optiplex GX1 400MHz p2, PCI=>pcmcia gateway (dell wireless card: AP mode), ISA=>pcmcia gateway(lucent 2.4GHz, symbol 2.4 hopper), dvd reader, sb16, ati r128 all in wonder, 2 network cards (and 1 onboard), 384 MB ram.
Pure Linux testing machine. Serves as a Desktop that accompanies my windows box. Has up to 2 802.11B cards and 1 Symbol freq hopper card, and 3 wired connections. Runs Debian testing. I found this machine in the TRASH at a local college. Some idiot didnt plug the ram in correctly and it didnt boot up.
--Dual PPro 200 MHz Compaq Proliant server, onboard wired network, isa=>pcmcia(lucent 2.4GHz card), Adaptec scsi card, onboard scsi, shitload of 4/8 Gig scsi/sca drives.
Pure linux, no desktop, serves NFS and SMB mounts, fileserver. Got it free after a small place I did work for got better hardware.
I can play games, listen to music, encode stuff on the fly, and play movies. I dont need any better yet. I am eyeing the 8Byte athlons and Linux. Possibly using that with Cinelerra..
The frequency of update unfortunately is linked to the amount of cash I get hold of... On the other hand, whenever that's the time for update, I will depend upon the catalog... Especially for computer related deals, you can notice that there is a sharp rise in performance/price ratio starting from some mid range item. Usually, that's the most cost effective solution.
There was some research done on how useful it is to recycle computer equipment (for materials). Conclusion: energy costs of recycling weigh heavier than the benefit of turning the materials back into new products. From an environmental perspective, it helps most to just keep old equipment working as long as possible.
For about a year and a half, I ran an old Pentium box as router/firewall. The most costly thing over that period: hardware? No (pocketmoney). Software? No (a few floppy discs w/ free software). Energy! The electricity for running the box 24/7 over that period topped other costs.
After that, I sold the box for similar use elsewhere. So what if I had used an energy-efficient dedicated router, and dumped the old box for recycling?
- The dedicated router would have to be produced new, taking a lot of energy & costing me $$
- The old box would have become trash right away, cost lots of energy to recycle, and not around for resale.
So looking back, the advice above makes sense.However, with our current technology, that is not possible.
Maybe not, but you can make optimal use of equipment, give it a useful task for as long as possible, and have it recycled after use. Specialised companies are quite good at recycling electronic equipment. BTW. I think it's bad to throw computers in landfills anyway. When natural resources become scarce and recycling processes are refined, computer waste may turn into a very good source for materials like copper, lead, gold, etc.
Are these the computer recycling companies that are shipping stuff to China and hiring children to melt down the parts to realize your "very good source for materials"?
Yeah. There's a good solution to the problem.
OF COURSE you should use hardware for as long as it's serviceable. But using it just to use it doesn't make sense. Use it to solve problems, or give it to people who will.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
I have a 400 MHz G4 and I don't foresee upgrading it for another 3 years either.
When it comes to IT upgrades, I am more likely to skip the next generation product and go for the one that follows it. I didn't set out to do this, but it seems to just work out that way.
In my mind, I can't justify spending the premium to purchase the latest and greatest when what I have still works, and is a sunk cost. By the time what I have is two generations old, the latest and greatest is a LOT better, when I have may or maynot work so well, and that sunk cost was sunk a while ago so I don't feel the sting as much.
So when what I have is frustrating to use because it no longer functions properly or just far poorer than new tech, I upgrade.
A few examples from my own life:
- I own a 2 megapix digital camera that is a couple years old and has some issues with certain modes. I am going to soon purchas a 5MP camera to replace it.
- My laptop, a PowerBook G4 400Mhz is a great machine but as I have moved more and more towards an Apple centric home, I kinda want the more powerful systems to do home movie (DV) editing with iMovie and store all my digital music I didn't have when I bought the laptop. I will but buying a G5 iMac in January.
- That same laptop has an 802.11b Airport card. I have a similar base station but the antena range isn't very good and I cannot get an external antena. I saw a CompUSA sale on 802.11g access points to I pounced last month.
Is this information interesting? well no, but it held your attention for a few moments anyway.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
I tend to replace my two client systems every two years. My wife's in one year and mine the next, etc. The oldest client machine gets converted into a network server and firewall. Older systems if they're still operational and half decent go to family. When I buy I tend to try to stay 6 months to a year behind some of the tech (cpu primarily) as I can get a better bang for the buck than buying the absolute latest. Between those upgrades I'll sometimes tend to have a throw the latest gadget at it (a client system) paying premium prices for video cards, cd or dvd burners (when they were new obviously).
One thing I don't do is use it as a media center... I don't need or want my pc controlling those things and see no point in it, at least so far. I don't have to reboot my stereo or tv (ok besides my digital cable box).
Hmm now that I think about it I'm pretty well always spending money on it lol:)
Normally, I try not to HAVE to upgrade. I maintain a stock of parts that just happen to fit inside a few boxes. I just currently overhauled 2 of the 3 servers I run at home, and added Wireless capability (and to quote another /. topic...plugged my PS/2 with GameShark Media Console into the Wireless to watch movies and play music in the front of the house).
Currently, I am trying to maintain a 64Bit environment for all my systems, and as the components reach a price point of $100.00 or less (per item) I buy what I can afford. HDD's have hit the sweet spot, with 200GB drives in my range, so I will be adding/upgrading my SATA collection. Video is another sore spot, as I like to play games and need a Decent card. The GeForce 5900 I have in my systems may not be the "Ultimate" but it was 4 times less than the top of the line. So it sits in all systems. Memory can be re-used in most cases, so that is only a factor when I require faster sticks. For the 64Bit upgrades, I bumped two systems up to 1GB (400) and was able to take the remainder (1.5GB 333) and use them in the slower system.
My general rule of thumb is to see if it plays on the current system, and if it is slow or choppy, I upgrade. That was the reason / justification for the RAID 0 arrays (video editing goes so much faster) and the 64Bit processors.
Overall, I treat my systems as a hobby (even though I use them to pay all my bills with the work I do). Hobbies can never be too much or too slick.You keep going until you die..."Me".
What's wrong with my PowerPC 5500/250? Or my macintosh Classic? Or my 386? You kids forget the days of sit and beg for computer to work faster
It's never a good time to buy a computer, because you could always put off the purchase for two years and get one twice as fast. Or wait two years, and buy the one you really want now for a third the price.
ive seen a trend in technology where many things tend to break way before their functionality becomes outdated.
Well for those of us that are trying to break MS down, and have Billy G beg for money on the streets, we usually upgrade anywhere from daily to when a new Distro is released from our favorite Linux Company. But for me, I usually run urpmi.update -a; urpmi --auto-select every Friday evening.
10 or 15 years ago, in the 286-386 era, I did a lot of CAD work, numerical analysis, and some desktop publishing. I NEEDED to have the fastest machine available.
Since I got the first Pentium-90 on my desk, I never felt the need to upgrade again. It was always perfectly fast enough for what I was doing.
I only get new machines when I change jobs or offices. My home is populated by hand-me-down Intel machines.
The only exception to this was when I tried to use a beta version of VisualStudio.net on a machine which was just fine with VS6. It was unusable, so I got a faster AMD machine. Then I finally wised up, decided the real problem was with the software I was using, and made the ultimate upgrade - to a G4 Mac.
I moved to a new place over a year ago, and never unpacked my wintel boxes.
I upgrade when things get too slow. When I do upgrade, I tend to upgrade to the Latest And Greatest, thus ensuring that (1) I get to feel really badass for a few months, and (2) I don't need to upgrade for a long time.
Right now I'm still using my increasingly old (3 years, I think) dualproc Athlon 1800+. I've replaced the graphics card and the second hard drive (the mass storage one, because my old 60gb IBM drives both died horrible deaths). The computer's getting a bit on in years, and I'm starting to feel a bit of pressure in the latest games, but I got through Doom 3 without too much trouble and so I figure I'm good for another year.
I'm definitely waiting until Windows x64 is out, and you can get a dual Opteron board with PCI Express. After that . . . well, we'll see.
Breaking Into the Industry - A development log about starting a game studio.
Indeed, if you need more cycles, you will still have to upgrade.
The difference here is that Microsoft makes old PCs obsolete by issuing OS upgrades that make the system run slower. For the Mac, if it can run OS X at a decent speed, you can be assured that future OS upgrades will only make the computer run faster.
Now, with old PCs, you can say "run Linux on them" when they are too decrepit to run Longhorn, but that's kind of annoying to most people, because it changes all the apps on the system.
I bought a new system last week.
But it replaced a system that had been up 24/7 since 1999. Or maybe it was 1998. And it had locked up, screamed about a corrupt BIOS on the first reboot, then failed to come up at all on the second. It may have been the last system I bought.
When I did buy hardware I only bought what I couldn't reuse - MB, CPU, case & PS, memory.
But it's unfair to say that we don't upgrade at all. A few years ago I "downgraded" from a 1600x1200 large monitor to a much smaller 1024x768 LCD monitor. I bought it to eliminate flicker so I'm happier with the smaller screen.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
. I have this rule - I upgrade (typically motherboard/CPU/memory combo) when price of such for new technology comes down below $350. Right now I am eagerly availting arrival of my AMD64 3000+ upgrade ( up from dual PIII 1000 )
Not necessarily to get the fastest/latest, but to get a platform that's ready for the most current, and upcoming connectivity standards. Example: When I ditched my old AT-style PC for a PII 350 with an ATX board and power supply, more PCI slots, USB, etc...
If it plays the porn videos, who needs to upgrade?
There's nothing in this aticle that isn't blatantly obvious. WHEN YOU SHOULD REPLACE OLD GEAR - When it's completely busted Oh gee thanks. Next time my MP3 player completely breaks down I'll make sure to get a new one rather than carry around the fubar'ed one trying to read the track off the crushed display while the exposed hard drive spins like a buzz saw and i hear nothing but a screeching static from the headhpones. Thank you GearLive!
2 years after introduction.
:)
Saves you a FORTUNE that way.
Besides, living on the trailing edge of tech MAKES you stay on your toes to perform up with the bleeding edge crowd...
I guess I'more unamerican than you are. I use a debit card, which means that I only upgrade when, and only when, the money is in my account.
As far has the practicality of it it all - it depends on what you're using it for. If you're producing 3D raytraced renderings, then you'll be upgrading any time it makes sense to take advantage of the increased CPU power and higher memory capacity. If you're just fetching email and checking out sports scores, well, you can get by with a lot less.
http://www.computertorture.com/
Actually yes, since I rather expect even a moderate speed DVD+-RW to under-run on my 333MHz P-II.
Or as someone said above, I upgrade when I have the money.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I agree with the embarassment thing. Every time somebody shows me a new gadget or computer that they just bought I'm embarassed for them. There's nothing cooler than using old hardware. And by the same logic, there's nothing less cool than buying brand new hardware for no particular reason. Any Joe Schmoe can drive to Wal-Mart and buy the latest and greatest. A real geek will make it work, regardless of hardware.
I don't respond to AC's.
I don't get it, why do people constantly knock the new slashdot over the old slashdot? I've been reading /. for years and I don't remember it being any different some 5 or 6 years ago. Is there a certain event that happened that divides old from new? Somebody please fill me in.
P.S. I still think slashdot rocks. (shameless mod request)
The best time to upgrade or buy a new computer is always tomorrow.
Its easier to plunk down $2000 instead of wiping the computer clean.
You wouldn't happen to know anyone like that, would you? I could really help them, you know.
I can magically summon an exact copy of their computer without the bugs and even bless it with protective spells to keep further spyware off. All I have to do is take it home and sacrifice their old computer to the mystic gods of computing. I'll need about $1000 for spell components, of course, but this will amount to considerable savings.
I also have some magic beans that are a really hot item these days. They might be interested in these as well as my services.
Hardware is so cheap these days, I wonder how poor you have to be to feel the brunt of an upgrade.
My old computer cost $500 three years ago, and to replace it when it broke (long story) cost me less than $400.
Maybe I'm rich, but I don't feel like it...the hassle was right up there with the cost. I guess I'm no longer a starving college student so $400 every few years doesn't phase me at all.
You might have trouble burning a few gigs worth of 100k JPEGs "on the fly", but regular stuff like movies, games, mp3s, etc should be fine.
The time to upgrade is Tuesday.
Every Tuesday, sometimes Thursday or Friday, but pretty much every Tuesday.
Occasionally, Monday or Wednesday, but the answer should be Tuesday.
Oh, the weekend works as well.
...I just had to buy a new motherboard because the old one just up and quit working on me. What can I do with the old one? Are there normally recycling programs for dead gear like this?
I just upgraded for the first time in Quite a While, and I must say, I am not impressed. I took stock of the money I spent, and I was dissappointed with the relative improvement of most of the games I have (which was the reason for the upgrade in the first place) I am getting very brazen to PC speed, and will probably not be upgrading in the near future (or the mid-term future ) BTW, the older PC is becoming a File server. Check out www.naslite.com
The people here, as usually, caught the contradiction virus. Suddenly, every post modded up extols the virtues of not upgrading at all. I am sure, if the story was about prolonging the life of old software and hardware, everyone would keep blubbering about sucky Win 3.11 and boast downloading a new distro every day.
But enough complaining. My question/idea/point was how much more expensive is always living on the cuttin edge? Assuming that your local computer stores have liberal upgrade/return/replacement policies and that they have new gear in store as soon as it's released, how much, on average, would it cost to replace everything you buy every 3 months? Every 1 month? Every 6 months? Once per year? Every 3 years? Yeah, you can spend 500$ every 5 years to get a new computer (the cheapest and the slowest), but you are doomed to drag behind the curve, unable to play new games, unable to enjoy the latest technology, etc.
Alternatively, you can preorder all hardware and keep your hardware on the cutting edge. How much would it realistically cost (without spending for the sake of spending)? Instead of buying 150$ video cards every 2-3 years, worrying about framerates and basically throwing old cards away, you can buy 400$ ones when they are released, but sell your old card each time for 300$. Yeah, it's more expensive, but considering you are getting more for the money, may be it's worth it?
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
Upgrade when the device or software no longer performs it's required function in an acceptable period of time.... or the required function is obsolete.
wbs.
Huh?
Not only do i have a nice story of mine, but i gotta say that was an enjoyable comment to read. Fuckin' rare around here to be sure. But anyway, i agree up and down and have a story for you...hope it doesn't suck.
... well, heaven) and going along and uh, damn, what just happened? Well, it died ... never found out why, but it fucked the mobo, ram, and video card. My ass is way broke at this point (past it really....well past it).
... and the unsavory folk that hang there past sundown, so i'm readying for a really *shitty* semester of lab-camping. i thought of using my firewall machine, but for many reasons, i couldn't use it (166Mhz PI w/ 128megs of slow ass ram - it's the firewall - no windows pc's will ever touch net directly from my connection - etc, etc, etc.). My gf is a huge digital artist, so using her monster machine (4 g's buys a pretty nice machine from Dell still) was out of the question.
... every single computer part you've ever owned and aren't currently using is in it. And found a dusty, sad looking skeleton of a machine. i didn't figure it would even post. Well, it did. With it's screaming fast 133Mhz PI and startling 64megs of ram made my "new computer".
So this past spring it was Sr. Design time for this computer engineering student (fiiiiiiinally graduated). i had my nice, screaming desktop setup with nice sound card, dual monitors, 128meg graphics card, big drives, ddr, the whole damn mess. Bustin' ass on the project (software on my side, so dual monitors was
i dread the lab up at campus
i decided to dive into the "junk closet" - you have one
i've been meaning to write up a list of the top 20 programs you must have if you're without X. i learned more about linux (and emacs) and gcc and gdb and the like. The other, not so well known programs that i discovered were great and now i feel like i can't do without them even back in X with an xterm. IRC, all the im families, browsing, music (streaming, playing, encoding, p2p), the out-fucking-standing TeX and its kin (where the fuck have i been before discovering those?).
To put it bluntly, i *really* learned what makes the *nix families so fucking powerful. Blah, blah, no pr0n, or pretty stuffs for a while, but damn, it was worth it. Besides, the gas station sells pr0n and you need the fresh air, hit the cinema (a small one, that doesn't have only tripe).
So yeah, old hardware - i can say i'm better off for "downgrading" even if just for a few months.
Just buy a Keyboard-Video-Mouse (KVM) switch and keep your old PCs -- this can be useful for those times when people ask for help with Win311, 95, etc and all you have to do is power up the right PC and follow along.
I'm still running on the 300 MHz sweetie I assembled six years ago. I run Open Office, Firefox and Winamp with no hitches. Although not all of them at the same time obviously. ;)
Two out of three is plenty. Why upgrade?
-s
At least for PCs, there hasn't really been a compelling reason to upgrade singe the 1 ghz barrier was broken. Stop and think, what could you not do then that you can do now? Oh gee, your kernel now only takes 30 seconds to compile instead of 2 minutes. Who cares? 64 bit? Maybe if there is something that a 64 bit machine could do that my 1.1 ghz athlon can't. As it is, I'm not upgrading squat until something comes along that makes my life easier. Briancnorton.info
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
I choose not to answer that question because I don't want my personal preferences used to second guess my actions and then have more advertising targeted my way.
I work for one of those recycling places. Yes, we sell to China, mostly indirectly, but I know it ends up there. It's not our business what they do with it after they buy it. That's up to China.
Cthulhu Saves.
I'm a trust-fund kiddie, you insensitive clod!!!
"No beer until you finish your tequila!" -Leela's Dad
Yeah, it's not YOUR fault you do business with people that are a small step up from slavers. After all, it's just business, right?
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
If I screw things up I've got 3 hours to try to fix it and two hours to hop a plane to Mexico.
The last significant hardware upgrade I did was a year ago when I got an ATI Radeon 9600 for $70. The last GPU I'll need for a couple of years. I only play games on one box (and coincidentally only run Windows on one box) so my focus can be on other things elsewhere.
My cheap ass is still on dial-up, but when I set up my hardware firewall from old computer parts a few years ago I spent the whole $45 on a quality external modem that is agnostic to the operating system on the computer. My approach allows me to collect other people's castaways and repurpose them for anyone who needs a box to act as file server, firewall, el cheapo grindingly slow internet-only box or whatever is called for. The knowledge I've gained making these things work is a bonus.
Hey!!! the parentheses are good for something
From your point of view, everyone who uses electronics is responsible for the conditions in China. Your use of computers is responsible for me selling them China. Then I am responsible for them employing/slaving children to process them. I'm sorry, it doesn't work that way and your argument is hypocritical. Sorry if I'm harsh, but I take what you're saying personally.
Cthulhu Saves.
...computer, a/v equipment, car, etc. in over 5 years. What's the point? I buy just discontinued stuff and have no problems. Plus, the features/price ratio is great!
I drank what? -- Socrates
Dual processor (intel or amd; done it both ways).
Max RAM
BADASS video card
MOFO MOBO
Assorted bells and whistles.
Usually comes to around 2-3 grand when I add it all up.
Then I think...
If I spend $2-3K on this, it will be a pile of crap 5 years from now.
I could buy...
A John Deere that will not be a pile of crap 5 years from now.
A serious set of stainless steel pots & pans (well, about 3 sets, but she only wants 1) that will make my wife very happy. That will not be a pile of crap 50 years from now.
Material for crown molding, toe molding, and a brick patio--none of which will be a pile of crap 30 years from now. Well, maintenance would be necessary.
It wouldn't cost nearly $3k to get that superchaged 302 Mustang back on the street. Just needs to be towed to Ohio, brakes overhauled, and seats & tires replaced. Wife likes vroom-vroom as much as me. That wouldn't be a pile of crap in 5 years.
My wife doesn't mind me buying a fancy computer. She has everything she needs, and she isn't stingy with me.
I work 12-hour days far from home so we have that overtime money to spend on extras. I just can't see spending thousands of dollars on a pile of crap.
INVESTING THE EXTRA MONEY
If you have a truly excellent credit card, (from a credit union) you may get prime plus a few percent. A cursory glance shows something around 9% is easily available if you have immaculate credit rating. Active and retired military may do a little better with USAA's platinum card. Heck, let's say by some miracle you're paying 6% on your credit card. Unheard of, but let's set the bar low for your "investment".
Paying that off is a guaranteed 6% return on your investment with ZERO risk. And your billing cycle is 30 days. Yeah, I know you can pay it off after 1 day of interest if you want. Again, I'll set the bar low for you--call it a 30-day loan.
Please, Please tell me what is this investment you've found that pays better than 6%, guarantees the rate of return, has absolutely zero risk of loss of principle, and requires only a 30 day commitment.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
I don't give my computers to you to recycle them.
And I'm not arguing that we restrict computer upgrades based on ridiculous pseudo-environmentalism.
If you take it personally, maybe you should consider a different line of work.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
I didn't upgrade to play Doom 3. It played just fine on dual AMD 1900 MPs and a Geforce 5900.
I think that it's great fun. I haven't finished it yet. I'm somewhere in the Delta Labs after the monorail crash.
There's a level near where I am that I found to be incredibly tense and scary even though *nothing* attacked me for ten minutes.
Doom 3 is obviously part of a game genre that you just don't like. I think that there a lot of other people do like it.
I love the smell of new upgrades in the morning.
Anyone else think kernels when they read the first part?
I'm using a Thinkpad 760ed. Box at work is a 600MHz PentiumII/III thingy (not Intel). Firewall/router around here is a Compaq Contura 410c (headless laptop, 486, 16Meg ram).
I'm happy with my hardware. I don't really need anything I don't have.
Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
Hmm... maybe it is time to upgrade... I mean, after all, this AppleIIe is getting a little on the dated side....
...Then there's my dad's view on upgrading:
"But if we upgrade now, there will just be something better on the market in 3 months!" (And he KEEPS saying that - he was saying that when Pentium 3's were out and we were still running (or at least trying to) an old Pentium 1)
...Had this been an actual emergency, we would have fled in terror, and you would not have been informed.
Alternatively, wait for the clueless masses to invest in the latest waste of money and take the old box off their hands. I find most people who I help with their systems don't really know what to do with two computers, so usually one goes to another family member or, failing that, is handed to me in return for years of dutiful maintanence service.
It's often the case that people have trouble selling their old systems because they are percieved as underpowered. Furthermore, unknowledgable people often don't feel confident buying a computer outside of a computer retailer because they don't get that oh-so-valuable "advice", so you're only selling to the subset of techies who read classified ads. Most non-techies don't know how to properly list and describe their PCs on (say) eBay, either.
I don't always accept these "donations", of course. Even a geek can have too many computers.
* Never get the two latest models. For example, if I were getting a Pentium 4, I would skip the 3.4GHz and 3.2Ghz and go with the 3GHz.
* Never upgrade if the old thing works unless the new thing is two times as good. If I have an 80GB drive, I won't upgrade until a 160GB drive fits in my budget. If I have an AthlonXP 1700+, I'll wait for the 3400+. The only exception to this rule is screen size.
* Never buy a new gadget unless it solved two problems for you. For example, I bought a digital camera because I needed a compact camera for snapshots and because I needed a webcam for video-conferencing.
They will also refuse to sell you a machine without Windows "to prevent piracy" and if you ask for Linux they'll charge you more than for Windows because "Linux is more expensive" despite the fact it can be obtained legitimately for the cost of your internet bandwidth and a few blank CD-Rs. Try to argue with them and you'll lose.
Stick Men
You forgot about the Nevers
If we're all actually using 1mhz processors with 256k of RAM, then who cares? As long as we're actually using them.
Progress is a lie. There is no such thing as progress!
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Very interesting thread eh?
2 things to take into account:
- price / performance ratio; divide one by the other
- the future; what might be coming out soon?
- compatibility; if you upgrade one bit you then have to upgrade the rest / similar
In general this is the biggest logistical problem the average joe has to face... especially when you factor in emotional disapline like "the longer you wait for an upgrade the cheaper it gets".
A blog I run for the wealth
Upgrading is a time consuming, very often frustrating process for one reason or another.
If I have to replace on machine with another then there is a lot of work installing a new version of the OS, applications, etc. Even minor upgrades like memory or a new interface card can be quite a hassle. USB is changing that, but it can still be quite frustrating.
If I was a Windows user it would imply trashing a perfectly capable machine just because the latest incarnation of Windows is crap for the hardware and getting used to a completely different user interface (because the user interface "experts" in Redmond dismiss familiarity as part of the user friendliness equation).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
When it is $10 at the neighborhood Microcenter after a $20 store rebate and $30 manufacturer's rebate, it's time to upgrade.
I upgrade when a new important game comes out. For example, I am gonna upgrade when Half Life gets out in a few weeks.
I will also upgrade when Duke Nuke'em Forever comes out. My new Pentium-8 50 THz QuadCore will certainly be able to run that game.
But of course the only time to actually *throw away* the old gear is when it can no longer be repaired. That 486SX/433 system is still doing useful work, thankyouverymuch.
Just before the new management team vivisected the company, DEC brought out a lot of processes for cleaner manufacturing and recycling computer stuff. I wonder where it all went?
On not wasting so much "waste": yeah, I tell my kids to remember where the landfills are, because their children will want to dig it all out again.
Call me old fashioned, or just plain outside of the trend, but I first upgraded my computer from a 486 DX/2 50mhz with 48MB of EDO RAM, to a PII in 1997ish.
:)
at the time I upgraded to the following:
EFA Magellan 440BX motherboard
Intel PII 400 - $250ish
192MB PC100 - $200ish
17.2 GB IDE drive - $300
36x CDROM drive - $80
Memorex 2x2x6 CD-RW - $200
2x DVD-ROM - $200
Matrox Millennium G200 (8mb) - $150
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Value - $80 on sale
all in all I spent a bit of money on components which are now worth... $75 combined...
on the other hand though, that is the workstation I use today (added some memory, upgraded CDRW, upgraded video card). That PII is handling Windows XP, and majority of things that I care to do (web browsing, checking email, chatting, some games, etc). It is by no means a powerhouse, but i've also not had to spend any money on it in quite a while.
But, time goes on... 200mhz is slow... I have finally been FINALLY looking at upgrading.
I decided at some point that I wanted another computer that would last just as long as this one has, and put together a list of basic features I wanted before I upgraded.
I decided that I absolutely want HyperThreading (HT) or equiv, and Native Command Queueing (NCQ) built into the motherboard (why would I get a motherboard with SATA, then buy an add-in card to get NCQ?).
Knowing I want new features from the motherboard (specifically NCQ), I knew going into this that I'd be looking at a newer motherboard, which would mean it's likely to be the highest cost item.
I have been looking the past few days at what exactly I want, and i've more or less decided that I want the Asus P5AD2 Premium motherboard (the Pro model would work, but does not have any 1394b ports, and if this system is supposed to last I'll go for it now), some general DDR2-533 RAM (i'll likely clock it at DDR2-400 for lower CAS latency), and a low cost LGA 775 processor.
I've learned from my recent purchases a few things.
1) fastest CPU means nothing because in 3 years it'll be worth... $50
2) instead of buying a video card with video capture built in, I intend to purchase a seperate video card... this way when I upgrade I won't need to continually pay extra $$ to get the video capture components
3) DDR2 has some interesting "features" to it... specifically i'm looking at the CAS latency... I may decide to buy only 256MB of DDR2 at first, then as better CAS timings are available, look at upgrading to the 1gb i want (plus by then it may be cheaper)
I actually am somewhat expecting this system to last at least as long as my PII has, partially because we are improving CPU speeds so quickly, and software isn't NEARLY bloated enough to keep *that much* CPU busy the same way it could keep a PII busy.
I somewhat laugh at people who upgrade their computer every 2 years, because for the majority of time i see a computer that's still recent enough to be quite effective... i find more often than not, home users are upgrading because their existing computers are bogged down with spyware and such junk. A simple reinstall/restore provides a computer that runs quite quickly
I upgrade whenever I feel it will enhance my quality of life. From buying a new car, to a new mouse I find this the most effective method.
about my VAX?
And yet somehow the denizens of New York City managed to survive without them for centuries...
Does anyone really think that a heater requiring a 400W heatsink is really progress?
The bar has been raised on what constitutes progress. If you want to succeed in today's world you have to know what your customers need.
Also, the prevalent marketing that something is "new and improved" while it really isn't has been a constant crying of wolf and so I'm sick of rewarding the marketing instead of incentivizing something more sustainable.
Finally, why should I pay for a DRM-enabled chipset, a DRM-enabled soundcard, etc. Why should I incentivize the opposite of progress?
I usually only buy a completely new system when it's no longer cost effective to upgrade the one I'm currently using and when that system will not run current (supported) software. There are fairly well established price points at around $1K, $2K, and $3K (including service/support contracts for a fully equipped system with monitor, etc.), with the $1K system being sort of entry level and the $3K being the Uber-nerd lust object. I find the middle price point to have a reasonably useful lifespan (thanks in part to being upgradable to bigger drives, more memory), but as with many things, your mileage or requirements may vary.
For music, you're asking the difference between an audiophile and a music lover. I always used the "symphony test." If someone had USD$100K sunk in their stereo but didn't have any idea what was on the program for the local symphony this weekend, they were an audiophile. The music was taking a back seat to all those neat-o gadgets. They were not, at heart, a music lover. (For symphony, feel free to substitute any good live-music experience.)
Personally, my epiphany came many years ago when I found myself seriously checking out a particular and rather expensive phono cartridge. Someone pointed out that for the cost of that cartridge, I could pay Yo-Yo Ma to travel to my town, sit in my living room, and play for me in person for an hour or two. In fact, for the cost of that cartridge I could have hired a fine local string ensemble to play for me several times. I'll never forget the feeling of the scales falling from my eyes.
Since then, while I still consider a good stereo system to be a worthwhile joy in this life, I've stopped pursuing gear for the sake of gear. I have less than USD$5K in my stereo and I think it'll suit me just fine for the rest of my life.
Back in the day, that would have sounded to me like the ultimate in crazy talk.
As I recall, the upgrading rule of thumb (for PCs, at least, is to upgrade when current technology is performing at least 3 times as fast as yours is.