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?"
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. --
Responibility is when you ask yourself: "Do I *REALLY* need this??"
Maturity is when you answer: "No."
Easy, when Carmack puts out a new first person shooter.
IGB: More fun than eating oatmeal!
When it breaks
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.
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.
Screwing over consumers with high interest. What do YOU think it's for?
When you get to hell -- tell 'em Itchy sent ya!
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.
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'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.
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.
You should pay all those credit cards off and upgrade only when you need more speed and have enough money to cover your full credit card bill next month... but that's just me--I don't like throwing money away. I know, I know... I'm unamerican.
If your computer still does everything you want it to, don't upgrade.
Jason
ProfQuotes
Half Life 2
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!
The top-of-the-range stuff is the biggest rip-off in terms of price per length of time you get to use it. I discovered that a long time ago. I bought a high-end ATI 9600 baud modem for $600 because it had all sorts of great features. I could have bought a cheap one for $300, but I figured I use my modem a lot and I want the best. A year later, I replaced it with a 14.4k modem that cost $150 and didn't have the nice features but it was 50% faster so it was unambiguously better. It just doesn't pay to get the bells and whistles because the core features get stale so fast.
Does it matter if your CD-RW drive can burn at 8x or 40x when the DVD+-RW drives are under $100?
Jason
ProfQuotes
Well then your hardware isn't doing what you want it to do, is it?
Personally, I don't need a DVD player to play avis, vcds, etc. I don't ever even watch those on the computer. I want my DVD player to play little round discs drom Blockbuster. It does that, so I'll keep it til it breaks. Which may be a very long time- I kept the same cheap-ass stereo from age 14-24, it did what I needed it to- play fm radio.
Same with computers- I don't upgrade until there's some software I want to run that I can't. Usually thats a game, and that tends to be every 4 years or so (I don't play FPS, so I don't tend to push the envelope too much). I'll be upgrading 1 of my 2 computers soon- basicly to run MythTV so I can get rid of my DVD player, old video game systems, VCR etc entirely. It'll only be a small upgrade though- adding some cards to my linux box. After that I don't see myself buying any new electronics for 3-4 years, unless something breaks.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Not to be overly sarcastic...but this was modded insightful?
I work with credit every day. Credit is not about screwing the customer over. It's about determining risk vs. reward. How much reward does a lender need to have to justify the risk of lending the money.
Mod points are pointless when you browse at -1.
When feel like I am getting twice the performance as my current machine for the same price. I usally will upgrade.
And this was modded insightful?
Credit companies are there to make money.
You ruined that guy's life. That Asteroids game was probably a lot of fun.
"What's the frequency Kenneth?"
...I'll upgrade when the thing simply refuses to work.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
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:)
If it is not broke, do not fix it.
Be able to pay off your credit card in full each month.
Debt is bad; avoid it at all costs, sans emergencies.
Do not spend simply because you have an excess of cash - emergencies are not cheap.
Insurance may cover that slight fender bender, but if you can fix it yourself or leave it you will be doing your premiums and your actual monthly insurance cost (by keeping it lower) a favor.
There may be an "I" in family, but do not spend like it.
This is probably unpopular with the consumerism trend and the encouragement of our government to "spend, spend, spend" to keep our economy strong and it is just a total farce. I swear the economy can do much better if based on something other than the revolving debt of our society. Now back to the main point: You do not "need" the latest hardware, software or gadgets. However, damn it they sure are fun!
More on topic, I sure did get your sarcasm. Your point does register with me 100%. It's a shame that too many people aren't like this in their own practice of financial sensibility and responsibility.
-- just my 2 cents.
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.
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.
Did you buy the $300 modem the week it first shipped, or did you buy it a month before newer and faster modems appeared? It really makes a big difference when you purchase during a particular products life cycle.
A case in point is my brother-in-law, a total gadget freak. (Hi Karl!) I think he once told me he "invests" around $500 in gadgets every year, but he always has the latest and greatest of everything. His method is to buy what he wants the moment it's shipping, and then immediately selling the gadget it is replacing on ebay. Part of why this works is that the "top-of-the-range" stuff tends to hold it's value longer.
I know someone else that does this with Macs. He's always got the latest, most powerful system, and he is able to afford this because he can always find a buyer willing to pay a good price for last years top of the line system. I'm not sure what his yearly outlay is, but it's not $5000 a year.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
This might seem off topic, but I like how being American has become synonymous with "wasteful and willful negligence" as well as corporatism and greed.
You make a rather valid point, in that, many an unsavory attitude is considered American and basically popular. And when you look at the heart of the matter, this ties into a root cause: stupidity is popular.
Think about it. How cool is it to call it as you see it when somebody has a completely retarded belief? My friend's wife believes in fairies (no shit) and of course, it's considered rude if I laugh at the matter, or worse yet, if I were to challenge her beliefs in any shape or form (a proper debate would be out of the question!).
An offshoot of this, as you alluded to, is that calling people on their abysmally stupid spending habits would also be rude. I get people that come to me with their money problems and then turn around and attack my audacious lack of "having fun" or "living life" after I point out the flaws in their financial habits. How did they think I managed to stockpile all sorts of money on middle-class wages? It's like they think I have some magical way of fixing their finances that will allow them to continue spending negligently!
I think Bill Engvall was right... stupid people need to wear signs or something.
Debt is not always bad. Handled carefully (like fire), it can really be your friend. BTW, I don't consider a reasonably-priced house debt, since it can appreciate and build equity, especially if you pay it off in less than 30 years. I'm talking about consumer debt.
Anyway, as far as consumer spending goes, I've lived successfully by some basic principles:
There are two types of people: those who pay interest, and those who collect it.
:)
I don't do either (I'm a cash-and-carry guy), and I know plenty of people who do both (think small business owner).
Queue up the chorus of "there are two kinds of people" jokes...
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
* 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.
Why do you think there is so much hate towards Gentoo on this forum? Its because given ANY subject at all, some idiot will try to bring the virtues of Gentoo into it. Last year it was the Debian users. In the end they took the hint and just got on with using their favourite distribution without crapping on at everyone about it all the damn time! I use Gentoo, and it riles me to keep seeing all this out-of-place advocacy on /. People are going to be down on me for using Gentoo before long, and its all because of you guys that can't think of anything else.
:-(
YOU ARE NOT CONVERTING ANYONE TO GENTOO! You are turning some backs though