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. --
Responibility is when you ask yourself: "Do I *REALLY* need this??"
Maturity is when you answer: "No."
After speaking with... Kevin... and going in circles for an hour, I break down, and just upgrade whatever part it is that broke.
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.
When urge and wallet/budget can reach mutual satisfaction, purchases should be made.
Michalangelo Progr
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.
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.
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.
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); }
When my wife says so or when I upgrade my wife.
I say we just grow up, be adults and die.
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
There's a lot of truth to that. I've been saying for the past 4 years that I'm going to upgrade my 1.2ghz tower. But when it comes down to it, it's definitely quick enough for what I need it for, so why upgrade?
So I go through this every year, and every year, I decide to put off the upgrading for another year.
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.
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.
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'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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
I agree too -- I don't need to upgrade, but for the past few years I've been "sidewaysgrading." I don't need anything faster than my Athlon XP 2100+, but I've gotten two other computers because they were substantially different: an iBook to take to class and a Mini-ITX to use as a media PC.
Now, there are only two possible reasons that I would want to upgrade: I need a new video card for Doom and Half-Life, and I want less maintenance and better synchronization between my computers (I might get a desktop/tower Mac to use as a server).
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
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.
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...
When feel like I am getting twice the performance as my current machine for the same price. I usally will upgrade.
You ruined that guy's life. That Asteroids game was probably a lot of fun.
"What's the frequency Kenneth?"
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'll upgrade when the thing simply refuses to work.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
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!
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
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.
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:)
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.