Just a quickie for you today, folks. We’re going to talk about PC gaming. Specifically, the hardware side of it. Whether you buy or build (personally, I’m still a proponent of building), eventually you won’t be able to run games the way you used to. Eventually, your hardware is going to become outdated and obsolete. Eventually, you’ll need to upgrade.

Naturally, upgrades come easier on a desktop, particularly if you’ve put together your own rig. More often than not, it’s simply a matter of swapping out an old part for a new one. It’s not exactly a complicated process, so we’re not going to spend a lot of time on it. Instead, the question we’re going to look at isn’t how, but “when.” When should you consider an upgrade?  While it’s true that this might be obvious to some of you, but it still can’t hurt to lay out a few guidelines, right?

1. Generally, you’re going to want to swap out old components for new at least every two to three years, unless you’ve got a particularly high end system. Technology tends to move fairly quickly, after all. If you’ve the money for it, it can’t hurt to do a minor upgrade every year. On higher-end systems, you can probably get away with keeping them from between three and five years, but at that point, you’ll need to completely swap out the majority of your components (essentially, you’ll need to purchase a new system)
2. As an exception to the above rule, keep an eye on new developments in the hardware sector. New processors and new manufacturing methods are two things to pay very close attention to as a cue to upgrade your stuff.  You’re also going to want to keep an eye on hardware releases, as well, in order to determine when to upgrade and what to buy.
3. Finally, if your system is running with a motherboard that’s more than five years old, you should probably nix it. It’s not likely to be able to deal with newer hardware.

Any other tips you folks can think of?

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