When do you know it's time to upgrade?

[inflames988]

I will be working on a few fun projects in the spring, but one of them will be *finally* building a new machine for myself. I think I waited a little too long to move over to the new Intel chips (ever since the Core 2, Intel has been wayyy ahead of AMD). But I'm probably one of the more financially responsible 21 year olds you will find, and didn't really feel the need to shell out the cash till now.

Regardless, I'm building a new high-end machine, but still taking the cheap route to some extent. I'm picking up a new Antec P180 for $75 (found on craigslist), and will put together an i7 motherboard, CPU, and ram from newegg. I may wait until february or march as the 930 will supposedly be released in feb at the same price as the 920. The rest will be stuff I already have - my hard drives, optical drives, and PSU should be sufficient.

I figured it was time when I started using my laptop as a desktop (dual monitors hooked up to it, external hard drives, etc), since it was significantly faster for doing all of my work . At a point, I figure I might as well. I've noticed that the parts from my current machine will net me a good $300+ on eBay (CPU, mobo, RAM), whereas an i7 CPU/mobo/ram will run maybe 700 or so. I've got a newegg gift cert, so my out of pocket cost for this whole thing won't be too bad When do you guys generally decide its time to upgrade your machine?

[HAL9000]

My old machine was pushing 7 years and just ran like a dog, even with a fresh load... it seemed slower than my laptop, so I upgraded.

[Kuch]

When you’re standing in the gaming section of a store and reading the minimum requirements for the games to run and none of them will run on your machine, it’s time to upgrade. I won’t upgrade just because of one new game with crazy requirements, but when I’m overlooking several new games because I know my system won’t handle them, then I know it’s time.

[Hi Ho]

I just catch the upgrade bug once in a while. I built my Core 2 Duo machine almost three years ago. Upgraded to my current machine back in November and I am very happy I did. I am actually working with video more than ever because it is so fast and effortless. I'm playing through all my games again like they are brand new.

[Tin]

When I played alot of games, I upgraded year after year. Usually just a new vid card or more memory, and every 2 years on the CPU side. I can tell no difference between my Socket 939 3800+ X2 and my Q6600 unless Im doing something CPU intensive, like converting large batches of WAV files to FLAC or converting DVDs to x264. FWIW, Ill probably upgrade my main system later on this year to an i7 system.

[thefultonhow]

When my laptop's shortcomings start annoying my too much, I start looking at new ones. It usually takes me another 6 months or so until I'm comfortable enough with my money situation to drop the cash. Last time, it was the single-core processor (too slow) and parallel ATA (not enough options) that got me looking for a replacement for my Thinkpad T43p. This time, my E6400 has an overheating problem and Dell refuses to get back to me with how a quote for an upgrade to onsite support (and I can't be without my laptop for the amount of time it would take for them to fix the problem, especially because this is a well-known problem with the E6400 that they haven't figured out how to fix).

I think I might get a Mac this time around. New Macbook Pros are supposedly coming out sometime soon, and now that they have DisplayPort, I can get a DisplayPort splitter to run two monitors off one port. And I've kind of been tempted by MacOS for a while now.

[inflames988]

Originally Posted by thefultonhow When my laptop's shortcomings start annoying my too much, I start looking at new ones. It usually takes me another 6 months or so until I'm comfortable enough with my money situation to drop the cash. Last time, it was the single-core processor (too slow) and parallel ATA (not enough options) that got me looking for a replacement for my Thinkpad T43p. This time, my E6400 has an overheating problem and Dell refuses to get back to me with how a quote for an upgrade to onsite support (and I can't be without my laptop for the amount of time it would take for them to fix the problem, especially because this is a well-known problem with the E6400 that they haven't figured out how to fix). I think I might get a Mac this time around. New Macbook Pros are supposedly coming out sometime soon, and now that they have DisplayPort, I can get a DisplayPort splitter to run two monitors off one port. And I've kind of been tempted by MacOS for a while now.

Not sure you can run dual monitors off of the mini displayports on the macbooks - I have the new macbook pro, and the only way to run dual monitors thus far is to use one displayport adapter, and one USB adapter. The USB jobs are slow and a bit laggy, but not bad overall.

[David M]

When do you upgrade? When your existing computer cannot do or is too slow at running the software that you need it to run. Also, pretty obviously, when it breaks and its not cost effective to put your hard earned cash into repairing your computer. Usually, because its technology is three to five generations old or replacement parts are impossible to find or ridiculously expensive.

[inflames988]

Originally Posted by David M ...technology is three to five generations old or replacement parts are impossible to find or ridiculously expensive.

heh, that's exactly what i'm benefitting from here. The 2GB of XMS DDR ram i'm auctioning on eBay just jumped up to $70.00, and based on the last few auctions of the same kit should end around $150

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by inflames988 Not sure you can run dual monitors off of the mini displayports on the macbooks - I have the new macbook pro, and the only way to run dual monitors thus far is to use one displayport adapter, and one USB adapter. The USB jobs are slow and a bit laggy, but not bad overall.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/dh2go/

2x 1920x1200 is exactly what I need, and both my monitors have DisplayPort inputs. It is kind of on the expensive side, though.

[inflames988]

Originally Posted by thefultonhow http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/dh2go/ 2x 1920x1200 is exactly what I need, and both my monitors have DisplayPort inputs. It is kind of on the expensive side, though.

ahh i think someone on one of the mac forums was saying that those would be out at some point. the matrox ones are supposed to be the best performance wise, but they aren't cheap. the USB thing I have was ~65 and works perfectly minus the slight lag when dragging windows around, but i'll admit it can be annoying.