Upgrading Hardware Anxiety

[WolfTech]

It's a simple question: I recently bought and built an entirely new system and despite the fact that I'm very much enjoying the performance and looks of it, there are some parts I'm not 100% convinced of/ regret buying. My budget wasn't by any means what I would consider low but it certainly wasn't as high as I would have liked it to be, so I had to make some small compromises here and there.

Anyway that's enough about that intro. The question is how do you manage your 'buyers anxiety' when there are so many good products out there and tech advances so rapidly? One day your rig is amazing but then X product launches and you desperately need to have it. Since I don't have a large amount of cash, that helps a bit (lol). But seriously tho... How do you guys approach the rapid improvements and innovations that are characteristic of the tech industry? How do you know what to buy and what not to buy when new and tempting products are always being released all the time? How do you guys stay happy with what you got when one day you have everything you wanted and the next day some company releases something that you (obviously) don't have because it didn't exist and, more importantly, you didn't know you wanted but now do you! (If that makes any sense). 

[LogicalDrm]

I think what you are having is the purely becuase of how you have lived your childhood. If you come from family where you get everything you want, slow upgrades when you would have money might be the pain. But if your family was tight on money or you only did get the stuff you asked sometimes, it doesn't feel that bad to wait. I mean, it does feel. But knowing I have €100-150 yearly tech budget just for PC helps. That budget allows swings if I have done more work or really have to do bigger purchases. Like getting €800 laptop.

[daniielrp]

Just know that you will never have best stuff. If you had $50,000 and bought top tier of everything for your PC, a week later something newer will come out.

 

I agree somewhat with @LoGiCalDrm in that your childhood and how you received things/cared for them etc can have an impact, but also think once you are old enough you need to take responsibility for your own thought processes and actions and not blame everything on your parents.

[Brian McKee]

I have a computer that meets my needs and until my needs change I don't really need an upgrade. It's really that simple.

[natey_g]

Yea its just buyers remorse... just enjoy your pc and all will be well. I think most pc builders feel the same way for a while. I sure did.

[vrod]

A component I for some had a small regret of buying was my 5960X cpu. It was kind of a spontaneous purchase and some time after I couldn't believe I had spent 1100€ on a damn CPU..

 

However I have started to enjoy having at as I am now running a multigamer setup, it overclocks really good at 4,5ghz and it's future proof for many years. I would probably never spend the 1700€ a 6950X costs here but even when the 5960X can't follow at some point anymore, it will probably still be good enough for my homeserver system where it can live on.

 

A 5930K could maybe have done the job as well but I'm happy with that my system will last for a long time (with exception of gpu of course).

[Ithanul]

15 hours ago, daniielrp said:

Just know that you will never have best stuff. If you had $50,000 and bought top tier of everything for your PC, a week later something newer will come out.

 

I agree somewhat with @LoGiCalDrm in that your childhood and how you received things/cared for them etc can have an impact, but also think once you are old enough you need to take responsibility for your own thought processes and actions and not blame everything on your parents.

Agree, tech is always moving.

I still remember cassettes and big heavy tube TVs, and computers with Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS terminal commands.

 

This is one trick I do.  I first see a good deal or hardware that got my interest.  I then go look at other things or do something for a few hours.  If I come back and still like the idea of buying the item.  I might buy it.  I usually do this about two to three times before buying a high price item or piece of hardware or even a game.

 

[mrchow19910319]

It is quite common to feel this way. I felt the same way. I believe every consumer felt this. 

That is what those tech company do. They make you anxious. Keep coming out new products and indirectly tell you that your current one is not the best one out there. The more you purchase, the more they profit. Apple had been doing this for a while , and it is a perfect example. Just like those iphone. Let's just be honest here iOS isn't changed much these years. Every year they said they "redesigned" everything, every year when we use it, it is the same shit. They use software update to "lure" you into buying new hardware. I am going to buy a new iphone, and right now I am really debating whether wait for the big updates or just grab a SE cos I am not a power user when it comes to cellphone. Anyway, I think the thing you need to do is quite simple: don't think about all these everyday. Do something else. Do you have school work??? Are you learning anything??? Does your family needs your help , probably do some housework?? Help your mom cook??? Or learning a new skill (like programming) online, cos it is free? One day you gonna realise that all those youtube videos those benchmarking and unboxing are just ads. Yes. Those are ads. And somehow our life got influenced by it. 

[mrchow19910319]

@Ithanul is absolutely right. Those method works. 

[WolfTech]

On 9/1/2017 at 0:51 AM, mrchow19910319 said:

It is quite common to feel this way. I felt the same way. I believe every consumer felt this. 

That is what those tech company do. They make you anxious. Keep coming out new products and indirectly tell you that your current one is not the best one out there. The more you purchase, the more they profit. Apple had been doing this for a while , and it is a perfect example. Just like those iphone. Let's just be honest here iOS isn't changed much these years. Every year they said they "redesigned" everything, every year when we use it, it is the same shit. They use software update to "lure" you into buying new hardware. I am going to buy a new iphone, and right now I am really debating whether wait for the big updates or just grab a SE cos I am not a power user when it comes to cellphone. Anyway, I think the thing you need to do is quite simple: don't think about all these everyday. Do something else. Do you have school work??? Are you learning anything??? Does your family needs your help , probably do some housework?? Help your mom cook??? Or learning a new skill (like programming) online, cos it is free? One day you gonna realise that all those youtube videos those benchmarking and unboxing are just ads. Yes. Those are ads. And somehow our life got influenced by it. 

Damn... I think you're right my friend. It's still hard to consider channels like LTT or Salazar Studio to be only ads for computer hardware. But then again those videos really appeal to the buyer in me. Maybe it's just buyer's remorse but what you said makes a lot of sense. Even tho I have an amazing rig I'm always thinking what to buy/ replace current hardware with.
And to answer your questions, I do have a lot to do, well... I'm currently on vacation but the anxiety and constant thinking is always there anyways. I pay a lot of attention to my family, have a job and study during the year, but somehow I still think a lot about this. This world is half passion and half going crazy for me, so maybe what I need to do is learn something new like you said. And be thankful for the opportunity to build a system so pretty and powerful.

[Watashi]

I deliver pizzas, and currently my girlfriend isn't working, so I'm tight on cash aswell. I like to set up my rig in a manner that I can still play new games in, (even if in a year or so it won't be in ultra). I've found games don't have to be completely maxed out, I don't need a 800 dollar monitor, or an 1000 dollar CPU to enhance my PC experience. I look at buying the right parts for my rigs, as a project. I research current things on the market, and what has a good value. I also try to but my girlfriend before my PC in all aspects, especially financially. If I take care of my priorities first, I'm not so anxious. I hope this helped someone! This is an awesome thread, and I appreciate all of the honesty I've read so far

[Coldfuson]

Honestly I find that getting the best value proposition out of your components helps A LOT. I find myself always looking for the next big thing, but I also make sure that I save enough for a decent component that won't be out of date anytime soon. Luckily Intel has made this super easy for me since I bought my 4930k. There's not too much on the market that I would prefer, and I really couldn't care about any more CPU performance. 

GPU's are a little bit of a different story with incremental performance always creeping upward. So long as I can play my games maxed out @ 1080p I'm happy.

[mrchow19910319]

4 hours ago, WolfTech said:

 

Yup. That day I had a little debate with someone on reddit about impulse purchasing. I said everyone does that sometimes. It is just that you need to set a limit. Like I did not check it up on wikipedia or something, but I believe that even though going out with your friends then you stop at 7-11 bought a big gulp is considered : impulse purchase. It is just like the pocket money your parents gave you when you were a kid. I said the most important thing is that you have a budget, if you earning $3000 a month, do not set your "pocket money" to be $2500. Don't laugh. A lot of people do that. Set it more like $200. Or even less. Then the redditor said he disagree. He said, if you cannot stop your impulse purchase, you should see a doctor. I think he is insane. The thing is that it is quite difficult to set a balance. If you don't spend at all, you will end up spending more. I don't know about you, I have met someone who has this kind of mindset, he always, like always claims that he is poor, he needs money, (whether it is true we are not sure), he is not as wealthy as me or other common friends we have. And in the end when he has money, he always blow it away. These things/habit can occur to everyone of us, it is just that you need to set a comfortable limit that you knew that you are enjoying your life, but at the same time, save a little bit of money for your future. For me it is always not about whether I need the product or not. It is about something else. When I am upset/ sad about something, I want to spend money. 

[WolfTech]

Performance wise... some upgrades are not really justifiable at all (those are the ones I do not pay attention to), like getting a beastly M.2 NVMe SSD when you already have a reguar SATA3 SSD and you wouldn't notice any difference anyway. But the other ones... man do I think about them.

I've read that it could be buyer's remorse, where you save money for a long time to purchase something but that said product doesn't meet your expectations and you start thinking that you've wasted your money. Some components of my build I do not regret at all (like the PSU, SSD, case, CPU and cooler) but some others (primarily having to do with aesthetics but also with functionality) I do.

Given the fact that a lot of really cool products haven't been released yet makes me wonder if I picked a bad time to build a new system, since CES 2017 was just around the corner by the time I had built it.

A year ago, getting an i7 6700k was the sure way to go, but now with Kaby Lake and Ryzen (specially when the new trend in game engines seems to be the ability to take advantage of more than 4 cores) ready to be launched shortly it really makes me wonder about my decisions.

So to sum it up... I don't think my problem is with every component of my build (nor with the ever-so improving hardware industry) but maybe the time to drop a large amount of cash was not december. It's my first year in this PC world so I take it as a lesson but I'd like to know if anyone had been through a similar thought pattern in their years of PC building.

 

[Watashi]

10 hours ago, WolfTech said:

Performance wise... some upgrades are not really justifiable at all (those are the ones I do not pay attention to), like getting a beastly M.2 NVMe SSD when you already have a reguar SATA3 SSD and you wouldn't notice any difference anyway. But the other ones... man do I think about them.

I've read that it could be buyer's remorse, where you save money for a long time to purchase something but that said product doesn't meet your expectations and you start thinking that you've wasted your money. Some components of my build I do not regret at all (like the PSU, SSD, case, CPU and cooler) but some others (primarily having to do with aesthetics but also with functionality) I do.

Given the fact that a lot of really cool products haven't been released yet makes me wonder if I picked a bad time to build a new system, since CES 2017 was just around the corner by the time I had built it.

A year ago, getting an i7 6700k was the sure way to go, but now with Kaby Lake and Ryzen (specially when the new trend in game engines seems to be the ability to take advantage of more than 4 cores) ready to be launched shortly it really makes me wonder about my decisions.

So to sum it up... I don't think my problem is with every component of my build (nor with the ever-so improving hardware industry) but maybe the time to drop a large amount of cash was not december. It's my first year in this PC world so I take it as a lesson but I'd like to know if anyone had been through a similar thought pattern in their years of PC building.

 

This recently happened to me too, and I look at it like this : Hardware is going to be ever-changing, and my PC does more than enough to make me happy. I try to be happy that the industry is making strides forward, it shows overall progression in human innovation. I also try to just accept that the fact that I would be spending a ridiculous amount of money for minimal upgrades   

[Spudbilly]

Awesome topic.  I used to always thrift store and Craigslist parts for PC for a long time. I was very satisfied with little on a small budget. Then I actually started to have a large family budget. I built myself a PC. Got buyers remorse...Then got obsessed with trying to perfect it. It came at a price though. At the time I was tight on money and I started to use credit to buy components. Credit that I could not pay off. Before I knew it...I was 1300$ in the hole for PC crap I did not need. Some may think that is not a lot of debt, but it actually is...Especially with credit card interest rates. Needless to say...I sold that system and fortunately got most of that money back and payed the rest off. Now I have built a new system that actually meets my needs and not my obsession that only cost me $400 that I budgeted for. I am very happy with my PC and other home network system. It also helped me learn to just budget a small savings per month. Whenever I see a need tech wise or an itch for something cool...I now have the money annually to buy whatever it is. I also learned that my interest in tech is not in the consumerism of it but the community. I have started using my knowledge on forums, started a youth eSports league, and have ambitions to start an overclocking club out of the eSports league. 

 

I learned the hard way by making stupid decisions. Please don't do the same. It's just a computer. 

[mrchow19910319]

45 minutes ago, Spudbilly said:

It also helped me learn to just budget a small savings per month.

When I have a little bit of money, I save a small portion of it 1st. Then with everything I left, I deduct those amount that I have to spend. (On food, rent etc) Then I have my pocket money. And this last part is for me, myself.