How often do you rebuild your PC?

[E-Waster]

Built my current PC about 3 or so years ago and was planning to upgrade it in the next year, but GPU prices killed that plan. Assuming that they won't be coming down anytime soon, I will most likely upgrade in about 2-3 years time. So for me it will be every 5 to 6 years I upgrade.

[Donut417]

On 6/11/2021 at 4:39 PM, MysticLTT said:

Talking about new Mobo/CPU/RAM. I used to do it every 10 years, then 5, now I'm like fuck it, and just do it every year. 

 

 

4 to 6 years is probably a good place to start. It also depends what your doing. My Plex server runs on a i5 3570K and it works great for that. For gaming Id say 4 to 6 years. With the possibility of GPU, RAM, and Storage upgrades during that time. Upgrading every year isn't worth it. Generally new CPU's dont have enough performance increases to warrant a upgrade to a new platform. 

[Daethz]

Whenever I find a game I cant run on higher settings with good fps.

[SansVarnic]

Depends, I build with 7-10 years in mind, but after 5 year I tend to do minor upgrades as the needs arise.

But, I have built new rigs every 10 years on the average.

[XnonXte]

Personally I just Rebuild my PC Whenever I wanted to, Because y'know dust gonna build up and need some maintenance...

Other than that I'll keep patient until the CPU Thermal paste or GPU are basically disappear

 

If it ain't broke I'll wont fix it

[Giganthrax]

It mostly depends on whether the CPU is bottlenecking my games. I currently have a Ryzen 3700x, which is the same CPU that's in the new consoles, so I don't expect to replace it for the next 5-6 years.

 

Hell, I may even end up holding onto it for the entirety of this new console generation. We haven't even seen any games that actually make full use of PS5/new xbox hardware, and I doubt we even will in the foreseeable future. 

[kaiju_wars]

I used to upgrade every two years.  Regardless.

 

Now I just use what I have and call it good.  I don't game on my PC as much as I used to, so my current hardware meets my requirements.  

[NineEyeRon]

About 7-9 years so far, across 4 systems.

[Tylerr64]

Whenever I feel the need to upgrade 

[Totallycasual]

Once upon a time i'd upgrade as soon as new GPU's or CPU's hit the market but these days i don't care, i plan to cling to my current PC until it can no longer run AAA titles at reasonable FPS. 

[MultiGamerClub]

On 6/14/2021 at 2:01 AM, Daethz said:

Whenever I find a game I cant run on higher settings with good fps.

This was me, had a HD 7700. Then R9 380. Then 1070.. Now a 2080 Super.. Still havent met a game that doesnt like High or Ultra unless its been a really big game.

 

unlike wow that runs like shit

[Kisai]

On 6/11/2021 at 1:39 PM, MysticLTT said:

Talking about new Mobo/CPU/RAM. I used to do it every 10 years, then 5, now I'm like fuck it, and just do it every year. 

 

 

Well between 1980 and 2000, every year leapfrogged the previous, so at most you could hold onto a pc and still use it was 1988 to 1994 (386 to win95 release) assuming you had VGA. From 1994 to 2008 you could hold on to a Pentium, Pentium II/III/IV until windows Vista.

 

After that point, performance plateau’d on a per-core basis, and even retrograde, due to the abandonment of netburst. So C2D, and quadcores post-2008 and windows 7 have pretty much served any necessary use until windows 10, in which you then needed 16GB RAM and a quad core on Haswell or later.

 

Sure, some people will try to minmax their computer upgrade schedule, but that usually ends up with entire replacements of everything, rather than 50% upgrades.

 

The rule was, ever since the 386, never spend more than half the amount of money upgrading if you can replace the entire thing. Which due to the chip shortages, means a prebuilt ends up being cheaper for all but the cheapest game systems.

[CryingWimp]

I use to upflip used PC parts and slowly have a higher spec PC over time. I'd change a cpu/gpu every few weeks to months. Sometimes just for fun though to try different stuff. My current plan is 4 years ish for my current CPU/RAM/MB especially since DDR5 and a new platform is coming.

 

Depends how big of a jump new stuff is. Strictly speaking CPUs, there wasn't much reason when it was 4cores/8threads for a long time. Once 6 cores came out, those lasted till now. So there hasn't been much point for a new CPU before 4 years unless your one of the unlucky 4core/4thread people just before the first Ryzen and 8700k launched. After about 4-6 years I notice that PCs are not as responsive as new stuff. A 8700k will show its age with an RTX 3000 card in the newest AAA games but be 100% perfect with an older GPU in anything pre 2020.

 

Total cost of ownership is something most people don't think about either, resale tanks after so long, there is a point at which it can be cheaper long term to upgrade. Few people actually make it long enough to make just keeping it and not selling actually save more over upgrading with decent resale.

 

I see a lot of friends and even myself upgrade sooner because we didn't spend $100 more now, especially true of very similarly priced CPUs but with very different performance. 3900x are reselling for more than the MSRP difference of a 3800x, making it cheaper to have owned the 3900x over the past 2 years if your selling and upgrading now. I bet a 5900x will sell for the $100 difference over a 5800x also in 2-3 years. 

 

Owning an i7 over an i5 for the entire time they were 4/4 vs 4/8 was no more expensive after resale. It was $100 more upfront and you could sell them for $100 more within 3 years. So if you ungraded before it was super old it was free to have an i7 vs i5 that entire time. Even at 5-6 years they still usually resold for $50-$75 more than the I5.

 

If you live near microcenter a 10850k is $319 and 5600x are $279, I'd bet everything I own that a 10 core I9 10850k will resell for at least $40 more than a 6 core 5600x in 2-3 years making it cheaper to have owned the faster 10850k and potentially even prevent an upgrade cycle making it even cheaper.

 

People who understand what all the hardware is and its price/performance can save a lot of money long term thinking strategically. Like the 10850k vs 5600x example, for $40 more now you'd spend less long term and in this case actually have a faster PC the whole time.

[Bombastinator]

17 minutes ago, CryingWimp said:

I use to upflip used PC parts and slowly have a higher spec PC over time. I'd change a cpu/gpu every few weeks to months. Sometimes just for fun though to try different stuff.

 

Depends how big of a jump new stuff is. Strictly speaking CPUs, there wasn't much reason when it was 4cores/8threads for a long time. Once 6 cores came out, those lasted till now. So there hasn't been much point for a new CPU before 4 years unless your one of the unlucky 4core/4thread people just before the first Ryzen and 8700k launched. After about 4-6 years I notice that PCs are not as responsive as new stuff. A 8700k will show its age in the newest AAA games but be 100% perfect with a slower GPU in anything pre 2020.

 

Total cost of ownership is something most people don't think about either, resale tanks after so long, there is a point at which it can be cheaper long term to upgrade. Few people actually make it long enough to make just keeping it and not selling actually save more over upgrading with decent resale.

 

I see a lot of friends upgrade sooner because they didn't spend $100 more now, especially true of very similarly priced CPUs but with very different performance. Owning an i7 over an i5 for the entire time they were 4/4 vs 4/8 was no more expensive after resale. It was $100 more upfront and you could sell them for $100 more within 3 years. So if you ungraded before it was super old it was free to have an i7 vs i5 that entire time. Even at 5-6 years they still usually resold for $50-$75 more than the I5.

 

3900x are reselling for more than the MSRP difference of a 3800x, making it cheaper to have owned the 3900x over the past 2 years if your selling and upgrading now. I bet a 5900x will sell for the $100 difference over a 5800x also in 2-3 years. 

 

If you live near microcenter a 10850k is $319, and 5600x are $279 I'd bet everything I own that a $10850k will resell for at least $40 more than a 5600x in 2-3 years.

 

People who understand what all the hardware is and its price/performance can save a lot of money long term thinking strategically.

Depends on how costly doing the resale is.  For some going through the rigamorole of listing and shipping has its own costs as well which may actually be prohibitive depending on lifestyle.

[Bitter]

As infrequently as possible!

I used a Pentium4 OC'd and 6800 Ultra for like at least 7 years I think, maybe longer. It got upgrades from what it was, different mobo at one point cause one broke, upgraded the CPU to Hyperthreading, FX 5700 XT to a 6800 Ultra, more ram, from single PATA HDD to SATA RAID, etc.

I have a Core2Duo E8400 OC'd and a few different video cards and from HDD RAID to SSD, that I used for like almost 10 years.

Shortest used system was an i5 4590 and a RX580 8GB, used for about a year maybe off and on.

HTPC was running an i3 4130 and GTX 960 for several years before I upgraded to a re-socketed mobile i7 and 16GB RAM.

 

Basically, if it ain't broke and it runs what I need it to run I don't mess with it. Do I want to upgrade and tinker and mess around, heck yes I do! I try to limit myself to upgrading only when I need to upgrade. Like I can't play the games or do the things I want to do because the hardware isn't capable anymore.

[freeagent]

From 2002-2011 it seemed like I was buying something new every six months. In 2012 we had our first son.. I used that computer I built in 2010 up until 2017 when my brother hooked me up with his old Z77 system that was sitting in his closet. I used it as my main rig until Black Friday week 2020 :D

 

That Z77 is now a school/game rig for my oldest boy. It is pretty soft compared to this one.. I have a 5600X on the shelf so I might have to build it.

 

But I did buy a 3600XT, 5600X, and 5900X since November :D

 

All of those are much, much faster than my 3770K and my X5690 lol..

 

Like holy shit fast..

[CryingWimp]

8 minutes ago, freeagent said:

From 2002-2011 it seemed like I was buying something new every six months. In 2012 we had our first son.. I used that computer I built in 2010 up until 2017 when my brother hooked me up with his old Z77 system that was sitting in his closet. I used it as my main rig until Black Friday week 2020

 

That Z77 is now a school/game rig for my oldest boy. It is pretty soft compared to this one.. I have a 5600X on the shelf so I might have to build it.

 

But I did buy a 3600XT, 5600X, and 5900X since November

 

All of those are much, much faster than my 3770K and my X5690 lol..

 

Like holy shit fast..

Zen3 is sooo fast. Even compared to my Ryzen 3600 in games that were locked at 144hz the zen3 chip feels night and day better, smoother for some reason. Spinning my screen in WoW and other easy to run games is instantly noticeably smoother even though both were locked at 144hz. I asked my brother and he instantly noticed it as well.

Its not every game, but it is instantly noticeably smoother in WoW, RuneScape, Cities Skylines etc.

[Ravendarat]

I bought a 5800x but will probably upgrade to am5 provided it doesnt have launch issues

[Mr.Cellkill]

From 2000 - 2011 i upgraded every year.

Now i really don't care anymore.

 

My system is from 2011 (i7-2600K) Even my PSU is old (2009 Corsair HX850W)

[CT854]

The PC I built before my current rig lasted me 6 years. My main reason for upgrading was because it was starting to falter in games I spent a lot of time playing. I feel like 6-8 years is probably a good timeframe to complete a Computer of Theseus cycle. I'm always going to try and add bells and whistles to my computer, though, since they tend to be cheap and add some aesthetic value to my rig.

 

Right now I'm thinking that if I end up taking up video editing and have money to spare, I'll pick up a 5900X so I can ride out the entirety of AM5, and hopefully by 2024 we'll see a line of GPUs that has strong gaming performance at 4K in time for me to move into a new place big enough to accommodate a 4K TV...

[Bombastinator]

25 minutes ago, CT854 said:

The PC I built before my current rig lasted me 6 years. My main reason for upgrading was because it was starting to falter in games I spent a lot of time playing. I feel like 6-8 years is probably a good timeframe to complete a Computer of Theseus cycle. I'm always going to try and add bells and whistles to my computer, though, since they tend to be cheap and add some aesthetic value to my rig.

 

Right now I'm thinking that if I end up taking up video editing and have money to spare, I'll pick up a 5900X so I can ride out the entirety of AM5, and hopefully by 2024 we'll see a line of GPUs that has strong gaming performance at 4K in time for me to move into a new place big enough to accommodate a 4K TV...

It’s a bit long actually.  The last PC cycle lasted longer than average because intel could’nt get its thumb out with nodes and was so far ahead of AMD they had little reason to bother. 

[CT854]

17 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

It’s a bit long actually.  The last PC cycle lasted longer than average because intel could’nt get its thumb out with nodes and was so far ahead of AMD they had little reason to bother. 

Ehh, you're right in that respect. I'm interested to see if AMD becomes the Intel of the last decade and kneecaps their AM5 socket just because they're so far ahead. I don't think it'll happen, but if it does it'll at least help me justify not upgrading for a while.

[Touch My Hamm]

Depending on a few factors. i usually go 2-3 generations or if prices are good or I find a deal. while searching for parts with the shortage I got a few smaller retailers sell me at msrp so I didnt want to waste a good deal lol.

[Bombastinator]

9 minutes ago, CT854 said:

Ehh, you're right in that respect. I'm interested to see if AMD becomes the Intel of the last decade and kneecaps their AM5 socket just because they're so far ahead. I don't think it'll happen, but if it does it'll at least help me justify not upgrading for a while.

I don’t have a good idea about how far ahead they are.  Their apparent technological lead isn’t doing them as much good as it could sales wise. They seem to be technologically less ahead of intel than intel was when AMD released bulldozer. They’re also still a market minority though they’ve grabbed a little bit.  AMD is less close to parity  with Intel than they could be sales wise.  This seems to have a lot to do with how many chips they can make.  AMD chips are going up in price simply because of scarcity faster than intels are because they don’t have a production volume problem the way AMD does. This is making intel chips that normally wouldn’t be competitive a real threat.  If the 11700 cost way more than a 5600 it wouldn’t be even considered but if you can get an 11700 for the same price as a 5600 it actually wins. 

[CT854]

31 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I don’t have a good idea about how far ahead they are.  Their apparent technological lead isn’t doing them as much good as it could sales wise. They seem to be technologically less ahead of intel than intel was when AMD released bulldozer. They’re also still a market minority though they’ve grabbed a little bit.  AMD is less close to parity  with Intel than they could be sales wise.  This seems to have a lot to do with how many chips they can make.  AMD chips are going up in price simply because of scarcity faster than intels are because they don’t have a production volume problem the way AMD does. This is making intel chips that normally wouldn’t be competitive a real threat.  If the 11700 cost way more than a 5600 it wouldn’t be even considered but if you can get an 11700 for the same price as a 5600 it actually wins. 

Yeah, that's true, it's all up in the air mainly because of AMD's production issues. Maybe they'll get solved when fab capacity increases over the next few years, but that still remains to be seen.