How often do you upgrade your PC?

[Bismut]

I was wondering how often you upgrade your computer (especially CPU) after Linus mentioned that an in-socket upgrade wouldn't be possible with the motherboard used in today's live stream.

Next gen upgrades just feel like too small of an increment to me, much like I wouldn't buy a 4080 if I had a working 3080. Did any of you upgrade from an i5-12600k to an i5 13600k or something along those lines? I'm genuinely curious and would love to hear why if you did.

I did upgrade from a Pentium G4560 to an i5 6400 (both Skylake) a few years back, but I can't imagine that being a common path to take. Something like an R5 2600 to a R5 5600 seems more realistic, as the leap is quite large.

[Levent]

8 to 10 years.

[Kaas0001]

I recenlty upgraded from an I3-4160 to a I5-4570S lmao

So in my case after 8 years

[RONOTHAN##]

Generally for me it seems to be every 6 months to a year (sometimes sooner, but that's the average) my main system goes through some sort of upgrade. To be fair, my system is being constantly upgraded overtime, so that 6 months to a year figure is usually for things like getting new RAM, getting new storage, getting a new CPU, etc., I'm not building an entirely new system every 6 months. 

 

It's not something I'd generally recommend, it's not like I really need the performance increases a lot of the time, but at the same time I really like hardware and can generally sell my old stuff for a good price so it's not like I'm spending a ton of money on it and it gives me something to do in my free time (generally speaking I enjoy tinkering with hardware more than I enjoy using it for games or anything like that). 

[Kaas0001]

1 minute ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Generally for me it seems to be every 6 months to a year (sometimes sooner, but that's the average) my main system goes through some sort of upgrade. To be fair, my system is being constantly upgraded overtime, so that 6 months to a year figure is usually for things like getting new RAM, getting new storage, getting a new CPU, etc., I'm not building an entirely new system every 6 months. 

 

It's not something I'd generally recommend, it's not like I really need the performance increases a lot of the time, but at the same time I really like hardware and can generally sell my old stuff for a good price so it's not like I'm spending a ton of money on it and it gives me something to do in my free time (generally speaking I enjoy tinkering with hardware more than I enjoy using it for games or anything like that). 

I too like hardware, but im too poor to afford it haha

[mononymous]

cpu
2020: i7 2700K to r5 3600

Wanted more ram and better performance per clock than a i7 6700K

Previous upgrade was from a i7 3930K in 2014 because affordable x79 mitx boards did not exist yet

 

gpu

2021: GTX 1070 Ti to RTX 3070Ti

Couldn't play games in 4K well.

Previous upgrade was in 2018 and it was from a GTX780. 

Upgraded so I can play modern titles with a 1440p high refresh rate monitor

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, CheeseOnion said:

I too like hardware, but im too poor to afford it haha

The used market around me is also kinda insane for how cheap stuff goes (one of my better scores is a RTX 2080 for $450 a month after release), so that's a big factor in how I'm able to do that, it's not like I'm going out and buying a new $700+ GPU every year, only time I ever buy new if for CPUs and storage as that market has been moving fast enough that used CPUs are usually a worse value than new ones, and I've had enough used HDDs die on me to not trust them.

 

There's nothing wrong with low end hardware either, a lot of the stuff in my hardware collection is older hardware since older stuff generally is more fun to tinker with as a) it's cheaper and you don't feel bad if you accidentally break it by shoving too much voltage into it and b) it has more headroom with it, so you get more scaling when you do mess with it. If you ever want a cheap way to mess with hardware for say overclocking, look at X58 gear. Decent motherboards are pretty cheap (something like an X58 Sabertooth can be had for a little over $50 if you look around enough), decent overclocking RAM can be had for pretty cheap (Samsung D die OEM sticks can be had for about $5 a stick if you look around hard enough), and CPUs for the platform are $10 a piece on average, so you can get a very capable system to mess around with for under $100 and go for some HWBot scores with it. 

[Kaas0001]

The Netherlands doesnt often have insane deals than in other parts of the world to be honest.

I once saw a GTX 1080 go for around 550 USD, which is insane to me.

 

I know Low/mid range is also fine, but do to the monthly obligatory payments and life itself I have to save up a long time to get something new

 

I'll get there in the end though, eventually

[Kilrah]

Still running my 8 year old 5960X as daily driver.

Been wanting to upgrade for 2 years at this point, but eh... it works.

[Needfuldoer]

My first non-shared PC was cobbled together out of parts ca. 2000. (I think in its final form it had a 600 mhz Slot 1 Pentium III in a 440BX chipset motherboard.)

 

Then I built a bargain-basement, low budget Socket 478 Celeron PC around 2004.

 

When I wanted to play real PC games, I built a Core 2 Quad Q9550 / GTX 260 Core 216 PC around 2008.

 

That got long in the tooth, and I found a prebuilt i7 6700k / GTX 960 PC around 2016 for less than its components would have cost. It's still plenty fast most of the time, but it just squeaks by for VR on an original Rift.

 

Finally, this holiday season I replaced that with a Ryzen 5 5600 and 3060 ti as the 'gaming rig', but the Skylake PC is still the "desktop" for non-gaming tasks.

 

So, I replace my "main" desktop about every 8 years or when the software I want to run outgrows it.

[PDifolco]

Used to upgrade everything every 4/5 years, when I bought SI prebuilts or laptops, since 2019 went DIY route and I've done partial upgrades every 1 or 2 years, GPU then monitor then CPU then new SSD then GPU then monitor etc

 

[Mihle]

When I feel I want/need it.

Currently I personally owned 2 desktops with 3 GPUs.

First I had i5 3570k and Radeon 7970 GHz edition.

Then the GPU died and I replaced it with an RX 580.

Then I got a new PC with R5 3600 and RX 5700 XT and sold the previous one. 

And that last one is the one I still use.

[bezza...]

i mean i only built my first pc a year ago but i have still upgraded it quite a bit. u have added a 2tb hdd 16 more gigs of ram and a 256 ssd that i got given fr free i used the igpu on my 5600g for 6 months then got a 2080 used but the power delivery on that went bang so im back on the igpu

[Stahlmann]

Personally i only consider an upgrade once the performance is not up to what i need or want. I have no set time window. If my 5600X still performs good enough to drive my 4K games then it'll stay 10+ years without a second thought.

 

The same applies to my 3080. While it's fairly new i will likely upgrade it with the next generation, because there are significant performance improvements to be had. And as my monitor is 4K 120Hz, a better GPU will deliver a better experience.

[johnno23]

First PC built 1994

second built 1995

Third was 1997

this was quite conservative for the time as many of my friends would rebuild on a yearly timetable as the development was moving so fast.

It lasted me 3 years but that was due to being too poor to upgrade as costs were so prohibitive back then. Memory and hard drives went thru the roof costwise.

4th was 2000 

5th was 2002 this one was simply a bad timing and bad choices that I made at the time in 2000

then it was 2003 possibly begin 2004

I managed to remain on that PC for maybe 3 years a major rebuild 2008 which lasted me till

Ivy bridge was released. 

Ivy bridge in 2012 was the game changer as that PC still works to this day

I built a new Gaming PC in 2018 i9 8700k which lasted me until my last upgrade 2022 AMD 5900x this build was not required to be hoinest but I wanted to run a 3080 and decided to go AMD as it was so well reviewed and it efficiency was something that peaked my interest, Final result being that the more I read and researched the more that itch to go from intel to AMD and see for myself what all the raving was about became.. to this day no regrets. 

the 8700k is now used by my wife and still going strong so over the years the upgrades went from frequent to extended periods of time due to the quality of production and that the hardware was and still is quite often outpacing the software side of things.

I expect to use my present build till 2026 and if I rebuild before then it is only due to the "damm thats so cool and such good value syndrome"

 

I generally go over budget with my builds at the outset and over the years outside of improvements to hard drives later SSD's etc I have never swapped out GPU's or CPU's

Just taken the best I could afford and paired with the best MB I could afford. I also began planning each new build maybe 3 months in advance so never did a panic buy or prebuilt.

Macs and Consoles are the exception as they just work til they die. My consoles all died over time but I still run a 2010 27 Imac and older 2008 pwerbook which I use as an MP3 server connected via optical to my Hifi and have a 2018 mac mini for my design work as it still works sufficiently for the type of work I do when required.

My PC's were all built for gaming and entertainment as I got tired of Consoles red rings of death etc etc plus the mac looks at most games and simply faints.

The monitor side of things I used the Imac 27" till 2018 as it has the ability to switch inputs from Mac to PC so it was hooked up to a PC and simple one button push I could swap between working on the mac and playing on the PC. That was made redundant with my 2018 mac mini and the purchase of the Dell 34 inch widesceen 60hz 3440 1440p ips ultra sharp which is now at my wife's desk as I upgraded to the LG 34 inch nano ips screen 144hz. I see no reason to swap out the monitor for many years to come as 144hz is perfect for my needs.....fluid gaming no stutters and do not play in any competitive form.

 

 

 

[Latvian Video]

I upgrade mine whenever I feel it isnt performing well enough for my needs. 

[Latvian Video]

1 hour ago, CheeseOnion said:

The Netherlands doesnt often have insane deals than in other parts of the world to be honest.

I once saw a GTX 1080 go for around 550 USD, which is insane to me.

 

I know Low/mid range is also fine, but do to the monthly obligatory payments and life itself I have to save up a long time to get something new

 

I'll get there in the end though, eventually

Was that during the shortages? as right now a 1080 is 150eur

[Kaas0001]

5 minutes ago, Latvian Video said:

Was that during the shortages? as right now a 1080 is 150eur

Even before the shortages

 

And maybe I' M the cheapskate here, idk

[Latvian Video]

6 minutes ago, CheeseOnion said:

Even before the shortages

 

And maybe I' M the cheapskate here, idk

No, the prices just are weird there. my brother got a 2080 super for 450eur at the end of 2020

[Kaas0001]

You need to be so lucky to get a decent if not a good deal these days I feel

[avidgamer121]

it depends

 

i got sandy i5 back when it launched then run it for several years whilst upgrading ram (4>8>16GB) and storage, got 3rd gen i5 then i7 down the line before upgraded to socket 1151 3 years ago.

[trag1c]

7 hours ago, Kilrah said:

Still running my 8 year old 5960X as daily driver.

Been wanting to upgrade for 2 years at this point, but eh... it works.

I had a 5820k up until I got a 5900x on launch. Those haswell-E processors were unreal for the time. I really wish the HEDT market still existed with processors that don't require your first born child or kidney as payment. 

[Vishera]

I usually upgrade every 3~5 years.

2011 - Intel Core i3 2100, 6GB 1333MHz CL9 DDR3, AMD RADEON HD 6750 1GB GDDR5

2016 - AMD FX 8320E@4.2GHz, 12GB 1333MHz CL9 DDR3, AMD RADEON R9 380 4GB GDDR5

2019 - AMD Ryzen 5 2600@4.1GHz, 16GB 3433MHz CL16 DDR4, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660@2085MHz/5000MHz

2023 - AMD Ryzen 7 5700X@4.65GHz, 16GB 3933MHz CL16, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660@2085MHz/5000MHz (no GPU upgrade because prices suck)

[Radium_Angel]

dual Xeon e5-2643 v2 system

10 years old, never upgraded.

Never needed to, the CPUs are powerful enough for everything I do.

GPU is a different matter.

[ewitte]

Depends on what comes out something gets replaced every 4-24 months.  I'm not sure my last change consists of an "upgrade" or new machine as it was

- New MB

- New RAM

- NEW CPU

- replaced one of the SSD drives (2TB with 7.68TB)

 

Last year replaced.

- GPU

- Power supply