Has Anyone Here Been Using the Same PC for 8 Years?

[Emillio]

Hello, I'm just curious. Is anybody here in this forum still using the same PC from 8 years ago? This means, you build or buy your PC 8 years ago and are still using it with no upgrades whatsoever. So, the same specs 8 years ago up until now and you didn't change anything. If there is, what are your specs and how does it perform in gaming? The reason that I ask this is because I want to build a PC that is still good even 10 years from now with no upgrades. So, I need some proof or story from some of you guys who owned a PC 8-10 years ago and still use it up until now with no upgrades.

[Shimejii]

There is no one size fits all, it all comes down to what games you play.

 

I can use my 2012 Laptop for Counter strike source and such no problem, but its not gonna run the latest games. You should be able to use a 4090 etc if it even lasts 10 years, but its impossible to say what exactly games will use.

 

Nvidia Pushes devs to make game engines harder to run with vastly more complex Polygons, lighting (Ray tracing), Path tracing etc. What works today will be a lot different then the game engines in  a decade, unless you are EA games for their sports franchises, or Activision for COD games.

 

Buy what you need to use Today, and see what happens as it ages and what hardware requirements become.

[starsmine]

with no upgrades?

I used a llano laptop from 2011 to 2019 where I replaced it with a zen 1, but it was not the most usable thing at the end of its life, the fan had gone out a few years ago so I had one strapped on. But even then, I did upgrade the ram on that thing. 

Platforms can last a decade, my dad went from an apple IIC to a pentium 1 to a pentium 4 to a i7 920 that he still dailies to this very day, but he has upgraded every single one of those PCs before they were replaced (usually ram). 
I ran a i7 2600k untill I upgraded to zen 4, but I constantly upgraded the PC over time with new memory, new GPUs, SSD, fans, a new PSU.

A PC you ship of thesies it. You upgrade a part at a time. a full build should be uncommon. I don't get people who do that regularly. The only time you do a full new build is when you are on a new platform and everything changed. 

[Eigenvektor]

Someone doing it in the past doesn't guarantee it'll also work for your current or future PC. Buy whatever you can afford, then simply use it as long as it works for you. There's no point in trying to predict the future.

 

Love or hate RT, it's going to get more relevant in the future. There's no saying if current cards, even the RTX 4090, will be able to drive RT in a few years. Maybe future games are going to require additional hardware capabilities it doesn't have and make it obsolete.

 

Likewise VRAM requirements are going up. If you had a card with 8 GB of VRAM, you might've been fine for the past 10+ years, but right now you'd better have 16 GB if you intend to keep the card a few years. Who knows how long until more is required?

[starsmine]

5 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Likewise VRAM requirements are going up. If you had a card with 8 GB of VRAM, you might've been fine for the past 10+ years, but right now you'd better have 16 GB if you intend to keep the cards a few years. Who knows how long until more is required?

as soon as the ps6 comes out with 24GB of GDDR7 and no one is making games for the ps4/xbox series S any more. 

When 16GB is the "low" end last gen consoles for your game dev, why even make a game that fits inside less then 10GB of vram. 

[Eigenvektor]

27 minutes ago, starsmine said:

as soon as the ps6 comes out with 24GB of GDDR7 and no one is making games for the ps4/xbox series S any more. 

What makes you sure it'll (only) have 24 GB? Besides the PS4 only has 8 GB and there's still games out there that want 16 GB for maximum settings.

 

32 minutes ago, starsmine said:

A PC you ship of thesies it. You upgrade a part at a time. a full build should be uncommon. I don't get people who do that regularly. The only time you do a full new build is when you are on a new platform and everything changed. 

*Ship of Theseus. Sure, AM4 made that a viable option, but in a lot of cases a CPU upgrade also requires a new board. Which might mandate a RAM swap. At that point you can just upgrade everything (excluding storage). Easiest upgrade is generally only the GPU, possibly additional RAM and/or storage.

 

~edit: It really depends on what you have. My previous PC (2013–2021) had an i5 3570K. By the time a CPU upgrade was warranted, there was no worthwhile upgrade to be had on that platform. And DDR3 had been replaced by DDR4. Likewise, right now I have an R9 5900x on AM4. There's not much point upgrading to another Zen 3 CPU. So my only option would be to go AM5 and DDR5…

[manikyath]

making a pc that'll last you 10 years is more about how your needs change over those 10 years than about 'future-proofing' your build.

[kitnoman]

I believed the longest I held out before upgrading was 6yrs. But I still have some components that come from the older builds, like psu, fans, ssd, harddisk and air cooler and AIO.

If you want to keep your computer longer. Here are the few things you should consider. Don't cheapen out on PSU. Get at least 1000w, as those are the ones that has 10-15yrs of warranty. Also unless of an accident or manufacture issue, the first thing that would die on a PSU is it's fan. And depending on your skill and knowledge, you might not want to open and service it yourself.  Having a higher wattage rating on the same make and model, usually means better components. So when a PSU isn't pushes to it's limits, like only around 50-60% or lower consistent power draw. That means that it won't heat up often and the fans don't have to spin faster and would live longer. Another is to get large storages, specially on ssds, as their lifespan are depending on how much you write and rewrite on them. So having a large storage, means you don't have to uninstall or delete games or programs often or ever.

As for the GPU and CPU. Get the most number of cores and highest number of vram. Why? because, it might not have immediate effect of performance, it would definitely delay the usage requirements, when future games and applications, are more stable or require more cpu cores or more vram. The same way a rx 580 4gb is losing out on 580 8gb on games that requires more ram, even when the chip itself are almost the same. As for CPU, check the  old intel xeon chips, despite being as old as 2nd to 6th gen, they generally still performs better on modern games and application because they had 8-12cores compare to the i7 of those time that only had 4cores. Also learn about undervolting your gpu and cpu, so the silicon would live longer and fans don't have to work harder. Even if that means lower the performance to like 5% than default settings.

You also need the mentally that you need to lower the graphic settings for new titles. And the number factor for a 10yr plan, is really driver support. Take a look at 1080 and 1080ti now. It still a great card for games that were release 2017 or older. But for every new game that comes out, it's been losing to even 2060/2060s and not even 2070s. But those 20 series cards are still being destroyed on older titles. This is a personal opinion, but I truly believe though nvidia still support the 10 series, they are not optimizing their drivers for 10 series as much as they should. With lower your settings, this also means that you should stay away with 4k resolution monitors. Because in 5-8years time, you would probably be gaming at 1080p or 1440p on new titles that would be coming out, using a 4090 or 7900xtx to game it playable. So get 1440p instead.

Lastly, don't get tired of cleaning your hardware regularly. At least once a month or minimum of once every 3 months. Why? depending on the environment and humidity, prolong dust on your hardware can cause corrosion. Ever wondered by you can keep a gpu look like brand new, even after using it for 3-5yrs by just regular cleaning. But if you don't clean it for like 6months, a year or even longer for some, when you do clean them, you would notice the edges, screws or heatsink would have rust on them.

[Zodiark1593]

Just now, manikyath said:

making a pc that'll last you 10 years is more about how your needs change over those 10 years than about 'future-proofing' your build.

Pretty much this. I got away with my Haswell system for so long, as most of the games I wanted to play, were never especially heavy on the CPU. Did a GPU upgrade (GTX 960 2 GB to RTX 3060 12 GB) specifically to play the games I already play, at far higher resolution and settings, so the demand on the CPU didn’t move. 
 

Cyberpunk was the first game I played on it that really put the screws to the CPU, and even then, the framerates were actually playable, which came as a mild shock. 

[leclod]

You need a good AM5 cpu (7800x3d for example)

a flagship AMD or Nvidia gpu (4090 for example)

enough (fast) storage for you

at least 32GB Ram

Hope is the best you can do, (but I think it's a better deal to go with midrange parts and evolve over time if needed)

 

Edited September 19 by leclod

[starsmine]

2 minutes ago, leclod said:

Hope is the best you can do,

Its a weird thing to hope that computing stagnates for the next 8 years so that your PC can remain relevant. When there are so many problems we want to solve quicker. 

But we also know it wont. there is still a future past intel 18A, thats just the first node that combines so much that we are headed to with gaafet, High na, and back side power. 

[leclod]

Just now, starsmine said:

Its a weird thing to hope that computing stagnates for the next 8 years so that your PC can remain relevant. When there are so many problems we want to solve quicker. 

You can indeed see the glass half empty

[Emillio]

Actually, how long do you guys use your PC before it needs an upgrade?

[Eigenvektor]

23 minutes ago, Emillio said:

Actually, how long do you guys use your PC before it needs an upgrade?

That depends entirely on what your needs and expectations are.

 

If you are willing to play on low settings, your hardware can last a long time. If anything below maximum offends you, you'll need an upgrade every year.

 

CPU

i5 3570K - 2013-2021

R9 5900x - 2021-present

 

GPU

R9 290 - 2014-2016 (VRAM artifacting)

RX 480 - 2016-2021 (dead)

RX 6600 - 2021-present

[starsmine]

1 hour ago, Emillio said:

Actually, how long do you guys use your PC before it needs an upgrade?

CPU on dekstop 
pentium (core 2 duo based, this was turned into a htpc, it is now retired as of a year ago) (2008)
moved to college I7 2600k (2011)
went back to college R7 7800x Zen 4 (2022), so I did go for a full new build sans gpu, but I purchased parts very slowly and when they were on deep discount, except the cpu and mobo which I purchased as soon as it came out. 

CPU on desktop
9600 GSO (2009)
GTX 460 put into the pentium, moved this to the 2600k (2011)
Won a free GTX 660ti
RMA when memory broke to a GTX 760
Purchased a GTX 1660 (for free with evga bucks, no longer a thing)
Downgraded back to GTX 760 (friend needed the 1660 more then me. I thought I was going away for a long while)
Purchased a RTX 3060, still running that, took it out of 2600k pc and put it into zen 4 7800x
kinda want a new gpu, but will have to see if the 5060 is not a piece of trash like the 4060/4060ti was. Considering they are not gddr7, I have low hopes. EVGA is dead so AMD might be in the future for me. 

Laptop
Purchased a llano based laptop for college (2011)
Got a job and got a zen 1 laptop (2019)
Broke zen 1 laptop screen in a way it would cost 300 to repair so instead upgraded to a zen 3 laptop. Laptop still runs though (2022)
literally blew up the motherboard of the zen 3 laptop in a lab, my fault. replaced the motherboard. still zen 3. (2023) (dont put a constant voltage desktop power supply of 15V into the USB port guys)

Zen 1 laptop still here to work as a back up like during the time I had to wait for a new zen 3 motherboard. 


every single PC has retired with different ammounts of ram then when I purchased them. only thing I have not upgraded ram on is the zen 4 desktop yet. 

[venomtail]

Not with no upgrades. Also rate of progress is immense lately. Maybe 2010's it was easier to live on an older PC, now 2020's things get outdated way faster.

[ChrisLoudon]

4 hours ago, Emillio said:

Hello, I'm just curious. Is anybody here in this forum still using the same PC from 8 years ago? This means, you build or buy your PC 8 years ago and are still using it with no upgrades whatsoever. So, the same specs 8 years ago up until now and you didn't change anything. If there is, what are your specs and how does it perform in gaming? The reason that I ask this is because I want to build a PC that is still good even 10 years from now with no upgrades. So, I need some proof or story from some of you guys who owned a PC 8-10 years ago and still use it up until now with no upgrades.

Hi buddy,

 

I still game on an 8086k (just over 7 years old I think) and its paired with a 2080ti. It does occasionally show its age but helped by being connected to a 2016 LG Oled which is locked at 60fps.

 

While its not going to be playing AAA titles at 4k native with all the bells and whistles, my girlfriend (who uses this PC has her gaming rig) has played FC6, Remnant 2, Jedi Fallen Order, Horizon Zero Dawn and loads of the other titles in recent months / years and has had little to no complaints.

 

The chances are, if / when I get 5080/90 at some point next year, I will do what I normally do which is shift my GPUs down the stack so she will probably end up with a 3080ti which should keep things alive for a while longer.

 

The only real issue that is starting to become more common on her system is the CPUs lack of grunt does have an effect on the 1% and 0.1% lows which thankfully, doesn't bother her much.

 

If you want to go even older, I have a system with a 8700k + 1080ti which she uses as her office PC but can still game (sort of). Modern AAA titles are pretty much a no-go if you want so game at anything above 1080p / 1440p low but for games like Hollow Knight, Steam World Dig 2 or even Ori and Blind Forest...... No issues at 1440p and keeping the FPS at 60.

 

When that system finally dies, It'll be a sad day in the household.

[Kisai]

4 hours ago, Emillio said:

Hello, I'm just curious. Is anybody here in this forum still using the same PC from 8 years ago? 

My laptops are 7th and 9th gen Intel's

My desktops are 11th and 14th gen intels.

 

The CPU I had before all of those was the i7-4770 which I quite literately kept until the 11th gen because that's when it wouldn't power up again. The 7th gen intel laptop is still in use, the 9th gen is technically the better laptop but didn't last nearly as long cause "ultrabook" designs suck.

 

[crazzp]

I used my previous PC for 6 years without changing anything. 

3570k

660 TI

 

Bought a new PC 2018 with

Ryzen 2600x

1070TI

 

Just completed by 6th with year going into 7th . Figured I can use this for another 1 -2 years before GTA6 (lol) comes out and I'm going to buy another new PC. I usually play my games (even AAA ones) at low setting at 1080p 75hz. It's good enough. RDR2 still look pretty good. 

[Stahlmann]

7 hours ago, Emillio said:

Actually, how long do you guys use your PC before it needs an upgrade?

I upgrade whenever my current PC doesn't meet my requirements anymore. The time frame isn't set in stone, but from experience that works out to around 3 years before the GPU needs an upgrade, and 5-6 years for the CPU. And depending on which platforms are relevant at the time, you might look at motherboard and RAM aswell when doing the CPU upgrade.

 

Other than that, the PSU, motherboard, storage, RAM, cooler and case stay the same as long as they can support the CPU/GPU upgrade.

[Doobeedoo]

I used to before near it, though always felt pushing it. They were not high end PC at the time and over time I was not satisfied with performance in games. 

My current PC is the highest end I ever had so I'd expect it to last longer for sure. But it all depends what games you expect to play and performance many years down the line.

[BethQuentin]

10 hours ago, Emillio said:

Hello, I'm just curious. Is anybody here in this forum still using the same PC from 8 years ago? This means, you build or buy your PC 8 years ago and are still using it with no upgrades whatsoever. So, the same specs 8 years ago up until now and you didn't change anything. If there is, what are your specs and how does it perform in gaming? The reason that I ask this is because I want to build a PC that is still good even 10 years from now with no upgrades. So, I need some proof or story from some of you guys who owned a PC 8-10 years ago and still use it up until now with no upgrades.

I used the same machine from 2013 to 2023 without any upgrades. It was an i7-4770k and 2 GTX-760Ti in SLI.

 

0/10, would not recommend if you are trying to play graphically demanding games.

It did good at first and I was very happy with it. For the last 4-5 years of it's life, a laptop with a GTX-960m performed better.

 

I would bet that the optimal strategy for most AAA gamers is to build the nicest all around system (including peripherals) that you can afford to now, and then upgrade your GPU to the nicest one you can afford (possibly used) in 4-5 years.

[starsmine]

Just now, BethQuentin said:

I used the same machine from 2013 to 2023 without any upgrades. It was an i7-4770k and 2 GTX-760Ti in SLI.

 

0/10, would not recommend if you are trying to play graphically demanding games.

It did good at first and I was very happy with it. For the last 4-5 years of it's life, a laptop with a GTX-960m performed better.

 

I would bet that the optimal strategy for most AAA gamers is to build the nicest all around system (including peripherals) that you can afford to now, and then upgrade your GPU to the nicest one you can afford (possibly used) in 4-5 years.

Doesnt help the 700 cards lost all driver support. New games even if you could play at a reasonable frame rate would not even boot, such as resident evil 8. 

[BethQuentin]

Just now, starsmine said:

Doesnt help the 700 cards lost all driver support. New games even if you could play at a reasonable frame rate would not even boot, such as resident evil 8. 

I had mixed luck in this regard. I found that some games worked, and some didn't. Most of my AAA gaming the last 4-5 years of the machines life was relegated to the aforementioned laptop with the 960m.

[smcoakley]

Yep, I have an 8-year old desktop PC that I built in 2016 for the express purpose of playing VR games. I still use it for that purpose, and the only upgrade I've made to it was the GPU to an RTX 2070 SUPER when those dropped in price for a while. It still plays most VR games just fine at a high framerate for the Valve Index, but occasionally a game will make me drop to 90 FPS with resolution compromises. It's getting close to the point where it will need another upgrade, but I'm waiting for a VR game that I really want to play to come along that I can't enjoy unless I upgrade before I do so.

 

Funny enough in most VR games the GPU is still the bottleneck and not the 8-year old CPU. So I might be able to get away with just a GPU upgrade again, but we'll see.