What is the optimal time in between new pc builds?

[DavePC]

I would say spend more upfront, and spend less on upgrades.

 

So get a good case, power supply, stuff that you don't think you'd need to upgrade.

 

The main things you probably would ever upgrade would be your GPU, or if need be your CPU and Motherboard.

 

So maybe $1500 USD upfront.

 

Personally, I plan to upgrade every 3 years.

[toddleronebar]

Your GPU will change the most honestly, everything else to a lesser extent. Personally I upgrade almost every year. Used to change out cpus and mobos frequently back in 07-09, but everything slowed down now for me. 

[TheProfosist]

Your GPU will change the most honestly, everything else to a lesser extent. Personally I upgrade almost every year. Used to change out cpus and mobos frequently back in 07-09, but everything slowed down now for me.

I consider a "new build" to be when you upgrade platforms. A good example would be upgrading from 1366 to 2011. I change and upgrade other things especially less costly ones as there are deals or big jumps in performance, usually though its when things die.

[Hyp0xia]

I don't frequently do fresh builds, I just continuously upgrade what I've already built. That's the way it all started, too. My first build wasn't a build, it was me transplanting a terrible Hewlett-Packard OEM PC into a new case with a new power supply unit. While I upgrade on a very regular basis and can afford to do so, those on a budget have been in luck over the past few years since CPUs, motherboards, and memory haven't really seen any radical new improvements. When it comes to Intel, Sandy Bridge was outstanding, but Ivy Bridge and Haswell have been negligible and DDR4 won't hit Intel's mainstream consumer motherboard (i.e., non-LGA 2011) until Skylake.

[doubley_m]

During my first few years of building I went the evolved-frankenstein route, I'd keep adding/swapping parts when I was able to get a cheap deal or take old parts from friends as payment for upgrading their rigs. Started with my first real personal build, an Athlon 1Ghz Thunderbird and a hand-me-down Voodoo4 (Bought a Radeon 9000 series, I think, to replace it because I needed Hardware T&L to run C&C Generals) and ended in its final form with a weird combination of Athlon 1700+, odd RAM and random HDs all crammed in to a branded 'Tiny' case (UK bros will know what I mean)

 

After that I started on a 3 ish year cycle of fresh builds, I don't tend to do much interim upgrading although I did retain the Antec 900 and PSU between phases once...

 

As others have said, it's down to personal preference, you may love tinkering and prefer a smaller initial outlay, or you might like to build a beast system in one go and ride it out for a few years.

[TheProfosist]

During my first few years of building I went the evolved-frankenstein route, I'd keep adding/swapping parts when I was able to get a cheap deal or take old parts from friends as payment for upgrading their rigs. Started with my first real personal build, an Athlon 1Ghz Thunderbird and a hand-me-down Voodoo4 (Bought a Radeon 9000 series, I think, to replace it because I needed Hardware T&L to run C&C Generals) and ended in its final form with a weird combination of Athlon 1700+, odd RAM and random HDs all crammed in to a branded 'Tiny' case (UK bros will know what I mean)

 

After that I started on a 3 ish year cycle of fresh builds, I don't tend to do much interim upgrading although I did retain the Antec 900 and PSU between phases once...

 

As others have said, it's down to personal preference, you may love tinkering and prefer a smaller initial outlay, or you might like to build a beast system in one go and ride it out for a few years.

My Antec 900 still lives to this day. It had three builds in it until I passed it off. The last was a X58/i7-920 build that was SUPER cramed. Now a friend has it and its a 2009 time capsule with a 2nd gen C2D and 9800GT as well as some antec blue led fans. The only part that isnt from then is the Cooler Master 212 but it doesnt look out of place because thats right around when the tower cooler were starting to come back.

[crooked windows]

upgrades no fuck that this shitty shit shit have already costed me a car 

You must drive a shit shitty car but look on the bright side, you have a car.

[crooked windows]

Optimal time is just before your old PC craps out.  .....   don't ask.

[Norwegiantweaker]

You must drive a shit shitty car but look on the bright side, you have a car.

huehue id get a pretty decent car for 10 grand 

[Nickolas47]

For me its about 3 to 4 years