This is the longest I have owned a PC

Fluffernutta · Post by **Fluffernutta** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 9:25 am

I am now over the 3 year mark, and I dont feel a need for a new PC, granted I bought HIGH end at the time, but this is a first.. usually at the end of three years I feel like Im running through jello and I HAVE to upgrade...

I have a 2.8 P4 1 gig ram 9700... and I looked at new Pc's and see no reason to upgrade.. they have really slowed down havent they?

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 9:35 am

Lucky for me they seem to. I cant affordto upgrade all the time like I once did. Also now maybe companies will stop focusing on graphics and get back to making deep, fun, and compelling games with decent AI and a story.

Peacedog · Post by **Peacedog** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 9:37 am

I passed 3 years this spring. I own a P4 1.8, 1 gig of ram, Geforce 3 Ti 200. The only thing I've done since getting it is aquired a second hard drive & another half gig of ram. I could use a new monitor (I'm using an older one since the monitor for this one died), but it's not a need.

I feel no compulsion to upgrade right now myself. I could stick a better video card in it at some point - for $150 I could pick up something really powerful. Since I don't feel compelled to upgrade right now, that's not a bad idea (though I may change my tune in 6 months). I know I'll have this for four years though, and that's the longest I've owned a single machine.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 9:43 am

Yes, it's slowed down greatly. I built my previous PC in 10/01, a 1.4 GHz Athlon XP with GeForce 3. I updated the vid card in 2003, and replaced the PC in Aug of 2004. I could have easily gotten another year out of it if I'd felt the need.

My new PC, going on a year, still runs everything like a dream, with 'only' a 9800 Pro. I plan for this one to last me at least another 2 years, probably 3.

warning · Post by **warning** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 9:48 am

I just put in an XP 3200, 1 gig of RAM and a 6600GT. I now have the fastest processor my mobo supports and I really can't see doing any upgrades for the next couple years.

razgon · Post by **razgon** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 9:53 am

Daehawk wrote:Also now maybe companies will stop focusing on graphics and get back to making deep, fun, and compelling games with decent AI and a story.

HAHA...eh, you werent serious, were you?

Other than that, I think it would be the way to go. but with gaming a booming billion-dollar industry now, I think they just go for the easiest buck, and not the most innovative, compelling game...

Freezer-TPF- · Post by **Freezer-TPF-** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 9:55 am

I built mine 2 years ago and can't see any further upgrades in the near future. P4 2.66, 1 GB RAM (PC2700), and I dropped in a 6800GT last December. I don't see any reason to upgrade the CPU (going to 3 GHz hardly seems worth it), RAM (would require 2 new 1G sticks), or the whole CPU/RAM/mobo combo at this point.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:11 am

P4 2.66, just over 2 years old. Upped my RAM to 1 gig and upgraded my vidgie card to a 6800 last month. I hope my system will go another two years. Since I'm not an action gamer, that might be realistic.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:17 am

Fluffernutta wrote:I am now over the 3 year mark, and I dont feel a need for a new PC, granted I bought HIGH end at the time, but this is a first.. usually at the end of three years I feel like Im running through jello and I HAVE to upgrade...

I have a 2.8 P4 1 gig ram 9700... and I looked at new Pc's and see no reason to upgrade.. they have really slowed down havent they?

We're pretty similar - the only thing that's differernt is I have an AMD 2600+ which runs at 2.0 GHz. Clearly, it's the bottleneck on my PC.

But other than a few slowdowns with Battle for Middle Earth (which earned a "Meh" from me as a game), I can't really seem to justify getting a new PC at this point.

Granted, it was Morrowind that forced me to upgrade...and I suspect Oblivion will require the same.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:19 am

My current desktop rig is from 2002. In the middle of what would've been "the cycle" for an upgrade, I picked up a notebook PC instead.

~Neal

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:21 am

The Meal wrote:My current desktop rig is from 2002. In the middle of what would've been "the cycle" for an upgrade, I picked up a notebook PC instead.

~Neal

Ugh. You might as well get an XBox. Traitor.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:24 am

Well, with the KVM switch, I do use a real keyboard, monitor, and mouse with it -- so it's not a complete toy.

I have an XBox, but haven't used it much since "Santa" spent $100 on new games for me last Christmas.

Some day I'll give Burnout 3 a try...

~Neal

O.DOGG · Post by **O.DOGG** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:37 am

Mine is about 2 and a half years old. P4 2.4Ghz 1Gb ram, GeForce Ti 4600. Everything is very playable at high resolutions as long as I don't use anti-aliasing. Maybe in the Fall I'll build the next machine but this one is still very useful - only I might have to reformat and do a clean install - Windows is starting to get flakey.

Jancelot · Post by **Jancelot** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:46 am

Mine's almost 3 years old and it's a Athlon 2000XP, 512 RAM and a Radeon 9500 Pro. I was going to build an HTPC, but I opted to buy a laptop as well back in January. With the coming HDTV centric consoles I really have all my gaming needs met at the moment.

Jeff Jones · Post by **Jeff Jones** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:56 am

My current was built in late 2003. Started out with

P4 2.8 ghz
512 mb PC3200
ATI 9800 (non-pro)
120 GB HD
40 GB HD (added from old system)
21" CRT bought in 2001 (started getting wavy lines, puts out tremedous heat)

I've since upgraded to:

up to 1 GB pc3200
6800GT
replaced 40GB HD (very noisy) with a 200GB HD (very quiet)
19" LCD

VERY content with the rig as is. I can play most games at 1280x1024, 4x/8x, and usually max the monitor at 75fps

the 6800GT and the LCD are two of my best purchases ever.

russellmz · Post by **russellmz** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 1:06 pm

5 years

600mhz dell
win98se

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 1:14 pm

russellmz wrote:5 years

600mhz dell
win98se

Wow. That belongs in a museum or the trash heap or something.

December '02 I built this machine, it's held up pretty well. The processor was originally a 1.4 but a friend had a 1.6 and gave that to me for free so that was slightly upgraded. I want to get a new processor, preferably at least a 3.0, before next spring. I think that will be on my Christmas list. I also have only 512 RAM and want to double that, but that's also not high on my priority list with as cheap as memory is these days.

Aside from those two things the only other thing I might want to change is putting new fans in and finding out which hard drive (120 gig I got for this comp and an old 40 gig) is so damn noisy. Noise isn't as important as money however so that can wait.

Lassr · Post by **Lassr** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 1:20 pm

Starting my 3rd year with my P4 2.8. I've upgraded from a GeForce 5200 to a 5700 a year ago. Also added an Audigy 2 soundcard and 512 MB more of Ram for 1GB but I do not forsee getting another upgrade for a while. may look at a 6600GT card next year when the prices really start to fall.

Spiff · Post by **Spiff** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 2:12 pm

I built my previous rig in 2003 w/ 3.0 P4, 1 gig DDR433, ATI9800 Pro, 37gig WD Raptor right after the 800mhz P4’s came out and the Raptor was introduced. It ran absolutely great.

In April of this year I built my new rig:

AMD FX55
Asus A8N-SLI mobo
1 gig DDR400
Dual 6800 Ultras
37 gig Raptor system drive
2 74 gig WD Raptors for storage
HP DVD/RW with Lightscribe
Lite-On DVD-Rom

I don’t plan on upgrading any time soon. I can play anything on the market right now without any hitches. I would imagine for the next year or so, I wouldn’t have any trouble playing a game that’s in development. This rig has cured my need for bleeding edge components for the time being.

Arcanis · Post by **Arcanis** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 2:25 pm

my condolances russellmz; but it could be worse you could have windows ME on there instead, it was the worlds largest virus you had to pay for. As for me mine is aobut a year old. P4 3.0, 1.5gb 3200 ram, Upgraded to X800 pro agp card, 120 & 80 gb hd. and nice 20 lcd monitor. I'm looking at AMD 64 bit system in a couple of months though with ATI Crossfire, but not certain yet waiting for prices to drop some and to see how well crossfire actulay does perform not just claim. But i'm just a geek that loves to play with the newest toys.

edit:
Spif i hope you make a lot of money, becaue those are some pricey components unless your planning on getting a five finger dicount on them.

Spiff · Post by **Spiff** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 2:37 pm

Arcanis wrote:Spif i hope you make a lot of money, becaue those are some pricey components unless your planning on getting a five finger dicount on them.

Actually, it wasn't all that bad. I saved an absolute fortune by doing it myself. The markup the boutique builders get for their SLI rigs with 6800 ultras is just criminal.

My upgrades are usually done in April. That's when I'm thru with tax season, and this year, I had a client that paid me for a year's worth of write-up work at the same time.

Arcanis · Post by **Arcanis** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 2:45 pm

lucky you and yes i do know how much of a markup they get i work as a tech and we build our own sytems for that very reason. I plan on assebleing mine myself also but like i said i want to see how crossfie and sli truely compare and i might even consider a single card again too. But i can gurantee it will bee sli/crossfire capable board.

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 3:16 pm

I had an 8088 for over a decade (and a Ti-99/4A for even longer) though I didn't use them regularly for that entire time. My last computer (AMD 900mhz with 256mb RAM and a 32mb video card) I got in 2000. I started having to reduce settings at the end of '03 and couldn't play some of the high end games in '04 (being first an adventure and strategy gamer, though, I survived). I replaced it in Feb.

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 3:39 pm

My 486/33 still holds the record for my systems. Upgraded to 8meg of ram, CD-ROM w/caddies, Roland MT-32, etc., but the processor itself lasted longer than anything since. Until Stunts came out.

Beer Goggles · Post by **Beer Goggles** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 3:50 pm

My computer is almost five months old. Two years is my usual upgrade cycle.

Greg Wak · Post by **Greg Wak** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 4:27 pm

I got 4 years out of my last rig. AMD 800 and a geforce 2. Replaced it in oct 04 for AMD 3.5 and 6800gt. Hope to get four years out of this one. Waiting anxiously for Oblivion and the first unreal 3 engine game that I would want to play. If I can't run Oblivion with detail cranked, I will weep.

Two Sheds · Post by **Two Sheds** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 5:53 pm

I'm at about 3 years on mine. Since then I've added RAM, but that's it. This winter (in preparation for Oblivion) I'm upgrading the 9800 Pro and maybe--HOPEFULLY--buying a new LCD. Other than that, I think I'm pretty set with my 2.8GHz P4 and gig of RAM.

RookieCAF · Post by **RookieCAF** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 6:49 pm

My previous System (AMD 900 , GF3Ti200 , 768) lasted from mid 2000 to Mid 2004 at which point I upgraded to a P4 2.53 , GeForce 6600GT , 1 GB Of RDRAM etc. Hopefully it lasts me a couple years. No complaints so far..

Azhure · Post by **Azhure** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:26 pm

Mine is about 2 1/2 years old, P4 2.6. I doubled the RAM to 1gb recently and have thought about a newer graphics card a few times but so far what I have has worked ok on everything I want to play. Barring anything major breaking I'm thinking it will last till at least the 4 year point, though I may look at a new monitor before then.

Prior to this I've usually replaced or done a major upgrade on my computers every 2 to 3 years, but this time there doesn't seem to be any real need to.

Giles Habibula · Post by **Giles Habibula** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 2:00 pm

My eldest is a 1993 486.
Still currently in use with original hard drive and everything, though I've had to replace the power supply twice.

Um...That's not my newest one though.

Steron · Post by **Steron** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 5:12 pm

My current rig is 2 years old.

Abit IC7
P4 2.53 Ghz
1 gig PC3200LL
9700 Pro

I just ordered a Radeon X850 XT PE and another gig of RAM today. Other than that, I see no need buy anything else.

Next build will be an AMD and a board with PCIe SLI. Hopefully I can use some of the same parts I have now in the new rig when the time comes.

CeeKay · Post by **CeeKay** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 5:50 pm

Well, this one made it 3 years, and it just started dying this week. It's suddenly taking 3-5 minutes to boot and doesn't always recognize the hardware so sometimes if I reboot it'll take 3-4 tries. Dell had a great deal, so I'm going from a P4 2.53 gig w/ 512 RAM and a 9600xt 256 card to a:

P4 3.2
1 gig ram
6800 256 meg video
plus a DVD burner, twice the HD space and an Audigy 2 ZS soundcard

I am going to canibalize a few pieces off this old one, mainly one of the HD's and possible the CD burner, but other than that it's going to my roomate and she's going to see what she can do with it. If the old rig hadn't started acting funky I'd have stuck with it, but all that is left of the original PC is the CPU and RAM and I just don't have the patience to deal with more repairs.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 6:00 pm

Yeah, the reason why the CPU development has slowed down is because they really are hitting the physical limits of how small and fast they can make these CPUs with current technologies/materials.

We've already seen this, but they're now moving away from pure ghz as an indicator of speed, going to things like dual cores and better bridges between hardware.

The next gen PCs don't look that fast on paper, but get all the parts together and they'll be a good deal faster, but they'll also have many new features.

As for me, I think I'm about at the 1 year point, but I usually buy one or two generations behind the times, I have:

AMD Athlon XP 2000+
512mb PC2700 RAM
ATI 9800 Pro 128mb
30gb HD
SB Live! value

I'm still debating whether to upgrade or just buy a new PC entirely. This current PC needs a faster CPU, an extra 512mb of memory, a much larger hard drive, and replacing that live sound card with an Audigy 2.

Kobra · Post by **Kobra** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 6:52 pm

I have 5 machines here, the slowest is a 2.8Ghz, 1024Mb PC3200 CL2, 6600GT box. I built it about a year ago. (fastest being a 3.63Ghz, 1024 PC3200 CL2, 6800Ultra-OC)

Generally I rotate 1 box off my queue every 12 months to keep them up to date. The last box that got rotated off was a 2.26Ghz, 1024 PC2700, 9800Pro machine that was just way too slow for the new stuff.

So my record is about 12 months for my boxes I guess. I get pretty annoyed at slow machines, or machines that require me to downgrade graphics in games.

I dumped all of my 19" CRT's a few months back, and purchased 5 19" 12ms LCDs, since the price on LCD's dropped like a rock this year. Gotta say the LCD's are night and day better than the CRT's.

baron calamity · Post by **baron calamity** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 9:07 pm

I generally hit the 18th month and then I must upgrade. I'm at 13 months on my current box and don't feel the "urge" yet. However I have been modding my box to be more quiet.

Clanwolfer · Post by **Clanwolfer** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:00 pm

My rig is at 3 years, but I doubled the RAM and added a larger HD after the first year, and picked up 9600 and an LCD monitor the second year.

My upgrade cycle is almost certainly dead, though... I'm just waiting for the second generation of x86 Macs to roll out, and I'll almost certainly buy one of those instead.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:34 am

People with extra PCs not going to use, look here!

~Neal

Darrell999 · Post by **Darrell999** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 5:57 pm

This month is 3 years exactly. It's a P4 2.4, still with 512 RAM (although I might make it 1GB soon). The only thing I changed was the video card because one day (two years ago) my Geforce 4600 just inexplicably died--and I didn't even overclock it. So I replaced that with a Radeon 9500 Pro, which I'm still happy with.

Effidian · Post by **Effidian** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:34 am

I'm at 4 1/2 years with my current system. But I have upgraded almost all of it at one time or another. Still with the original mobo, monitor, and a few other things though. I didn't realize it had been that long until this thread got me to search for my purchase date...

WPD · Post by **WPD** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:42 am

I've been using the same floppy drive since I built my first computer 6 years ago!

EVERYTHING else has changed.

Octopus Overlords

This is the longest I have owned a PC

This is the longest I have owned a PC

Re: This is the longest I have owned a PC