Fishie36

I usually end up upgrading whenever something breaks (past 3 video cards I've had died).

__________________

How to: Use Paypal Free : Hotwire PSU : Clean Your Keyboard

MjrTom

I follow a similar philosophy as Chozart in the sence that I regulary upgrade parts and I tend not to build PC's from scratch.

Recent PC History:

2.0GHz P4 Northwood / 512MB DDR266 / GF4 MX400 That rig lasted for about 2 years Then added a 9700Pro to that setup.
After that I replaced the motherboard and CPU for a prescott 3.0GHz about 6 months later.

I then about 6 months later replaced the motherboard again and also bought a X850XT and a new PSU.

After that went to a AMD64 rig with 6800GT, 3700+ and 1GB of RAM Kept that rig for about 9 months. Then every 2 months or so I upgraded one part at a time to the CPU, memory and GPU in my sys spec.

So yeah to cut a long story short I upgrade little and often. Typically a new part every 3 -6 months or so as and when I feel that performance is lacking.

As I upgrade these spare parts tend to be kept and used in secondary PCs such as the one in my sig

I tend to be driven by the games hardware requirements that drive my upgrade paths. I also seem to always be one platform behinfd the leaders taking advantage of the second hand market to pick up nearly new parts a great price.

__________________
P4: 3600MHz - P4 2.4c Gallatin Core - ABIT IC7 - 1GB BH-5 - 2.5-3-2-6 2.8v
AMD64: 3105MHz Opty 165 CCBBE - DFI SLI-D - Mushkin Redline @DDR518 3-3-2-8 SuperPi 1M= 27.540 secs
2nd Rig:AOpen EZ462 SFF - AMD 3700+ - 6800GT 256MB - 2x512MB (BH-5) - 120MB SATA DM9+ - NEC SATA DVD/RW
3rd Rig:Toshiba Satelite L30 - Intel Celeron-M 440 (1.86GHz 1MB L2) - Super Talent 2GB PC2 4200 (5-5-5-15) - Toshiba 60GB 5400rpm SATA II (PMR Drive) - ATI X200M - Vista Home Basic
1.536 TB of HDD Storage and climbing....

NamelessMC

I promise you this, if you get a good reputation on Anandtech/Heatware/Hardforum/OCN FS forum, you can have the latest technology in your original budget every year for only $150-350 total.

In June last year (2006), I bought an AMD 64 rig. 3000+ Venice, DFI Ultra SLI motherboard, 1GB DDR400 ram, 80g 7200 IDE hard drive, 7600GT (upgraded from a 6800XT), and a few other components. I was able to sell everything this year (Around January) for roughly $380 for all the regular components, and another $200 for my speakers and monitor. That gave me a $580 budget to build the system I have now.

2 weeks before Core 2 Duo price drops, I'm going to get my old beat up Dell from 2002 and hook it up. I'm going to pull out my Pentium D and motherboard. I'm going to sell those for $60 + 60. Once I sell those, I only have to invest about $75-100 to get a good Core 2 Duo + Motherboard combo. Then I can trade in my EVGA 7900GS and either get an 8600GT straight up, or pay extra $100 to get an 8800GTS.

For only $200 I'll go from a Pentium D/ 945 motherboard/ 7900GS to a Core 2 Duo/ 965 motherboard/ 8800GTS.

Before September I can make it a point to buy another 1GB of ram. December, unlike what most people would think, is a bad time to sell computer parts online because lots of places have holiday deals. If you're going to sell your computer parts to upgrade, do it in November or January.

Using a system similar to mine, you can build an initial rig for $600 (tower only), upgrade it for a few hundred every 7 months or sell it and use the extra money you had to upgrade to build a new rig altogether.

ratty2k4

namelessmc, thats what i try to do a the moment, but, being in the the uk is difficult due to the much smaller market. most people buy 'disposible' pcs that they throw away instead of running a disk defrag. by buying a new rig, i mean mobo, cpu, psu, graphics,hdd and ram. all the other components seem to evolve at a much slower rate.(still got cambridge soundworks 5.1 from 2000)

__________________
This is the Secret Signature Organization (SSO) add me to your sig to help me take over the world

MjrTom

We should start an Overclock.net "hand me down" club with the contributors being the uber rich people who can afford the newest hardware all the time then cast off last years highest performers for a great price

__________________
P4: 3600MHz - P4 2.4c Gallatin Core - ABIT IC7 - 1GB BH-5 - 2.5-3-2-6 2.8v
AMD64: 3105MHz Opty 165 CCBBE - DFI SLI-D - Mushkin Redline @DDR518 3-3-2-8 SuperPi 1M= 27.540 secs
2nd Rig:AOpen EZ462 SFF - AMD 3700+ - 6800GT 256MB - 2x512MB (BH-5) - 120MB SATA DM9+ - NEC SATA DVD/RW
3rd Rig:Toshiba Satelite L30 - Intel Celeron-M 440 (1.86GHz 1MB L2) - Super Talent 2GB PC2 4200 (5-5-5-15) - Toshiba 60GB 5400rpm SATA II (PMR Drive) - ATI X200M - Vista Home Basic
1.536 TB of HDD Storage and climbing....

Mr Pink57

I do ongoing upgrades. However as of late I took a big jump to Intel and will probably continue to stay here for many years due to the mounting bracket and they seem to have the cpu technology that I want to be apart of.

pink

__________________
Kirk Lazarus: Yeah! And we trained actors, mother****er.

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php

numlock2.0

Well, so far the average for me has been 4-5 years, but that may going to change after I come of age

Honestly, I don't have that many systems at all. I have a 1998 (or so) 200Mhz Dell XPS and this computer (not in sig ATM: Athlon XP 2400+)

I may upgrade more often, but I don't really see the need to if your computer does what you need to do. Even for gaming, I can get along with some other games on the Internet or some less demanding games. I don't have to play any of the new ones.