What is smarter: gradually upgrading or a complete new system every few years ?
Thinks to keep in mind:
- Lets keep it a healthy ratio between, costs and performance
- performance can't dip below media pc and casual pc gaming
- costs cant go over a self set limit (make up your own)
- System breaking changes in pc architecture
- at least for a time period where you would ordinarily bought your third pc
- what to do with leftover parts? sell or maybe build a weaker second system ?
Have fun this one!
new system every few years and stop thinking about it, just becuse a new cpu comes out it doens't mean you have to buy it. And no gamer HAS to constantly have the best computer. All you need is a computer that can play current games at 1080p atleast 90fps on mediam-high and that should leave you enough leaverage for about 5 years.
I don't think that is what he is saying.
I am a firm believer in if you have the money and it makes logical sense then upgrade. It is more cost effective to spread out the buying components and making upgrades as you go rather than spending a large sum all at once. My computer is currently going on 5 years, which would in your terms be a new build time.
The fact is it is running all the games at high and at 1920 x 1080 and this is due to the fact that I did minor upgrades as time went on. The original cost of the computer was around $1000 and since then I have put into the computer roughly 600-700 dollars and I will still get another 2-3 years out of it easy with the only major upgrade at that point being the GPU. The benefit to this route I see is that not only is the cost spread out and not having two points of dropping around 1200 it also keeps your computer running snappy and the newest games and top settings.
There is my take on it so you can interpret it how you like.
Hope this helps,
Hop
Reuse PSU if it provides enough power, Reuse Case, if its DDR3 reuse it, reuse Heatsink if its good enough
Yes thats more like an answer I was looking for.
I also think its easyer to make smaller investments than one big one, and you can concentrate on the part that makes the biggest difference, like ssd's instead of hdd or more ram or something.
Buy quality components from the beginning and it will last you (almost) forever. Also, jumping on the latest compatibility/connection tech is also a way of future proving your system (I.E. PCI-E 3.0, SATA III or SAS, USB 3.0, upcoming DDR4 RAM ect.) so you won't be limited by those factors in near future.