I always see people planning around upgradability and the F word (“future-proofing”), but I wonder how many people actually upgraded their PCs and thought that was a good investment.
I’m an individual who isn’t really that much into selling. So to me, whenever I have upgraded in my life, I just ended up having spare parts around the house, which I then used to build other cheap computers from, by buying even more stuff. I always kept telling people to save more money and buy the best thing they can get and keep using it until it is time to do a full system upgrade. And I did this because I knew my experience.
Given the above, what are you guys doing? Are you buying in a budget and upgrade later? If so, do you sell components to recoup some of the losses? I mean, you do get to use the thing earlier, so it’s not really a loss when you think in economics terms, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Do you keep the old parts and build around them? Or do you, like me, just delay the gratification and wait until you can afford the best thing you can get that fits your needs?
Upgrade components, sell the old parts
Upgrade components, build a new PC from old parts
Buy a new PC, leave the old one intact (keep using it or donating it)
Buy a new PC, sell the old PC
0voters
If I missed anything in this poll, write what you are doing in a reply. I’d like to hear what other people do. It’s probably not going to change my mind on the subject, because I am really not into selling stuff, but I like hearing different perspective and see if I’m missing something.
I’ve gone through a few different phases of PC building. Overall, my strategy is to hold on to things, reuse them when possible. I have bought new systems from the ground up simply because I didn’t have anything suitable lying around.
When I first started, I started on the small side since I was just getting my feet wet. After the first one, I found out what I wanted to change, so the second was a little bigger, a little more powerful, etc. I kept or reused the old parts. Hard drives and SSDs are very easy to reuse. For a while, it felt like I usually had enough spare parts to build half a computer.
As I played around with more hardware, I found there were some things I wanted to do… a small fileserver, a minecraft server, etc. At some point, I started to build new PCs from the ground up simply because I couldn’t cobble together what I needed from the spare parts.
I’ve been through a few upgrades, usually buying new PCs since they were filling in roles that were previously empty. Virtual machines that were upgraded to bare metal, etc. Lately, it feels like things have been stable, but that could also be the global supply issues have blunted my appetite for new hardware.
I will say that I recently brought a GTX 750 ti out of mothballs to use as a passthrough GPU for a VM guest. I can’t remember what I was using before that- it might have been intergrated graphics or a 6750. I have old SSDs that have been repurposed as boot drives for HTPCs.
The first ever PC that I owned was given to my parents/siblings and I never really got to use it (because I used a laptop at the time).
The recent PC that I grew out of is currently awaiting parts to be made into a server. I just took out the GPU because pricing is insane now and that is the only component that is being reused. Realistically, I would just reuse it until it dies.
I tend to keep PCs for a long time and given the rate at which tech continues to go by the time I’m ready to upgrade, it’s often better just to replace it. Also to me the system may not be really worth the time and hassle of selling due to age. It might be worth parting out but would be even more time and hassle.
For example, I upgraded from a system with an i7 940 to a Ryzen 7 1700x a couple years ago. There weren’t many parts I could reuse so I made the old system a server. That’s what really kicked off the entire hobby for me.
Controversial take, if you have a overclockable haswell chip, you don’t need anything newer for 60fps, use vsynch my dudes
I had a locked 4690 play halo infinite just fine, ran eldin ring on 3770K easy peasy, rocket powered trike ftw
I often find it hard to place a monitary value on my used parts, rarely sell, instead I use them to barter, either other goods or services, I often give away parts because it’s just nice to see someone else’s need being filled, the favor will be repaid in some way later down the line, and I often get the parts for free for fixing something or upgrading them
I tend to go for a decent core platform and then only update the smaller things - RAM, Drives and GPU, aiming to leapfrog. My typical upgrade cycle for a brand new system looks something like this over a 10 year period:
year: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
CPU x x x x
Motherboard x x x x
RAM x x x x x
GPU x x x x
Storage x x x x x
Cooling x x x x x
Case x x x
Power Supply x x
CPU and motherboard: Buy both at the same time most of the time, no reason not to IMO. In the past I tried to keep this below $300, ideally $250, but recently I’ve accepted it is better to shell out $350 + $200 for quality parts, than getting something that lasts you only a year. RAM: Leave it alone for the most part, since the MoBo and CPU supports a particular speed it is better to buy brand new at ~$100 or so, though sometimes I buy extra in between core upgrades. GPU: Try to stagger these to not coincide with the core upgrade year. Storage: Pretty much when necessary. Try to keep the budget at around $150 and only SSDs, these days. Mechs are only good for NAS these days and the only way to get decent performance from them now (on desktop) is through RAID0. Heck, my Network can transfer faster than the mechs, these days! Cooling: I do a review whenever I upgrade the core or switch the case. Do I need more fans, would I like to buy an AIO, etc. Sometimes fans break at which point I invest the five bucks or so to replace them, no biggie. Case & PSU: I tend to treat these as one unit, though sometimes I do upgrade the case prematurely since I’m sick of looking at it.
Every PC I have had since 1992 has been a combination of new and old parts, however the past few have been a carried over video card (at most) as a stop-gap, and/or carried over storage.
I tend to disassemble, sell all parts, and build all new about every 2 years; you can actually maintain a pretty small “upgrade fee”, keep things fresh and interesting, and allows me to always play around with stuff like RTX and so on for new AAA titles
Though, given change to DDR5, price/stock fluctuations, speed/breadth of tech changes, etc + I actually decided to try my hand at hard tubing this time … I may end up keeping my current build for 4-5 years
I absolutely hate selling on things. So, I tend to keep things till they break down or just can’t perform what I need from them anymore.
Therefore, I also don’t upgrade things often… And when I do, I tend to do the whole thing at once (if I can).
My jumps in specs in the past couple years are as follows:
Athlon64 3200+, 1GB DDR, 6600GT > Core2Duo E8400, 4GB DDR2, 9800GT > i5 4690, 8GB DDR3, GTX960 > 5600X, 32GB DDR4, 6700XT
Old parts had either died or were given to friends/family who had less high (gaming) demands.
Generally speaking, I upgrade everything I think upgraded every few years and either sell the parts or save them for a different machine. If I break a part it is typically the mobo.
I’d refrain from performing upgrades, until either newer hardware proves that much overall gain
OR if some instruction set is necessary for use, that shows an uncontrollable obsolesce
I held onto a Phenom-II for nearly a decade of all-round to strictly gaming for near a decade
The RAM got increased overtime [got pigeonholed to 16, though Biostar was pushing for a 32 limit]
GPU moved from 2x 5850, to a single 5850 [Multi-GPU Stunk], to a 7950, finishing off to an R9 Fury
Mainboard soiled itself [in a whimper], so then had to make move on newer platform [for gaming]
After getting an unused AM3 board, I repurposed my PhenomII, for general use / linuxs’ longevity test
Damn, you don’t buy used? I had 32GB ddr3 when my Xeon e3 died last year. Didn’t know it at the time though, thought it was the MOBO, spent about $130 for a “relatively” new i7 and b85 board. Kept my 32GB ddr3 and GTX 1080. The only reason I did it, was that Haswell is fine enough for apex and pubg and school work. If I had bought an 8 core intel or 8 core ryzen, even last-gen, I still would have to have bought ddr4 32GB ($100-$200), then a CPU at the micro center ($250 -$350), then a mobo like the b550 pro art $250-$300, it’s just not worth it for something decent.
Waiting for cheap ddr5, intel 10gbe, decent igpu’s and tb5 before I upgrade.
Ah yeah… I don’t buy anything used either.
I buy new and don’t sell. If there is no re-use option, it’ll be kept as a spare for myself and go to the recycling centre when I have replacements (so a new spare).
In my experience, used is often a worse long-term deal than new. While there are exceptions (like currently buying a used RX 570 over an RX 6500 XT) most used products draw more watt than the modern counterpart, has less longtime longevity and needs better cooling.
So the 5960X then, I take it? A fine vintage, but compared to the 11700 or 5800X:
Part
TDP
Base
Boost
Cache
Mem freq
Intel Core i7 5960X
140W
3.0 GHz
3.5 GHz
20 MB
2133 MHz
Intel Core i7 11700
125W
3.5 GHz
5.0 GHz
16 MB
3600 MHz
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
105W
3.8 GHz
4.7 GHz
36 MB
3600 MHz
… So, you essentially have a piece that will only last you two more years, draws 33% more power and performs roughly 50% worse in IPC (real world is like 15-20% performance loss). In other words, it performs more like a modern 5600G or 11400, but with 100% the power draw. Not exactly ideal.
If the purpose is to have something that pulls you through while waiting for the AM5 and/or Raptor Lake platforms, though, I think you made the right call. I just wouldn’t buy that as a main system normally though - the parts are simply too old.
True, that would have been steep for a holdover system. But if you want something that lasts you 3-4 years, it would have been worth it - and the B550 could be gotten for $125 by summer last year, 32 GB 3000 RAM for $150, too. So not quite as bad as you paint, but still $600 in the hole for sure.
I am assuming you mean i3 3200. Oh man, I remember those days, getting second hand i5s and i7s was so expensive that it made more sense to buy brand new CPUs. And they held their insane price for a long time. I even remember when 11th gen was released and 6th and 7th gen i5s and i7s were still terribly priced on the second market, while the older 3rd and 4th just then started going down in price.
Yeah, I’m still convinced buying a whole new PC is a better deal. Lower power consumption, more performance per watt and you get to keep it for longer, until the performance really can’t keep up anymore.
If you live in a humid environment, that’s bound to happen over a long period of time. I’m surprised your PSU and motherboard survived that long that even the case started rusting. You literally used your computer until it died. Pretty impressive. But do get a dehumidifier.
I retired my 2012-era FX-8120/GTX660 gaming PC and it is now my primary work PC and does all the heavy lifting for a small IT business. I had considered rebuilding/upgrading in the HAF X case, but in the end I didn’t see the point in tearing apart a fully-functioning PC and I am very glad that I didn’t. Seeing how I want to focus on E-Waste it only makes sense to practice what I am attempting to preach. Not sure what I’m going to do when Windows 7 loses security support in another year or so, but I’m not going to worry about that bridge until it comes time to cross it.
If you have a need for Windows programs, your only choice is Windows 10. If not, just use Linux. I would not run outdated software in a business environment, especially if they are connected to the internet.
I just wouldn’t buy that as a main system normally though - the parts are simply too old.