I realized my main desktop PC, which is also my gaming PC, is well over 5 years old. It's still handling most games quite well, and for something I built for around $600 I can't complain at all.
The basics:
I really haven't done much for upgrades aside from the SSD, which was a great improvement. I'm thinking about putting together a Mini-ITX system, but definitely in no kind of rush to do another build.
How long has your current PC lasted, and do you have any plans to replace?
I often feel like the most important question when looking at specs is what sort of games are you playing (or want to be playing) on your PC? I have to admit I do fairly frequent upgrades, I do not own any consoles so my PC is my sole 'gaming device'. I also play pretty demanding games overall and like to bump up the settings a lot (the Total War games and some of the newer next-gen ports are hitting stuff like VRAM pretty hard)
Over the last year I have replaced pretty much every component in my PC but I am now hoping it will last a few years (i5 4670K, 16GB RAM and an AMD 280X). Before that my PC was around 3-4 years old and while still decent it was starting to feel a bit sluggish to me in certain games.
Building a Mini-ITX system sounds great and certainly seems to be the way things are going at the moment.
My gaming PC is also my work and personal PC. I've had it for about 3 to 3.5 years.
I don't plan on buyng a new one soon, but when I do, it won't be so I can play the latest and greatest game. I don't think I fit the demographic you're looking for...
i5 CPU
8GB RAM
AMD 6450 graphic card
My PC is approximately 5+ years old now and still chugging along fairly well. No consoles for me, so all my gaming is done on my trusty old PC.
Civ V late game crashes frequently but is still playable with all graphics set to low and playing against only 4 or 5 other Civs on small to medium maps sizes. Not the epic gaming experience I must admit but still highly enjoyable. It's probably the most cpu intensive game installed on my machine I think.
I'll probably buy a new computer sometime after the new year I would imagine. Besides, looking forward to playing GalCiv III!
(Don't laugh too hard)
Dell Inspiron 530
(CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo/E8300 @ 2.83 GHz
Memory (RAM) 4 GB
Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit Operating System
(Video) ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
It still plays a lot of older games (mostly strategy) without even a hiccup... so there.
Mine is 4 years old.
I upgraded the video card last year. Still runs everything well... not really seeing any issues yet (and I play a lot of first person shooters).
I built my PC in 2009. Still running great.
i7 8608GB RAMGTX 260
I don't see any reason to upgrade for the next couple of years.
My machine is 7+ years old. (Parts of it have been upgraded twice...)
Dunno I usually try to keep a lot of core components the same (mobo/cpu) while upgrading my memory and GPU up until ti's practical. I generally upgrade when the next memory cycle comes around. Though I suspect a lot of DX10 hold outs will need to upgrade to DX11 as that becomes more and more mainstream.
You'd better start plannig to upgrade your video card. Because teh DX11 train has left the station and you'd better be on board.
lol, why?
Many games are REQUIRING DX11.
Daylight
Tropico5
Strider
Watch Dogs
Dead Rising 3
This list is only going to get longer now that XP is officially dead
And in a couple of years when the games that require DX11 are on sale I might consider upgrading at that point. I've lost interest in paying 50+ for a game that sales out for half that in a year.
Mine is 5 years old. The most demanding game I play is Civ V. I've upgraded the video card, replaced the HDD, and upgraded from Vista to Win 7. I'll probably replace it in the next two years.
Specs:
intel core 2 quad @ 2.39 Ghz
8 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT 1 GB
1 TB HDD
Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit
7+ years here for my main rig:
System Information
------------------Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1System Model: EVGA 132-YW-E178-FTWProcessor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.8GHzMemory: 8192MB RAMHDD1: Samsung 840 Pro 512GB SSDHDD2: Seagate 1TB Solid State Hybrid Drive (ST1000LM014)ODD: Panasonic UJ240 6x Blu-ray Burner BD-RE/8x DVD±RW DL
Display Devices
---------------Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470Display Memory: 4048 MBCurrent Mode: 2560 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)Monitor Model: ASUS PB298Native Mode: 2560 x 1080(p) (59.978Hz)Output Type: HDMI
I do have another system that I am in the works of getting up as a replacement (currently down for LC improvements). That one is based on a EVGA 270-WS-W555-A2 (Classified SR-2) with 2 Intel X5650's, 24GB ECC RAM, and 3 780's.
My machine is partly 7 years old
I switched Graphicscard in 2011, chassi and systemdrive in 2014.
I'm ready to upgrade the CPU but I don't need to as I max everything I play right now. There's also the problem that if I upgrade the CPU then i have to upgrade memory and motherboard as well! THEN we got the thing that DDR4 is on the horizon and therefore I can just as well buy some old parts.
My Main/Gaming Computer 1> year old
AMD FX 9370 8 CORE CPU
POWERCOLOR AMD R9270X GPU 2GB
16 GB MEMORY
HDD 3 TB (Split into 3 partitions)
Dual Monitors
Win 7 Pro 64 bit
The computer this replaced was 9 +
Intel dual core (don't remember specs)
4 GB MEMORY
Integrated GPU
500 GB HDD
Win XP upgraded to Win 7 Home 32 bit (but the computer could have supported 64 bit)
i built mine in august 2010, added/replaced few things in 2011/12 and since then its been the same. Not planning to change anything in the near future, even though i would love to upgrade my GPU, but sadly the only possible upgrade would cost 3000 EUROs...
Just upgraded my work/gaming PC. The last one lasted about 4 years, but what do you expect from a laptop
I haven't looked into it in a very long time, but you can play decent games on a laptop without upgrading the graphics card and RAM nowadays, or are out of the box, middle of the road, laptops sufficient?
They are, but since I work and game on that PC daily it has taken a beating. Currently it is suffering from a cooling problems and lowers the performance on a lot of games. It still works well for many of the games I play, but it just doesn't have the staying power it once did.
The upgrade is mostly for my other home PC which has been around for about 9+ years. But when I finally convinced the wife to upgrade that computer, I might as well make it a better gaming computer
If I can figure out a cheap and sure way to keep my laptop cool, I could still run many of the games that are coming out (at medium / low settings)
you can replace Ram on most of the Laptops - even Hardrives if needed - however its a bit more expensive then a Desktop Version.
Graphic Cards and CPU are permanently attached to the Mainboard of a Laptop so no replacement here - however for most of the Games a Laptop will work well in medium or high Settings ( if you dont buy the average Crap from your local Electronic Superstore )
btT : I replace my Hardware every 3 Years ,but only in Parts recently i bought a FX8350 and a Radeon 280x - the older Parts will find a new Home in Computers of my Family and Friends
@ Parrot - look for Cooling Pads - Thermaltake is building them among others
I used to build a bleeding edge box every 6 months just to build it, but lifestyle changes and other time constraints have resulted in not starting any new games in almost 6 years.
AN8 SLI-32 Deluxe
AMD Phenom(tm)II X6 Core Processor 3.00GHz
8.00 Gigabyte Ram
(2X) Western Digital Raptor 10,000 RPM 76gig (RAID-0)
(2X) GTX 8800 Graphics Cards (Still amazing benchmarks)
Windows 7 64 Bit Ultimate
don't know about gaming pc as i only have 1 pc.. fairly modest thing.... 7 years old i think... e6750. think i'm on my 3rd gfx card (or is it 4th? they keep dying on me ).. replaced and added more ram. had to get a new psu too... and replaced vista with fresh install of win 7 a few years back. had a new keyboard (logitech solar) and has gone through a bunch of mice..
the dvd drive (not that i use it much) bites. literally. open it and it'll close pretty much before you can put the disc in .. never even used all those sd card/etc port thingys they put in the front. the company i bought it from has long since gone bust (might have been resurrected elsewhere)
mb is a p5n32e sli... except i've never sli-ed....
heck... the pcie on the mb is a 1.1...
My laptop is 2 years old, but it wasnt really "top of the line" from the get go. It is now becoming hard to play newer games.
My last rig was a 3 year old i5 quad core 3 gig system with 6 gigs of ram, and a gforce 250gt 2 gig video card. It is still running. I just dont have it any more. It was handed down to my son. Otherwise i probably would still be using it, and upgrading it. The funny thing is my laptop has almost exactly the same specs as my old desktop. Except a has crappy intel GPU.
The rig i built before lasted me almost 6 years before it became beyond obsolete.
My old rig:
Core duo E6550
GTX 460
4gb ram
Still playable after 5-6y
I'm at 5 years, I've added some ram and a new video card, but that's it. Oh, and went form windows V to 7. Was a cheap Dell and still plays new games fine.
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