Upgrades: How long is reasonable ?

[exAndrzej]

Corporates are used to buying products with 3-5 year cycles where the successful supplier must give some kind of guarantee that the components used in the box will be available for X years

Smaller system vendors are cursed by this

They can make their offer look stunning - specification/performance wise - but guaranteeing to be able to supply components for 3 years can be tough unless you are a multi-national

My question is this...

...How long is reasonable ?

For example, if you buy a product which should be upgradeable - then for how long after you buy it (assume from new - with sensible profits) is the manufacturer liable to supply the upgrade ?

Graphics companies like ATI still offer tons of AGP cards - and looking after our AGP customers is a big concern for us

Indeed, we still ship PCI cards to those customers who require them

So how long is reasonable ?

[Stoo]

Around 3 years is about right I think..

I tend to do a major upgrade every 3 years, with smaller updates every year or so (ram, hdd additions as needed)

[exAndrzej]

...upgrade every...

Hmm

Good point

Let me clarify

I am talking about situations where the technology itself is fairly new - i.e. less than 12 months in the field

It would not be sensible to have products available for upgrade for 36 months when they have already been sold for 3 years

[javalord]

When what I do will actually benefit significantly from an update.

[Kezzer]

Depends on my money situation. If i've got some spare moolah i usually upgrade. I just recently upgraded to a 64-bit system which i'm very happy with and had only previously done some upgrades a few months before. I hadn't changed motherboard / CPU for about 2 and a bit years though and they were still going strong

[Russ]

im still using an xp1700, dont need to upgrade yet

[Dihi Doctor]

Upgrades for me have become not so much necessary as desirable; there is not very much that I do that requires the upgrade - I just wanna go faster. This is esp true since I have stopped playing loads of new games. Realised this after my first year of uni, so this year have spent a lot less (to the benefit of my bank account )

[Jonny]

I agree with all three of the first choices -
Less than 12 months is a joke, and 12 to 24 months is a minimum, but 24-36 months is what we expect!
Lol.
I think it depends really on what is out. I mean give it a year or two and it will all be 64 bit, PCI-E. But before these two advances, nothing major really came out for a couple of years. It all depends.

[Allen]

I wouldn't class additional RAM or HDD's as upgrades. I would consider a mobo, CPU or graphics card as one though. I bought my XP2500+ over a year ago, my DFI at the same time as my XP2500+ and my 6800GT about 6 months ago. I don't see myself upgrading any of those in the next year at least as they can do everything I want them to do right now.

I don't think I quite understand the question though, Andrzej. Are you asking us what we think the shelf life of certain products should be? If so, as long as possible really. PC World (perhaps not the best example) still sell 32MB PCI cards and so they should. Not everyone, in fact the vast minority, want the latest and greatest hardware, that's why we are enthusiasts. By taking old(ish) products off the market you will force non-enthusiasts to either buy new products they don't need/want or just stick with what they have, and I think that would hurt the market more than anything.

If that is not what you're asking, please clarify for the dunces like me.

[yamangman]

I think some people have misunderstood Andrzej's question. He's talking about PC manufacturers. For how long should THEY supply you with upgrades.

[Allen]

So, for instance, if I was to buy a pre-made PC from Dell, how long should they be able to provide parts for it? There should be no time length IMO. They should be able to provide the parts for as long as I would need them, if not, a more up-to-date part to replace it.

[Moonshade]

I agree with all three of the first choices -
Less than 12 months is a joke, and 12 to 24 months is a minimum, but 24-36 months is what we expect!
Lol.
I think it depends really on what is out. I mean give it a year or two and it will all be 64 bit, PCI-E. But before these two advances, nothing major really came out for a couple of years. It all depends.

I totally agree with you, but I voted for 24-36 months is what we expect!

//Moonie

[Stoo]

Ya, from new I'd expect support for it to be available for 3 years.
i.e. buy a motherboard and I'd want driver updates/bios upgrades frequently released, and for the connectivity to be not obsolete during that time (and for a while after that tbh).

eg. Having just bought a pci-express motherboard, I expect to be able to purchase cards/ram/new cpu's for it for the next 3 years at least..