How often do you upgrade your PC

[b0redom]

Every 2 or 3 iMac cycles. They tend to hold their value pretty well, so for around the cost of a new GPU I get a whole new computer. Before I switched over to Mac, I spent way too much time and money having a computer in parts/being upgraded.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you are gamer probably every 12 months to 24 months. If you are not,then many years.

I know plenty of people using Windows 7 with laptops they bought as launch still and they were under £500.

It is a myth that Windows PCs need "upgrading" all the time since any PC that could run Vista fine,can run Windows 7 or Windows 8 fine.

Heck,I am using Windows 8 on a Zotac 9300 mini-ITX system with 4GB of DDR2,a 9300 IGP,a 2.6GHZ Celeron E3400 and a 64GB SSD. Its perfectly fine for most general uses.

My old Q6600 based box from 2008 with 4GB of DDR2 would have run Windows 7 and 8 perfectly fine. It was fine with Vista.

[Phage]

As a gamer I run the CPU and GPU until they struggle with the games I want to play. As Cat said that's usually about every two years. Other parts like the PSU are c.2009, and the optical and fans older than that.

[Dog]

Probably about once a year but not a full overhaul. It mainly depends on the current hardware that is out and also the games. It's impossible to get ahead with a GPU as something new always seems to be coming out. However my RAM and CPU are usually fine, it just depends what has been released.

[DustAddicted]

I think i also just upgrade each 2 years like most of you guys, Though i have to resist myself buying a new one every month

[TerminatorUK]

I have no fixed interval other than 'when it feels right'.

I know that sounds stupid but PC Hardware tech is very unpredictable - sometimes you get periods of little innovation (like the infamous NVIDIA 8800 GT re-brands over a couple of years or the fairly stale progress between Sandybridge and Haswell Intel CPUs etc..) and then something will come along that is a 'must have' or makes a significant difference (e.g. like when the 5000 series ATI DX11 cards landed in 2009 or the Athlon 64 Socket 939 CPUs came out in 2005 etc...).

That said these days I still attempt to upgrade where I can sell my existing gear for a reasonable price on eBay so that effectively I'm getting new components for an 'upgrade top-up fee' and re-cooping a good margin of my outlay.

I couple this up with squirreling away £10-20 a month into a separate savings fund (amazing how it adds up over time) and bingo...you've sort of got yourself a 'free' upgrade at the point you want to get something new rather than feeling 'guilty' about spending a shed load of cash on buying the latest shiny thing outright.

Just my 2p worth...

[koyejo]

I always upgrading parts of the pc when i get a deal for a better one

[Thorsson]

Hmm, I used to upgrade pretty much every year, although only CPU/GPU/Mobo/Memory, the rest lasted longer. Then it went to 2, and now it's 3+. Actually my latest change was the keyboard, because the old one pretty much wore out.

[Warsam71]

Right! About keyboard (and mouse), I think it's time for me to get a new gaming set. I've been using the Logitech G15 keyboard and the G9x mouse for more than 5 years now. Any recommendations?

[mikeo01]

Um up until last year every year. Lately it's every couple of months in this case 5 weeks

[minicale]

I plan on upgrading mine fairly often over the next few months but thats because I plan on doing it in chunks rather then in a mass upgrade/new rig.

[Fitfreak]

my computer has recently slowed down a lot? what do you recommend I change to make it back to its speed? its got 4gb Ram at the moment

[Lee H]

The truthful answer is it depends on what new hardware is released to the market.

I've still got my 2500K system as the CPU doesn't need upgrading but recently added 4 more 250 GB SSD drives, upgraded from my GTX 570 to a GTX 770.

That will tide me over for another year or so I reckon

[Warsam71]

my computer has recently slowed down a lot? what do you recommend I change to make it back to its speed? its got 4gb Ram at the moment

Hi Fitfreak,

Adding another 4GB of memory will help. And if you have Windows 7 (32-bit) you will need to upgrade it to 64-bit.

[Warsam71]

Hi Fitfreak,

Adding another 4GB of memory will help. And if you have Windows 7 (32-bit) you will need to upgrade it to 64-bit.

I almost forgot, another thing you can do to boost overall performance of your system is by installing and SSD; run your games from the SSD and use your HDD for storage

[kalniel]

Hi Fitfreak,

Adding another 4GB of memory will help.

I'd sound a severe note of caution with that advise. It's very unlikely that in normal usage his existing 4GB is not enough. If he is not hitting memory swap issues then adding more RAM will NOT help. If he is hitting memory swap issues in normal usage then he has another problem that should be cured at the source, not by simply patching up the symptoms, so again, adding another 4GB RAM is not the best solution.

If he has changed the usage of the computer, and is now performing tasks that need a lot of RAM and that's causing slowdown by having to use virtual memory then yes, adding more RAM would help. But you'd know about that, you wouldn't complain that it's unexpectedly slowed down.

tl;dr: If your computer has slowed down, reverse the thing that causes it to slow down.