The eternal upgrade dilemna

Hello all.
I have been going through a period of late where I feel the need to upgrade.
Memory, CPU, and Mobo.
Have been >< close to upgrading, but then I ask myself..why...

I feel that so many of us upgrade our pcs frequently when a lot of the time, the actual real world benefit from doing so isnt there.

Ive fairly recently upgraded my gfx card from a lowly Gf3 ( 3 yrs of service - I salute you), to a 6800 gt.
Do you all remember about a yr ago, ppl were frantically upgrading their gfx cards believing that Half Life 2 would soon be upon them?
There were a few voices that said..wait for the game to appear, and lo and behold we find that the current gfx cards run hl2, doom3, fry cry etc, very well indeed.

Still only running an athlon barton 2800+, now the Athlon 64s are great, and a worthwhile upgrade, but when do u consider that a 2800+ still gives you a perfectly good gaming experience when coupled with a decent gfx card, you may well ask yourself...
Is spending approx 500 quid ( cpu + mobo + decent memory) worth an extra 20 or so more fps in the game of your choice when the setup you have is perfectly capable of playing the game you like to play?


I guess the moral of this is: Upgrade when you cant play the games you want
the way they were meant to be played...

Not a question of money...I can well afford to upgrade what I wish to, but when you think what that money could be used for instead..eg a camcorder, etc...it tends to put things into perspective.

Dont get me wrong im not dissing upgraders..i am one myself....just sometimes I think its worth taking a step back and think...hmm is this upgrade worth it?

My 2p worth.

Same here. The amazing thing is that I'm still running an nForce 1 mobo (K7N420) with a 2400+ AthlonXP and Gf4ti4400. I can't believe how old the key parts are, yet it isn't /that/ out of date performance-wise. Lots of fast HDs do help. :) I have to stick to lower resolutions in games, but that's about it. I could whack in a new graphics card, but the lure of an nForce4 mobo is too tempting, so watch out credit card!
One reason I haven't upgraded before is that this system is soooo stable. I've started leaving it on 24/7 running Folding@Home, and it goes for weeks without problems. I only have to reboot to install stuff, etc.

well i think you are damn right

i cant play games full stop any longer since my ti4200 packed up

so im upgrading, hopefully wont need to for another 2 years or so, mabye even longer :)

Pete

The other thing is that some areas of hardware go through "growth spurts" while others tend to lag. A couple of years ago CPU speeds escalated rapidly with dropping prices, but hard drives hardly changed at all in price or spec. Now that situation is completely reversed.
Now is the right time to buy big, fast, quiet, cheap hard drives, and DVD writers. And possibly more RAM if you need it. Everything else is just a luxury, IMO.
But hey, I have to upgrade ... "because I'm worth it!" :)

Yeah, I know what you mean... I'm severely tempted to upgrade to a new A64 with new graphics card etc... But, to be honest I only play games for a few hours a week, and the rest of my computing time seems to be spend doing basic tasks like web browsing or word processing...

But, I'll wait and see how long I can hold out... at the end of the day, I just like having new stuff :)