How often would you update a computer

Question

How long should you hold on before it's time to say goodbye?

Answer 1

Depends.... spend 500 dollars on a computer and you are looking at 6 months to a year before and update....

You spend 1000 bucks on a PC you got about 2 years....

Spend 2000 bucks on a computer you can hold off about 3-4 years while upgrading on the way....

Make the computer yourself and you are just replacing it piece at a time....

Answer 2

There is no set time limit truthfully.  You should keep the computer for as long as its doing what you want it to do.  When it can no longer accomplish this, then its time to say goodbye.  Because of this, the life of the computer depends on the user.  If you are going to be using cutting edge games and complex programs, the life of your computer is going to be short, since you need newer and newer technology to keep up.  If all you are doing is using it as a word processor and to check email, then it could be really long.   I know someone who has a six month old computer and is already talking about upgrading, and another who has an 8 year old computer and is happy as a clam.

Another thing is, sometimes cheap upgrades can really extend the life of your computer.   Need a new dvd/cd drive?  They run around 25 bucks.  Running out of disk space?  A new hard drive can run you around 100.  Computer running a little slow?  Some new Ram will run you around 75 or 100 bucks.  Need some more video power?  A new video card will run you around 150 bucks.  All these updgrades are extremely easy to do, and can double the life expectancy of your computer.   My desktop computer has been slowely been upgraded over the last 7 years and I have never not been able to do what I want.  I went from a 256 Ram, 80 gig hd, cdrw, 64 meg video card to 1 gig of ram, 200 gig hd, dvdrwm and 256 video card.  At this point I have maxed out the potential of the motherboard/processor and plan to replace the computer, but for maybe 400 bucks of upgrades over the last 7 years, I have been extremely happy and have always been able to do anything I wanted, including video and photo editing, gaming(not crysis, but still), web, etc.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

currently a duo core CPU with 2gigs of ram and a 7900+ Nvidia gpu is standard fair for most users...

in the future most programs will switch to 64bit, require a cpu near 3ghz "maybe quad" and 4+ gigs ram with a 9000 generation gpu... i see this within a year for a top-o-the-line system....

right now Graphics is the only thing moving forward in Personal Computing...  were at a standstill in processing, adding more cores since we cant break the 3ghz barrier due to thermal reasons..

ram and graphics...  and soon solid state hard drives.... thats the future untill we can find a new way to make CPU's

on the $500 dollar thing, Asus makes one that would be considered a high end gaming rig with only a graphics card installed...  rather the MB/Ram/Cpu are the best you can get in large quantities... all thats needed is a high end GPU and boom, a crysis machine is born... PC's are cheap now due to the tech-slowdown

Answer 4

do u mean software?,or the computer.if u meant the computer,so it should be at least 2 years 4 me,because there are so many interesting models coming out.

Answer 5

I would consider the following...

Desktop or laptop? - Desktops are easier to upgrade, so I generally hang onto them longer.  Laptop upgrades are generally more expensive and more difficult to do.

How handy are you?  If you can upgrade components yourself, you can save money and hang onto PCs much longer.  Most upgrades are relatively simple if you invest some time to learn.  Lots of help is available on web forums.

Manufacturer - some PCs have proprietary components which are very difficult to upgrade and may not be worth the trouble or expense to do so.

What are you using it for? - For example, I use a high--end PC to run flight simulation software.  Generally, the software is extremely powerful, but requires a high-performance machine in order to take advantage of all the software features.  If all you're doing is web-surfing, word processing, or spreadsheets, you can get by with a much less powerful machine and may not need to upgrade in order to use it for years.

Cost.  If you're able to get what you need from a low end PC, don't bother with upgrades, just buy another unit..  Not necessarily the most environmentally friendly way to go, but probably the best economic choice.

General rule of thumb...

High performance machine - $2,500+ - 4 years assuming good upgrade capability

Mid-performance- 6+ years

Low end- 4+ years - largely dependent on upgrade capability.

Answer 6

It depends on what you plan to do with your computer.. if you are into gaming... a top of the line PC will maybe last 2 years. If you need it for office work think 4 or 5 years. I have a p2 computer acting as a home server and i got that nearly 8 years ago and its still going strong  

Answer 7

That completely depends on you. Some computer enthusiasts are updating their hardware all of the time. Some people like to buy budget computers and keep them for years.

It all depends on how much money you have, and what you need. There is no set period of time you should wait before you upgrade your computer.