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Upgrades

When Is A Good Time To Upgrade? 490

Posted by timothy from the why-it's-nice-of-you-to-ask dept.
Andru Edwards writes "In an article which looks at the techie's mindset as it pertains to upgrading, Hector Martinez takes a deeper look at what makes us want to buy the latest gadgets. What are your options, and when should you actually just keep what you already have?"
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When Is A Good Time To Upgrade? More

When Is A Good Time To Upgrade?

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  • Always (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:20PM (#10781559)
    On the old Slashdot, there wouldn't have been any other answer.

    • Re:Always (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yes, always. Always just before the new version comes out.

    • Re:Always (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Kryxan ( 767161 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @08:26PM (#10782763)
      Speaking of old slashdot, since when did such ignorance get to make the headlines.
      One time my PC kept shutting down on me for no apparent reason. After about an hour it just kept pooping out on me. I turn it back on, and it would last another 30 minutes before giving up. One day I tried this too many times and something in the back end of the case exploded, leaving tendrils of smoke climbing out the back of the desk. Turned out the power supply fan wasn't working and it kept heating up my PC, causing it to shut down as a form of protection. But I had friends in high places. For a mere $20, I was able to buy a new power supply and bring the whole system back from the dead, almost a full year later. The key is this: If it's only partially broken you can get away with saving a little cash.

    • Re:Always (Score:3, Insightful)

      by smarthippy ( 528114 )
      "Always" is spot on the mark, for Gentoo users. Gentoo releases are just lines in the sand, announced for the purpose of printing LiveCDs. We have to change a symlink which determines which version is running every year or so, but all programs are upgraded incrementally on demand using the best of breed package management facility, Portage. To quote the docs on the subject of upgrades:

      "Here in Gentoo land, the concept of upgrading is quite different compared to the rest of the Linux world. You probably al

      • Re:Always (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Taurine ( 15678 )
        Why do you think there is so much hate towards Gentoo on this forum? Its because given ANY subject at all, some idiot will try to bring the virtues of Gentoo into it. Last year it was the Debian users. In the end they took the hint and just got on with using their favourite distribution without crapping on at everyone about it all the damn time! I use Gentoo, and it riles me to keep seeing all this out-of-place advocacy on /. People are going to be down on me for using Gentoo before long, and its all becaus

  • Obvious Answer: (Score:4, Funny)

    by zoobaby ( 583075 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:20PM (#10781564)
    I upgrade when I get the money.

    • Re:Obvious Answer: (Score:5, Funny)

      by isometrick ( 817436 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:21PM (#10781574)
      So ... when your mom gives you your allowance? ;)

    • Re:Obvious Answer: (Score:4, Interesting)

      by billysielu ( 818427 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:24PM (#10781599) Homepage
      when it doesnt do what i want it to do. i generally buy top-of the range stuff so i dont have to upgrade for a very long time (if ever)

      • Re:Obvious Answer: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by AviLazar ( 741826 )
        How do you never have to upgrade your electronics? Even if you buy the latest and greatest (i.e. the new NVidea or Radian card) you will still have to upgrade in a 2-3 years if you want to play the latest and greatest. As for things like DVD players. Well I could have stayed with my four year old DVD player - but I like being able to play .avi, vcd, mpeg, etc files and that simply wouldn't do it. I have had my latest DVD player for almost two years and probably will have to upgrade it in another two yea

        • Re:Obvious Answer: (Score:4, Insightful)

          by AuMatar ( 183847 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:44PM (#10781866)
          Well then your hardware isn't doing what you want it to do, is it?

          Personally, I don't need a DVD player to play avis, vcds, etc. I don't ever even watch those on the computer. I want my DVD player to play little round discs drom Blockbuster. It does that, so I'll keep it til it breaks. Which may be a very long time- I kept the same cheap-ass stereo from age 14-24, it did what I needed it to- play fm radio.

          Same with computers- I don't upgrade until there's some software I want to run that I can't. Usually thats a game, and that tends to be every 4 years or so (I don't play FPS, so I don't tend to push the envelope too much). I'll be upgrading 1 of my 2 computers soon- basicly to run MythTV so I can get rid of my DVD player, old video game systems, VCR etc entirely. It'll only be a small upgrade though- adding some cards to my linux box. After that I don't see myself buying any new electronics for 3-4 years, unless something breaks.

      • Re:Obvious Answer: (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Jason1729 ( 561790 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:43PM (#10781842)
        The top-of-the-range stuff is the biggest rip-off in terms of price per length of time you get to use it. I discovered that a long time ago. I bought a high-end ATI 9600 baud modem for $600 because it had all sorts of great features. I could have bought a cheap one for $300, but I figured I use my modem a lot and I want the best. A year later, I replaced it with a 14.4k modem that cost $150 and didn't have the nice features but it was 50% faster so it was unambiguously better. It just doesn't pay to get the bells and whistles because the core features get stale so fast.

        Does it matter if your CD-RW drive can burn at 8x or 40x when the DVD+-RW drives are under $100?

        Jason
        ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]

        • Re:Obvious Answer: (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Ohreally_factor ( 593551 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @09:18PM (#10783201) Journal
          Did you buy the $300 modem the week it first shipped, or did you buy it a month before newer and faster modems appeared? It really makes a big difference when you purchase during a particular products life cycle.

          A case in point is my brother-in-law, a total gadget freak. (Hi Karl!) I think he once told me he "invests" around $500 in gadgets every year, but he always has the latest and greatest of everything. His method is to buy what he wants the moment it's shipping, and then immediately selling the gadget it is replacing on ebay. Part of why this works is that the "top-of-the-range" stuff tends to hold it's value longer.

          I know someone else that does this with Macs. He's always got the latest, most powerful system, and he is able to afford this because he can always find a buyer willing to pay a good price for last years top of the line system. I'm not sure what his yearly outlay is, but it's not $5000 a year.

        • Pompus Answer: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Zillatron ( 415756 )
          I've described my buying habits as "living on the 'nicely healing thank you very much' edge of technology." I never have teh new hottness and I don't miss it. I play games that are two years old or older (I just finshed Serious Sam - dang - older than most I've played but worth my time) and most of the stuff I get is new to me and seems advanced, but I've let a couple of years go by and can appreciate the advances on a time delay for $5 to $20. This is even enough time to let the reviews guide my way.

          Th

    • Damn straight.
      I have a P3 - 800Mhtz scsi desktop. Now when I upgrade (get the money) the only thing that will go from that box to the new one is the SCSI (well because adaptec scsi devices are so expensive). But price is a main factor.
      If i could upgrade every year, however, I would probably do it every two years. Just so I can run the latest and greatest games smoothly. I might wait for three, but two would be ideal IMHO.
    • I upgrade when I get the money.

      What do you think credit is for.

    • Re:Obvious Answer: (Score:5, Funny)

      by Soko ( 17987 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:30PM (#10781692) Homepage
      I upgrade when I get the money.

      And I get the money when my lovely bride (read: Domestic Finanacial Manager) decides to give it to me. (Hi, hon!)

      Soko

  • Don't. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by torpor ( 458 ) <ibisum AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:22PM (#10781586) Homepage Journal
    I've been in computers for 20 years. I'm now thinking that, all along, this whole 'upgrade' thing is a pile of crap.. .. I'm not thinking of upgrading any more. I'm thinking "maybe its time to learn assembly, chuck away all this bloat, and push this metal really hard".

    Seriously. Upgrading is bad for the environment, especially if you do it in some sorta consumerican goose-step, a fatal religion.

    Lets see an "Ask Slashdot" about 'how did you bring old hardware new life'? Its much more impressive to me to see someone downgrade, albeit with new non-bloated software, than it is to see the 'latest and greatest' ricerbox being sliding off someones credit card ..

    • Re:Don't. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Elwood P Dowd ( 16933 ) <judgmentalist@gmail.com> on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:28PM (#10781662) Journal
      ++

      The article hits it pretty close to the mark with:
      When you can't live without it.
      and
      When it's completely busted.
      I'm still using my dual-usb iBook, even after the LCD died. I hope to buy a new computer around 2010 at the earliest.

    • Re:Don't. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by AKAImBatman ( 238306 ) * <akaimbatman@gmaYEATSil.com minus poet> on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:30PM (#10781693) Homepage Journal
      Truth be told, the "upgrade" cycle was caused by PCs. PCs used to be so underpowered, that you'd need to occasionally upgrade just to run the simplest of programs. Here's my upgrade cycle:

      ~1985 - PC jr (upgraded because of lack of memory)
      ~1988 - Laser XT (upgraded because of 640K and GUIs)
      ~1992 - 486 DX2 (upgraded because 4MB wouldn't run Win95)
      ~1995 - Pentium 120 (upgraded because 16MB was too little for modern programs)
      ~2000 - Homebuilt PIII 733/512MB/80Gig

      Note that the last item shows no "upgrade" cycle. That's because I haven't upgraded. I built my machine for capacity, and it has held up for about four years. Even more interesting is that I have no current plans at upgrading that machine. All of my current thoughts are leaning toward getting a used Ultra80, and wiring up the entire house with thin-client services.

    • Re:Don't. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by epiphani ( 254981 )
      Im not sure where I originally heard this, probably here, but the parent makes a good point. It is Gates' Law. Every 18 months, the speed of software is reduced by 50%

      I personally run two 800Mhz machines. I upgraded one of them from a 250Mhz machine a few months ago for all of $200 - including an 80GB HD. The other was severance pay from my old dot.bomb.

      I'm starting to consider moving to something in the multi-gigahertz range, but I'm waiting for a few things to pick up. PCI-X is a big one. I dont

    • Re:Don't. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by mqx ( 792882 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:46PM (#10781884)
      I was recently lectured by someone who worked in marketing in a UK HI-FI R&D company in the 1980's: his insightful comment (which must also apply to many other technologies, such as computers and mobile phones) was "the key thing we understood is that high fidelity market was not a technology market, it was a fashion market". I'd bet that a lot of slashdot readers are fashionistas more than technocrats - and I'd like to hear some ideas on what behaviours distinguish each type of person.

      • Re:Don't. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by psetzer ( 714543 )
        God, I remember someone writing that you had to have premium handmade fiberoptic cable, and that spending a mere $80 bucks on it would destroy the sound quality, damn what those ignorant fools say about the signal being digital and having built in ECC. 99% of audiophile spending is on snake-oil, but for the love of Christ, they don't want to hear about double-blind tests, actual physics, or why you can use just about anything electrically conductive to send a digital signal.

    • Re:Don't. (Score:5, Informative)

      by @madeus ( 24818 ) <slashdot_24818@mac.com> on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @07:17PM (#10782171)
      Its much more impressive to me to see someone downgrade, albeit with new non-bloated software, than it is to see the 'latest and greatest' ricerbox being sliding off someones credit card ..

      I dislike badly written software, (for example most MMORPG's have very poor 3D engines compared to most single player games - as an avid gamer this is a bug bear of mine) and I think it's been clear over the last 20 years that there are diminish returns in each upgrade cycle (Mac OS 6 through 9 were all faster to use for regular desktop bound tasks than Mac OS X for example, and it's not at all clear that the additional features are worth the disproportionate drop in speed - similar things can be said of the Windows platfom in comparing Windows XP to Windows 3.1).

      I think it's fair to say that both Mac OS 7 and Windows 95 were faster for navigating directories, opening word processor documents and checking email on average hardware for the time than either Mac OS X or Windows XP are on significantly newer hardware. Linux on my 1.5 Ghz PowerBook is *staggeringly* fast compared to Mac OS X for example (so much so, that I'm very tempted to keep buying the hardware, because I like the feature set, but switch back to Debian). The very apparent lack of optimisation on Mac OS X is just staggering.

      However...

      I can honstly say that I find it much more impressive for me to see Doom 3, PlanetSide or Unreal 2 running on high end new hardware and it is to see that after months of hard work they have managed to port a rather mundane title to a 10 or 20 year old system. The price of not having bloated software is sometimes just that - a mesurable monetary cost which someone has to be willing to bear. Time, money and the very real resultant possiblity that if it can't be made quickly it can't be made at all (which in the case of some software, could be be bad for overall productivity).

      I do think OS vendors have a lot to answer for - they are responsible for massive amounts of bloat (particularly Microsoft and Apple), but other than the period release of a new OS like XP or OS X, it's games more than anything that drive the cycle, and most developers are keen to do as much as they can to keep the performance as good as possible within reasonable limits.

      I hear David Braben is working on a sequal to Elite, I'm sure it will be very tighly coded. I think perhaps it will be a long time coming though - if, dare I say it ever.

      I do not think coding in assembly is very efficient, as it takes significantly longer to write complex software, which is why we have C (and other higher level languages). We should be picking the right battles I think. Perhaps by attacking poorly implimented and very inefficent high level languages and ensuring we have good compiler technology (and run time engines) to appropriatly optimise software to make use of the hardware it's running on.

      Hardly any programs (certainly hardly any of the programs I use) take advantage of features like Altivec (on PPC G4's) or Hyperthreading (on Intel P4's) - having them do so by being appropriately written and having compilers that can do a good job of optimisation would be a big step in the right direction. It was the efforts of Motorola (donating code to GNU/FSF) and the work of companies like Red Hat and independant individuals that Altivec optimisation was added gcc for example - yet Apple rely on it, even ship it on CD/DVD with every Macintosh, as such many would think perhaps they should have been leading contributions to such a project. Which brings me to perhaps one of the best targets for bloatware critisim - vendors of commercial operating systems (i.e. Sun, Apple, Microsoft) - some of there software is frankly appaulingly slow given the hardware it runs on, and what they do in many ways sets the tone for the rest of the industry.

      • Re:Don't. (Score:4, Funny)

        by Tim Browse ( 9263 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @07:58PM (#10782506)
        I hear David Braben is working on a sequal to Elite, I'm sure it will be very tighly coded. I think perhaps it will be a long time coming though - if, dare I say it ever.

        When did you hear that? Must have been a while ago, because two sequels have already been developed and released. Quite a long time ago, too.

        How many rods per hogshead does your car get?

      • Re:Don't. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by ThousandStars ( 556222 )
        Modern OSes may feel like they run somewhat slower on today's hardware than older OSes felt on yesterday's hardware, but today's OSes also do a lot more. I've yet to crash OS X, or even a single program save the ones I've written; yet Win95, when I used it, regularly gave me the blue screen of death. Today I have true multi-tasking, advanced networking, plug-n-play, Expose, and a host of other features that make my computing experience generally more plesant and productive. I can do much more much faster on

    • Re:Don't. (Score:4, Funny)

      by antiMStroll ( 664213 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @07:17PM (#10782173)
      Let me know when you're done squeezing eight-five 8x anti-aliased frames per second @ 1200x1024x32 on a P3 with that assembler version of Far Cry and I'm behind you all the way. :)
    • I can send back my Mac to Apple, they will recycle most of what's left of it. The whole process is explained in their recycle page.

      My computer is a Powerbook G3 400, I am still very happy about this computer, however, 7 years after I bought it, it begins to lack the vigor of before, and I am left struggling to play XVIDs for example. And actions that takes 10 minutes on my job's PC takes hours in here (thanks, no Altivec). And some parts are starting to crumble too (no more sound card, sometimes USB hangs,

    • Re:Don't. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by drsquare ( 530038 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @09:04PM (#10783087)
      Upgrading drives progress. If no-one upgraded to faster and better hardware, no-one would make any better hardware, and we'd all be using 1Mhz processors with 256kB of RAM.
  • I upgrade when (1) a new model is available and (2) there's headroom on my "use for tech purchases only" credit card.

    • Re:I upgrade when... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by gid ( 5195 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:37PM (#10781771) Homepage
      You should pay all those credit cards off and upgrade only when you need more speed and have enough money to cover your full credit card bill next month... but that's just me--I don't like throwing money away. I know, I know... I'm unamerican.

      • Re:I upgrade when... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by zoloto ( 586738 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @07:49PM (#10782445)
        This might seem off topic, but I like how being American has become synonymous with "wasteful and willful negligence" as well as corporatism and greed. I am an American and this is what I am building, as has my family:

        If it is not broke, do not fix it.

        Be able to pay off your credit card in full each month.

        Debt is bad; avoid it at all costs, sans emergencies.

        Do not spend simply because you have an excess of cash - emergencies are not cheap.

        Insurance may cover that slight fender bender, but if you can fix it yourself or leave it you will be doing your premiums and your actual monthly insurance cost (by keeping it lower) a favor.

        There may be an "I" in family, but do not spend like it.

        This is probably unpopular with the consumerism trend and the encouragement of our government to "spend, spend, spend" to keep our economy strong and it is just a total farce. I swear the economy can do much better if based on something other than the revolving debt of our society. Now back to the main point: You do not "need" the latest hardware, software or gadgets. However, damn it they sure are fun!

        More on topic, I sure did get your sarcasm. Your point does register with me 100%. It's a shame that too many people aren't like this in their own practice of financial sensibility and responsibility.

        -- just my 2 cents.

        • Re:I upgrade when... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by CommandNotFound ( 571326 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @09:38PM (#10783335)
          Debt is bad; avoid it at all costs, sans emergencies.

          Debt is not always bad. Handled carefully (like fire), it can really be your friend. BTW, I don't consider a reasonably-priced house debt, since it can appreciate and build equity, especially if you pay it off in less than 30 years. I'm talking about consumer debt.

          Anyway, as far as consumer spending goes, I've lived successfully by some basic principles:
          • Everything you buy and bring into your home must be stored, cleaned, repaired, guarded from theft, and otherwise becomes a nuisance/distraction in your life. As you're holding the item in the store, think about the item in those terms, and you'll probably put it down.
          • If you really want something, put it off for two or three weeks. If you still want it after that, you'll probably use it forever; go for it.
          • Don't buy cheap crappy stuff, but don't buy the over-priced premium items, either. The middle-upper range is usually the best buy and will bring most satisfaction.
          • For big, important items that you don't want to deplete your cash for, save up and put half down in cash, and use credit to match the other half. This is especially good for things like electronics, furniture, and other stuff that lasts for years; you'll pay it off a lot quicker, but you don't have to save up forever, either. (this is where debt can be your friend, just make sure you pay it off at the rate you saved the other half)

  • Upgrade time: (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:23PM (#10781594)
    Responibility is when you ask yourself: "Do I *REALLY* need this??"
    Maturity is when you answer: "No."

  • I upgrade after I call Dell tech support (Score:4, Funny)

    by taxman_10m ( 41083 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:24PM (#10781604)
    After speaking with... Kevin... and going in circles for an hour, I break down, and just upgrade whatever part it is that broke.

  • When I change my underwear! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I change my computer everytime I change my underwear.

    So, as far as you know, I've either got really new hardware, or really dirty underwear.

  • Easier Said than Done but, (Score:3, Funny)

    by Donoho ( 788900 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:25PM (#10781616) Homepage
    When urge and wallet/budget can reach mutual satisfaction, purchases should be made.

  • Best time to upgrade? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LegendOfLink ( 574790 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:26PM (#10781630) Homepage
    Easy, when Carmack puts out a new first person shooter.

  • More obvious answer (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Krypto420 ( 652140 )

    When it breaks

  • Every 6 years (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tibor the Hun ( 143056 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:27PM (#10781639)
    But then again I use Apple products. Right now I have a 1.4 G4, and I don't foresee upgrading it for another 3 years...

  • When the need arises (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ircubic ( 813042 ) <ircubic&gmail,com> on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:27PM (#10781653)
    I'm not a gamer, I'm not a graphics editor. What I do on the computer rarely pressurizes my computer so much that I have to update often. Thus, I update my computer whenever I start noticing slowdowns and bottlenecks in my system. My last update was over a year ago, I'd think, I'm still going good and don't think I'll be updating any time in the near future.
    I never saw what was so "cool" about wasting all your money on bleeding-edge CPUs, RAM, and such, and the spending even more money overclocking it to the max. I have no need for it, I stick to what I need, easy as that.
    I can see the gamer wanting to be a it ahead, but taking it to the extreme like that is kinda useless. It just wastes extreme amounts of money on just getting those few extra 5FPSs that you probably won't need anyway. I can understand wanting to stay ahead, but there's no need to stay WAY too ahead way too often.
    In short: I upgrade when my system feels like it's being dominated and spanked by all teh software I run.

  • After new products are announced (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TykeClone ( 668449 ) * <TykeClone@gmail.com> on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:28PM (#10781660) Homepage Journal
    Purchase the older model at a discount.
  • Why else do you need to upgrade? Unless you do some fancy stuff at home chances are that 486 you used to have could get you by. Computers these days (especially at work) are expensive terminals. I use my laptop for email, word processing, spreadsheets, a browser and telneting/vnc'ing into servers.

    The last upgrade I did at home was to play Asheron's Call 2. I got in the WoW beta last night and thankfully my computer can still run it pretty smooth even tho its almost 2 years old. Otherwise i'd have t

  • Simple answer: (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ars-Fartsica ( 166957 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:29PM (#10781679)
    When do you upgrade? If you are poor, hardly ever. If you are rich, whenever you want. In fact for the rich, the hassle of setting up a new piece of equipment is probably a stronger disincentive than the cost.

    • Re:Simple answer: (Score:5, Interesting)

      by johansalk ( 818687 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:41PM (#10781816)
      You're absolutely right about the hassle. I'm not saying I'm rich, but I have a technophilic temptation that often interfers with my functional use of the device. I often find that a slightly older, classic and well-reviewed item works best for me, and I've had many occasions where I bought an "upgrade" that turned out to be less preferable when put to use than item i had it was meant to replace.

  • Actually (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ch-chuck ( 9622 )
    personally, it's when they start to show up on the surplus market! For one thing, if something lasts long enough to be resold it's probably well built,
    which usually means professional quality as opposed to consumer quality. If it's in the toy/entertainment/personal research class I could care less about owning cutting edge gear and paying the premium to get it. For example: A box of 10 18Gb scsi disks for $100.

  • NOW! (Score:5, Funny)

    by i_r_sensitive ( 697893 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:29PM (#10781684)
    Er, no NOW!

    And AGAIN!

    Wait... ...NOW!

    Is it Wednesday? Then my answer is NOW!

    You get the point...

  • When the prices hit the sweet spot (Score:3, Informative)

    by mrbcs ( 737902 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:30PM (#10781699)

    I upgrade to about the middle of the road when the prices drop. I can get asus boards for under $100 canadian and AMD 2400+ were only $80 can retail.

    The new stuff is always way overpriced, and will come down just before it goes out of production.

    I use mostly amd xp2400+ cpus in asus boards with Nvidia 5200's or ati 9200's. Does everything I need them to do.

  • Timely article. (Score:4, Funny)

    by SloWave ( 52801 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:32PM (#10781710) Journal

    I've been trying to decide when to upgrade my 150Mhz box to it's full 233 Mhz capacity. I would have done it some time back but the little LED numbers on the front only go up to 99 and no-one would be able to tell the difference. I have upgraded the software on it over the years from 1.?? Linux to 2.4.+. That was easy.

  • I only upgrade when I need to. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by antdude ( 79039 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:32PM (#10781716) Homepage Journal
    If I wasn't into PC gaming, I wouldn't be needing to upgrade every two years for CPUs, motherboards, etc. Even my P3 1 Ghz office computer does well for what I need to do that doesn't do gaming.

    I reuse old parts for other machine as my Linux workstation which doesn't do gaming. Basically, I reuse stuff for at least four years. Anything else older that I positively won't use again, I donate to charity, sell, etc. Anything broken (e.g., dead mice, printers, etc.), I get rid of them.

    Fact: I finally retired my SB 16 ISA in September 2004. I had it since December 1993. Amazing that it still works. I can't use it anymore with the newer motherboards due to lack of ISA slots. :P

  • Average PC User (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FriedTurkey ( 761642 ) * on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:32PM (#10781718)
    I think the average PC user upgrades when the computer gets unusable with spyware and viruses. Its easier to plunk down $2000 instead of wiping the computer clean. PC manufactures should thank spyware and virus writers. The average PC user would never upgrade again because all they are doing is web surfing.

    • Re:Average PC User (Score:5, Funny)

      by antiMStroll ( 664213 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @07:24PM (#10782238)
      Hell, I'll wipe the drive and reload your software for a low, low $1699 during my November special. An extra $100 will Windex the case.

    • Re:Average PC User (Score:5, Funny)

      by toddestan ( 632714 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @08:13PM (#10782657)
      I think the average PC user upgrades when the computer gets unusable with spyware and viruses. Its easier to plunk down $2000 instead of wiping the computer clean. PC manufactures should thank spyware and virus writers. The average PC user would never upgrade again because all they are doing is web surfing.

      Judging by how fast I have seen clueless PC users can screw up a virgin Windows XP install, you're saying that the average PC user buys a new system every week or so?


  • I still have my old over clocked p300a running at 512mgh, with 128 megs of ram, and a dual voodoo2 set up. This machine is over 6 years old and still does everything for me. Now that i'm grown I dont game as much, more of my time is spent in spread sheet and word. The moral of teh story is dont upgrade until yo uneed to, otherwise your wasting money. I have a friend (rich) who has an apple newton, He also has a dual p4 with rambus memory, and a dvd player with teh old standard. Moral of his story is the ne

  • "whatever you want" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mqx ( 792882 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:34PM (#10781732)

    I'm looking forward to reading the various replies: but honestly, just do as you please. If you're a gadget freak, then upgrade whenever you want the latest. If you're not, then wait until breakage or functionality is required.

    For example, I've had a GSM phone here in the UK for the last 6 years: initially a motorola tri-band that was part of a no initial cost 12 month lock-in contract in 1998: it served me well until 2003, until I took option on a free upgrade to sony ericson T68i (I'd been getting text-messages about free upgrades for 18 months or so, and finally decided to act) - I even got £20 cash back on sending back the old phone! I don't plan to upgrade again for another 3-4 years or more - that'll be 10 years without paying for a phone; and I'm still on a cheap plan from 2001 for low cost calls :-). I don't need to surf the web on a postage stamp, nor take 1mpixel pictures.

    On the other hand, guys I work with have been through the latest and greatest phones every 12-18 months or so - buying expensive camera/colour models. Sure they are nice and snazzy, but honestly, they don't seem to really use all the extra functionality other than as occasional toy. But, it seems to keep them happy. It keeps me happy knowing they're helping drive the technology forward until I decide to upgrade ;-).

    Back to my hand, I do spend ~£500 a month at good restaurants here in London because that's my thing: when taking to one of these constant upgrade guys once, they couldn't understand why anyone would pay more than £30 for a meal.

    It takes all kinds! Just do what makes you happy and just ensure that you're not doing something you might regret such
    as throwing away 10 years of money on frivolous toys - some people actually have no regrets about this type of thing, I would.

  • Hmmm... I would say November 16, 2004. (check the games section)

  • Old as possible (with bailing wire and bubblegum) (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    My laptop doesn't really run the latest distros very well. I added more memory for about a hundred bucks. I run programs off the server in the basement or off my work computer. If I am away from both, I am careful to use programs that don't stress its capabilites. I am happy to type in emacs and format later in OpenOffice. I use iceWm rather than KDE or Gnome. I hope it is a long time before I fork out for a new laptop.

  • Let games be your guide (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Matt Ownby ( 158633 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:37PM (#10781769) Homepage Journal
    I find that a good rule of thumb is to upgrade in order to play the latest computer games well (not barely). This usually will cover all your other bases because computer games require lots of RAM, a fast video card, and a fast CPU, which will go far in making everything else on your computer (video editing/encoding, number crunching, database stuff, business apps, etc) run smoothly too.

    The only thing gaming doesn't necessarily force on you is a huge hard drive.. for hard drives, I'd say get a bigger one when you have to keep deleting stuff to free up space.

    And remember.. if it runs fast enough, you don't need to upgrade.

  • You upgrade when you need to upgrade (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Jason1729 ( 561790 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:37PM (#10781772)
    If your computer still does everything you want it to, don't upgrade.

    Jason
    ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]

  • Right when Apple kills a PowerBook line. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DdJ ( 10790 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:38PM (#10781779) Homepage Journal
    Recently, my strategy has been to buy the very last model in Apple's PowerBook lines. It's worked really well.

    I got the last PowerBook G3 model in 2000. It was fairly maxed out, with a 500MHz G3 and over 300 megs of RAM. All the bugs had been worked out of that product line, and it performed very well. As a matter of fact, that laptop is still perfectly usable as long as I'm not trying to play modern games like KotOR or WoW on it.

    A few years later, I got the last Titanium PowerBook G4 model. It's maxed out, with a 1GHz G4 and 1GB of RAM. All the bugs had been worked out of that product line, and it's performing very well as long as I'm not trying to play a bleeding edge modern game like KotOR. It makes Eclipse dance and sing. Office runs quickly and nicely. All the iApps work beautifully. I have no immediate reason to upgrade, unless I want to run real bleeding edge applications on it. (It's amazing -- I can run a portal server that services dozens of simultaneous users without having the machine even break a sweat, but fire up KotOR and everything grinds to a halt.)

    My next purchase will probably be the last revision of the 15" Aluminum PowerBook G4. At some point they'll do something new, like add dual-core G4s or a G5. When they do, that'll be my signal to buy the last Aluminum G4 model.

    Using this strategy has given me a great balance of inexpensive, well tested, and powerful machines with some serious longevity -- as I said, I'm still using that Pismo, and it's just fine for many applications.
  • Half Life 2

  • Rule of thumb for me (Score:5, Informative)

    by PoderOmega ( 677170 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:38PM (#10781782)
    To fight the urge to constantly be upgrading the last 6 years my rule has been I can upgrade motherboard and CPU every other year and on the off year I can get a new video card. Also, never spend more than $150 on a video card, or $200 on a motherboard and processor. Of course some upgrade require new RAM, so it isn't a perfect rule.
    Other than that I get a new hard drive about every 3 years and I've had to get a new power supply in there somewhere. This has worked well for me.
  • Most of my friends upgrade because they want a faster/bettter system and can at some particular moment afford a larger harddrive, faster processor, or more memory, etc...They see their P4 2ghz and look at that new AMD64 chip and drool, and spend and spend and spend.

    For me I guess I'm just different. I don't upgrade when my system seems slow but instead when something actually runs slow. For example my PC right now is a P4 1.6, 1gb ddr333, and has a 36gb scsi drive in it. Dreamweaver, Quark, Illustrator, an
  • Good friend of mine who is a writer wants to upgrade his computers, so I get a call asking me to come over. He shows me the laptop, the 2 PCs, and the G3. Amazingly, the G3 is the most advanced equipment in his house.

    He uses an IBM Thinkpad with a sub-100 Mhz Pentium processor for writing, a 133 Mhz Desktop Pentium for paying bills, and a Macintosh G3 for gaming (which is limited to an asteroids-type space shooter which he enjoys immensely).

    He mentions his fear in upgrading is that whatever new machine he

  • Step One (Score:3, Funny)

    by No_Weak_Heart ( 444982 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:41PM (#10781820)
    I was powerless over technology and my life had become unmanageable...

  • I upgrade when it's free to do so.. like when one of my friends is upgrading, and drops off their old stuff at my place - all the while *thanking* me for taking it. Truth is, a computer is possibly the worst place to 'invest' your money - perhaps even worse than a typical vehicle.

    Despite the large amount of work I do on & around computers, I find that my needs are actually quite minimal. The K6-2 475 / 96MB laptop I'm writing from right now suits me just great, and is currently the fastest machine I o

  • right now isn't a bad time really. the next gen nvidia cards just came out. amd 64 is going to be in full swing. hardware manufacturers are moving to pci-e. i'd wait until good amd 64 mobos with pci-e are available, and grab a nice geforce 6600 for $150, amd 64 chip for about $150, and the pci mobo to go with it for maybe ~$150
  • ... is the mantra I use to protect my bank account from my lust for shiny new gear.

    The last shiny widget I acquired was my SonyEricsson T610. Unfortunately, I allowed myself to be suckered into a two-year contract (which I am only halfway through) for the pleasure of owning it. The "ooh, shiny!" effect wore off after about a week, and I find I almost never use any of the new features on it (ie: my old rubber Nokia would do the same job).

    My Palm m500 does the job, and is an essential tool at work, and wi

  • budget student man~ (Score:3, Funny)

    by slothbait ( 2922 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:42PM (#10781831)
    I tend to upgrade when my total system RAM is less than the video RAM on the newest card.
    Strangely enough I also seem to triple my clock speed and double my RAM each upgrade.

    It is almost time too.
    /me eyes a motherboard with PCI express and a P4 3.0 HT processor on newegg

  • Depends on the product (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Jakhel ( 808204 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:43PM (#10781857)
    Every 2-3 years I upgrade at least the mother board + cpu of my computer...just to be able to play games at a decent detail setting. I find that I usually end up buying a great (not top of the line, but great) combo. For example, in preparation for hl2 I'll be swapping out an athlon xp 1900 for the athlon64 3000 (as opposed to a 3400 or better) this weekend.

    As far as phones/pda's are concerned, as soon as the one I'm using either starts to act up, or some new innovation in the product market makes the one I'm using obsolete or hard to find replacement parts for I upgrade to the new latest and greatest.

  • Gaming (Score:3, Informative)

    by Gailin ( 138488 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:47PM (#10781890) Homepage
    I pretty much upgrade whenever a game comes out that I can't play with all the eye candy turned on. Which usually works out to every 12-18 months. Most upgrades are incremental as it usually only takes 1 or 2 components to remain current.

    Gailin

  • My policy is 7x improvement. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Kevin Stevens ( 227724 ) <kevstev@ g m a i l .com> on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @06:51PM (#10781926)
    My policy is that I upgrade when there is a 7x improvement in hardware speeds than my current machine at an affordable price. Right now my 700mhz machine is holding up just fine, and I have no problem doing development on it, or playing modest games, or its normal use- websurfing and mp3 jukebox. I am fairly sure that by the time we get to 5ghz, which right now feels like will take an eternity, I will become dissatisfied with the performance enough that I will want to upgrade. CPU speed isnt really what is making me drool, but things like PCI-X, hypertransport, the new fast front side busses, usb2.0, SATA, dual core processors, 64 bit processors, etc. do make me want to upgrade.

    How did I come up w/ the 7x figure? My first real machine was a 100mhz pentium. Around 2000, it started falling behind the software advances, and I could not play free cell without mp3's skipping. This was during the race to 1ghz, and once the processors hit 1ghz the 700mhz chips were a relatively cheap $200 or so, so I went for it. Thats been the standard since.

  • Hell I still run a Celeron 400... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gatkinso ( 15975 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @07:25PM (#10782245)
    ...I'll upgrade when the thing simply refuses to work.

  • When to upgrade?! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anita Coney ( 648748 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @07:30PM (#10782291) Homepage
    When the upgrade offers you something you want to do, but cannot cannot currently do, for a price you're willing to pay.

  • I'm more like my Grandfather, not my Dad (Score:3, Interesting)

    by amichalo ( 132545 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @07:44PM (#10782407)
    When it comes to IT upgrades, I am more likely to skip the next generation product and go for the one that follows it. I didn't set out to do this, but it seems to just work out that way.

    In my mind, I can't justify spending the premium to purchase the latest and greatest when what I have still works, and is a sunk cost. By the time what I have is two generations old, the latest and greatest is a LOT better, when I have may or maynot work so well, and that sunk cost was sunk a while ago so I don't feel the sting as much.

    So when what I have is frustrating to use because it no longer functions properly or just far poorer than new tech, I upgrade.

    A few examples from my own life:
    - I own a 2 megapix digital camera that is a couple years old and has some issues with certain modes. I am going to soon purchas a 5MP camera to replace it.
    - My laptop, a PowerBook G4 400Mhz is a great machine but as I have moved more and more towards an Apple centric home, I kinda want the more powerful systems to do home movie (DV) editing with iMovie and store all my digital music I didn't have when I bought the laptop. I will but buying a G5 iMac in January.
    - That same laptop has an 802.11b Airport card. I have a similar base station but the antena range isn't very good and I cannot get an external antena. I saw a CompUSA sale on 802.11g access points to I pounced last month.

    Is this information interesting? well no, but it held your attention for a few moments anyway.

  • never (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bob_jenkins ( 144606 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @07:52PM (#10782473) Homepage Journal
    It's never a good time to buy a computer, because you could always put off the purchase for two years and get one twice as fast. Or wait two years, and buy the one you really want now for a third the price.

  • "embarassment"? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DogDude ( 805747 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @08:48PM (#10782921)
    I agree with the embarassment thing. Every time somebody shows me a new gadget or computer that they just bought I'm embarassed for them. There's nothing cooler than using old hardware. And by the same logic, there's nothing less cool than buying brand new hardware for no particular reason. Any Joe Schmoe can drive to Wal-Mart and buy the latest and greatest. A real geek will make it work, regardless of hardware.

    • Re:"embarassment"? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by anubi ( 640541 )
      Funny you mention using older hardware being cooler.

      I was taking a class in Data Structures. We had our usual assortment of objects, linked lists, binary search trees, mazes, and graphs to do. I did mine on an old 386SX I had laying around. Borland Turbo C version 3 for DOS.

      There was great mirth in the classroom when the first assignment was due. I was working alongside people with Pentium 3's and thousands of dollars worth of cutting edge software, against just me and a computer I pulled out of the

  • Rule of Two (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ahecht ( 567934 ) on Thursday November 11, 2004 @04:56AM (#10785656) Homepage
    I follow the Rules of Two for upgrades:

    * Never get the two latest models. For example, if I were getting a Pentium 4, I would skip the 3.4GHz and 3.2Ghz and go with the 3GHz.

    * Never upgrade if the old thing works unless the new thing is two times as good. If I have an 80GB drive, I won't upgrade until a 160GB drive fits in my budget. If I have an AthlonXP 1700+, I'll wait for the 3400+. The only exception to this rule is screen size.

    * Never buy a new gadget unless it solved two problems for you. For example, I bought a digital camera because I needed a compact camera for snapshots and because I needed a webcam for video-conferencing.

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