Tech talk coming in:
If you buy a good 750W PSU from the last 3-5 years, you'll be set for a good long time if it is a solid PSU. You probably won't need more power than that, and if you do, you aren't reading this article
Few things to remember about upgrading: If you are not changing socket type, you can just do upgrades. If you have a massive tower cooler on your CPU, take a good long time considering if you want to upgrade or just wait it out for the next platform, because if you run, say, AM3 socket with a nice Phenom II 955, EVERYTHING has to come out (except maybe the RAM) if you want to change that CPU.
Upgrading RAM should be reserved for 2gb to 4gb, but not 4gb to 8gb, at least at the time of posting. If your needs are for 8gb, then as earlier you aren't reading this article. RAM is by far easiest to change out, but getting it running smoothly is another story
When you change motherboard, you are oftentimes going to be changing out everything, thus making it buying a new computer in the end. A new motherboard after standards change usually entails a new CPU and new RAM, and although not quite as bad as the era between AGP and PCI-e where you HAD to get a new GPU, it still is a good idea to pick one up as well. This isn't upgrading as much as buying a whole new computer anyway. Getting a new MoBo when your old one is otherwise not toasted is a bad idea if you aren't changing platforms completely or you might find yourself out of a few hundred $ and hours of your time.
Back to the Phenom II example. If AMD released a new processer (not the 6 core, that is too specialized) on the AM3 socket that kills it, it may or may not be worth changing out the processor. The trouble lies in the industry itself, due to the rapid progress in core design. If you are an enthusiast, you are overclocking the CPU really far anyway, so any real progress shown in the company will be placed on a new socket design. It makes it pretty hard to upgrade if that is the case, since you'd need a new mobo too, and costs really ramp up from there.
For the present, graphics card upgrades are the safest bet. If you are on a PCI-e 1.0 or better yet 2.0, you are safe upgrading cards for a good long time since it is the standard that will be here to stay. You can get huge performance gains without having to rip everything out and put new parts in with the right graphics card, and someday in the future when PCIe 3.0 is released, those cards will be backwards compatible with your rig. They are truely the way to go if you are upgrading single parts, especially considering their drop-in nature. Do note that if you get a power supply capable of handling one (1, just 1) of the most power-demanding video cards available today, you will be set for life on power demands on the GPU side of things and even the CPU side of things, since cards will take less power to operate as time goes on.
Thank you for reading my speech on PC upgrading vs buying new. Questions? Please ask!
If you buy a good 750W PSU from the last 3-5 years, you'll be set for a good long time if it is a solid PSU. You probably won't need more power than that, and if you do, you aren't reading this article
Few things to remember about upgrading: If you are not changing socket type, you can just do upgrades. If you have a massive tower cooler on your CPU, take a good long time considering if you want to upgrade or just wait it out for the next platform, because if you run, say, AM3 socket with a nice Phenom II 955, EVERYTHING has to come out (except maybe the RAM) if you want to change that CPU.
Upgrading RAM should be reserved for 2gb to 4gb, but not 4gb to 8gb, at least at the time of posting. If your needs are for 8gb, then as earlier you aren't reading this article. RAM is by far easiest to change out, but getting it running smoothly is another story
When you change motherboard, you are oftentimes going to be changing out everything, thus making it buying a new computer in the end. A new motherboard after standards change usually entails a new CPU and new RAM, and although not quite as bad as the era between AGP and PCI-e where you HAD to get a new GPU, it still is a good idea to pick one up as well. This isn't upgrading as much as buying a whole new computer anyway. Getting a new MoBo when your old one is otherwise not toasted is a bad idea if you aren't changing platforms completely or you might find yourself out of a few hundred $ and hours of your time.
Back to the Phenom II example. If AMD released a new processer (not the 6 core, that is too specialized) on the AM3 socket that kills it, it may or may not be worth changing out the processor. The trouble lies in the industry itself, due to the rapid progress in core design. If you are an enthusiast, you are overclocking the CPU really far anyway, so any real progress shown in the company will be placed on a new socket design. It makes it pretty hard to upgrade if that is the case, since you'd need a new mobo too, and costs really ramp up from there.
For the present, graphics card upgrades are the safest bet. If you are on a PCI-e 1.0 or better yet 2.0, you are safe upgrading cards for a good long time since it is the standard that will be here to stay. You can get huge performance gains without having to rip everything out and put new parts in with the right graphics card, and someday in the future when PCIe 3.0 is released, those cards will be backwards compatible with your rig. They are truely the way to go if you are upgrading single parts, especially considering their drop-in nature. Do note that if you get a power supply capable of handling one (1, just 1) of the most power-demanding video cards available today, you will be set for life on power demands on the GPU side of things and even the CPU side of things, since cards will take less power to operate as time goes on.
Thank you for reading my speech on PC upgrading vs buying new. Questions? Please ask!
