PCs: Upgrading vs. Getting a new one?

[Borntolose]

I've been arguing about this with my friends, and I'd like to know: Is it better to buy new parts for the PC you have, or to buy a completely new PC?

Edit: I suppose I should give a bit more info. My motherboard and CPU are probably the oldest parts of my computer. The motherboard can support current graphics card though(I bought a new graphics card less than half a year ago). I'm mostly interested in getting a better CPU, as my 2.4 GHz dual core is having trouble with some of the newer games.

 

[TOGSolid]

I've been arguing about this with my friends, and I'd like to know: Is it better to buy new parts for the PC you have, or to buy a completely new PC?

Depends on how old your computer is. There's really no argument here. If your computer is still fairly new, then do an upgrade. If it's pretty old and a lot of hardware has come out since you last got a new rig, then you might want to consider just getting an entirely new system.

 

[Borntolose]

I've been arguing about this with my friends, and I'd like to know: Is it better to buy new parts for the PC you have, or to buy a completely new PC?

Depends on how old your computer is. There's really no argument here. If your computer is still fairly new, then do an upgrade. If it's pretty old and a lot of hardware has come out since you last got a new rig, then you might want to consider just getting an entirely new system.

I've been consistently upgrading it for years. It has none of the original parts.

 

[Firetaffer]

I've been consistently upgrading it for years. It has none of the original parts.

Well there's your answer!

 

[TOGSolid]

I've been consistently upgrading it for years. It has none of the original parts.

Well there's your answer!

Yep, pretty much. If your friends are saying you're doing it wrong, then it's safe to say you need new friends that aren't dumb.

 

[Necrofudge]

I've just been upgrading parts for the last 6 years.
It's been working great so far, and it's a lot less expensive.

 

[Keava]

Depends on what you want to upgrade. If it requires you to change motherboard along with any other part you might as well save some more and buy a shiny new more pimped out PC. If its little things that will still work with your current motherboard there is no need to spend more than you need to.

quitting PC gaming as a whole and buying a console. plenty of mouse and keyboard peripherals, many games let you create your own content from scratch, no upgrading except from every 4-5 years, and that is quickly expanding to 9-10 years and at a third the price of consistently upgrading, and PC exclusives are rarer and rarer these days. as far as you've upgraded your PC, you should be able to play most indie games for the next few years without issue.

Ever considered some might use PC for something more than just gaming? Till PS/Xbox let me use Photoshop, Maya, Zbrush and Corel Painter I'll stay with PC, and that kind of software requires quite regular upgrades as well unless you want to spend 3 days rendering single scene.

 

[twasdfzxcv]

I don't see the difference between upgrading and getting a new one. Isn't getting a new one just upgrading multiple parts at the same time?

 

[Bigsmith]

quitting PC gaming as a whole and buying a console. plenty of mouse and keyboard peripherals, many games let you create your own content from scratch, no upgrading except from every 4-5 years, and that is quickly expanding to 9-10 years and at a third the price of consistently upgrading, and PC exclusives are rarer and rarer these days. as far as you've upgraded your PC, you should be able to play most indie games for the next few years without issue.

First of all he didn't ask about consoles.

OT: if you no what your doing, upgrade. cuase the cost of getting someone in to do it for you is close to the cost of the just getting a new rig.

 

[Romblen]

It depends on the age of the computer. I was planning on upgrading my old computer, but I found that I would have to replace everything as the parts I had were becoming obsolete. What I usually do is buy a new computer, than just put minor upgrades in every now and then.

 

[erethizon]

It mostly depends on how many parts need to be upgraded. If you only need to upgrade one or two things then do so, but if most of the parts are outdated buying a new computer will allow you to upgrade everything at once and you will still have your old computer as a back up in case something happens to your new one (I always try to have at least 2 computers set up in case I have a problem with one of them).

 

[PezNic]

First of all he didn't ask about consoles.

i consider consoles a form of upgrade. and consoles are pretty much gaming dedicated computers, so it's like buying another computer.[/quote]

Reread the OP, he didn't mention gaming at all, he actually didn't provide any context at all. Also comparing something like Forge in halo 3 to the PC modding scene is absurd.

Also, it's not like buying another computer at all. To directly quote you, its pretty much a gaming dedicated computer, I do a hell of a lot more on my PC than just gaming.

 

[Abedeus]

The only thing that hasn't changed in my PC since... 2002 or 2003 is the case. I changed PSU three times, CPU four times, GPU three or four times, three new HDDs, one DVD burner more, one combo burner less, one floppy disk station less, and two new motherboards.

However, I never had a top-of-the-line part, maybe except for my Athlon 3000+, it was pretty awesome for like, two years or so.

 

[SimuLord]

A few well-placed upgrades can extend the life of a PC for amazing lengths of time. I've got a 2006-issue $1500 gaming machine (a Dell XPS 410, and shut up, I worked in sales for Dell at the time), put a couple hundred bucks' worth of upgrades into it (2 extra gigs of RAM, an nVidia 8800GT I picked up on a clearance sale in November of '07 and installed while suffering from a Jordan-in-Game-5 level flu, and a power supply to make it all work without crapping on itself or blowing up like the MythBusters got their hands on it), and four years later it still plays new games on medium-high settings without too much of a problem.

Now granted, we're still talking about almost two thousand dollars over the life of the PC, but I don't figure I'll have to replace it until next year---that's a five-year lifespan. And again, I bought prebuilt. Build one yourself and you could probably shave a good three or four hundred off that cost.