Do you feel a compulsion to constant hardware upgrade?

[Bruticis]

I feel the compulsion because I get a lot of joy out of tinkering with my computer. I'm disappointed that AMD has been slacking in regards to enthusiast offerings, especially in the CPU department. Intel and Nvidia have far less pressure to put out exciting and competing products so we're getting a lot of refresh crap. Haswell and the Nvidia 7xx line will be the first time I've skipped a generation in ages. That said, I still try to add a new part or two a couple of times year.

 

[baturinsky]

They got GTX760 to store here, so it will probably what I get. And may be get rid of SSD. It will drop price to $1100 ($900 without OS). Speaking of OS, is taking box over OEM worth paying double?

 

[Melcar]

I feel the compulsion because I get a lot of joy out of tinkering with my computer. I'm disappointed that AMD has been slacking in regards to enthusiast offerings, especially in the CPU department...

Yeah. I want to upgrade right now but I just don't see anything in my price range from the AMD camp that can contend with my OCed quad core Phenom II, and I already overclocked the shit out of this thing. I plan to wait until Christmas and see if some deals pop up (third world prices yo'). At this point I'd rather get a whore.

 

[baturinsky]

I'm more like this:

 

[Melcar]

Speaking of OS, is taking box over OEM worth paying double?

He said "pay" .

 

[Machocruz]

Nope. Still rolling with a Duo Core, Radeon HD 3800, 4 gigs of ram, XP. No software has warranted anything better in a while, except for BF3, which I play on PS3 anyway because that's where my friends are. Such shitty FoV though.

 

[baturinsky]

Speaking of OS, is taking box over OEM worth paying double?

He said "pay" .

I can't say that I'm foreign to digital communism, but I paid for my XP and I'm gonna pay for my Win 7. Or win 8. Btw, which should I choose? I was going to go for win 8, but I'm hearing things about it being not tabletop-friendly.

 

[Konjad]

Speaking of OS, is taking box over OEM worth paying double?

He said "pay" .

I can't say that I'm foreign to digital communism, but I paid for my XP and I'm gonna pay for my Win 7. Or win 8. Btw, which should I choose? I was going to go for win 8, but I'm hearing things about it being not tabletop-friendly.

Go for 7, if you still have doubts, pirate 8 and use for a few days. It will make your mind. The difference between OEM and box is that OEM sticks to your motherboard when you "authenticate' it and you cannot use it for another PC (or, to be precise, another motherboard). Box allows you to, I think, install the OS on up to three PCs, though I'm not certain. If you want to 'save' an OS for the future PCs get BOX, but I would rather recommend OEM, after all for the price of BOX you can afford to buy second OEM if you ever need anyway.

 

[Markman]

I upgrade as soon I cant play the game on "high" settings. So far Ive been able to run everything on high with my 3+ years old setup. Only gfx is new(Gigabyte 7950) cause the old one(XFX 6870) died.

Gaming on shitty laptops or old hardware takes away half of the fun, with sudden lags, shitty graphics and extended loading times. Like playing on a fucking Xbox.

 

[Melcar]

Not if you compile your own drivers and games, trying to inch that last fps.

 

[Xeon]

I am thinking of buying a new computer, What kind of parts should I look for? My budget is at a maximum of $1300. I would like one that lasts for a long time with no upgrades or overclocking or anything like that.

PC build on GAF, Is a build like the one listed "Excelent - Best Overall" really good if I don't plan on making any future upgrades? I don't plan on streaming or recording or anything just play games preferably on high/max quality with good/great frame rates for the next 6-10 years hopefully.

Also can someone tell me if there is anything special with the widescreen monitors? I have an LG Flatron 775FT which is 1280X980. If there is a chance this monitor becomes obsolete some time in the future I think I might chip in a little more to buy a new monitor at the same time with the computer otherwise I'll keep this.

Thank you

EDit:
Also if you can I'll appreciate a few options for parts just in case the parts I am looking for is unavailable in my country.

 

[flushfire]

i3, GTS450, 4gb RAM and 80gb HD from older PC. Default/medium settings are enough for me in any game.

 

[Stabwound]

This desktop, I believe, is pushing 4 years since I built it, and it was budget then and I can still play most modern games. Not that I want to play most of them and obviously not at high settings, but it works. The only (and best) upgrade I made was to an SSD, which was well worth it. Nabbed a nice deal on a 128gb OCZ Vertex 3 for $60 about a year ago, which is a pretty good deal for not living in the USA. I know people have issues with Sandforce SSDs but I've had absolutely no trouble with mine.

I think I will upgrade my video card if/when GTA5 is released for PC, but until then, I see no reason to. Thanks to consoles for holding back most PC game requirements.

 

[Tel Velothi]

AMD X2 1.9 GHz
1 GB RAM
9600 GT
200 GB HDD
Windows XP SP 3 - last format 5 years ago



And it can run any modernshit game (that can be runned on XP) at least at medium graphix at 1680x1050.

I don't feel a compulsion to do any hardware upgrade of my PC. There are tons of old games that I haven't played and are more worthy of my time than those "modern" games. This PC could be my only one in my life. And I won't do any format - NEVA'! Going for a record there.

 

[Stabwound]

I'm going to have to call semi-bullshit there, because with 1GB of RAM especially there are a lot of games you simply wouldn't be able to even start, let alone play. I don't doubt the 9600 GT can run many modern games, but I'd be surprised if that means a decent framerate or at anything much above minimal settings.

 

[Xeon]

Yea, Sorry Tel Velothi but don't you need at least 4GB nowadays? A lot of times I get a CTD because of RAM I believe, On medium settings with 4GB. But I heard 32bit systems can only use 3GB.

Also I watched a comparison of a laptop with and without SSD and wow. The guy only showed starting programs and starting windows but it was really fast. I'll try and look for a video of a comparison for games later.

 

[J_C]

AMD X2 1.9 GHz
1 GB RAM
9600 GT
200 GB HDD
Windows XP SP 3 - last format 5 years ago



And it can run any modernshit game (that can be runned on XP) at least at medium graphix at 1680x1050.

And then you wake up. Or you don't know what modern games are and you are confusing them with 10 year old games. Even ames from 5 years ago won't even start with 9600GT, because it lacks modern shader support.

 

[Tel Velothi]

Bros, I know it's hard to belive, but I'm not trying to bullshit you. For example I played Dishonored on medium/high settings and it was really smooth, Tomb Raider on high settings was also really smooth (ok, sometimes framerate went to 10 fps, but only for a few seconds, but it was really rare, other than that it was >25fps).

Even ames from 5 years ago won't even start with 9600GT, because it lacks modern shader support.

Which are they? I'm interested.

 

[flushfire]

lol games from 5 years ago seriously? every mainstream RPG that came out 5 years ago would run alright on a 9600GT, even TW2. Shit a friend of mine finished that game on an OCed 8600GT. The 1gb RAM is low, that's it.

 

[Gord]

Even ames from 5 years ago won't even start with 9600GT, because it lacks modern shader support.

It's DX10 compatible (I assume we are talking about nVidia, not the older Radeon 9600 here), given that many if not most games from the last 5 years run either DX9 or DX10, they will start just fine.
In fact I used the very same card until ~2.5 years ago. Not a bad card at 1680x1050 if you are content with medium settings and don't use much (or any) AA.
I'm more sceptical about the other specs (esp. the ram).

 

[J_C]

Even ames from 5 years ago won't even start with 9600GT, because it lacks modern shader support.

It's DX10 compatible (I assume we are talking about nVidia, not the older Radeon 9600 here),

Are we? I thought we are talking about the ATI Radeon 9600. Silly me, ATI didn't have a 9600GT. Sorry, in this case, it is possible to play some modern games on it, although I still think it is barely enough for modern games, even if they are console ports.

 

[sea]

System specs:

Core i7 920 overclocked to 4 Ghz
12 GB DDR3-1600 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470
2x Seagate 2TB hard drives
1x Samsung 840 SSD

My most recent upgrades are the SSD (I use the HDDs for installing games, big programs and backups of data), and the memory, which used to be 6 GB of the same speed but I found I was sometimes getting close to maxing it out and decided to buy more because what the hell.

The only thing I feel is starting to get dated about my system is the video card. The card is 3.5 years old and 3 generations behind, and on the newest games it does sometimes have trouble keeping up on highest settings. However, looking at performance graphs I'm not finding a single case where today's current cards are really that much better unless they're the absolute high-end. I'll probably upgrade my video card next gen, but for now there really aren't any games I can't play at 60 fps on high or ultra with a couple settings turned down.

 

[Turjan]

I only update if I have to. My 2006 system died at the beginning of 2012, and I replaced it with an i5-2500K with 16 GB of RAM, an SSD and a 2TB hard drive. The only thing that's still quite old is the graphics card, which I had bought during the later days of my former system, an ATI Radeon HD 5770. I sometimes think of replacing it with something more recent, but I always forget about it. So Lara Croft's hair doesn't flap around erratically during play, but I guess I can live with that gruesomely diminished experience.

 

[Melcar]

Current specs:

Phenom II 965 (OC 4.0GHz core and 2.8GHz nb)
16GB DDR3 1333MHz (OC 1600MHz)
Asus M5A97 Rev. 2
Sapphire HD6850 (OC 970/1000 MHz)
Asus Xonar DS
1 x 1TB SATAII HDD
1 x 2TB SATAIII HDD

I got the itch to upgrade, but I don't know what. May wait until Christmas for it. I'm leaning towards a CPU.

 

[Endemic]

No. Supreme Commander was the last game I upgraded for.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

Now I'm at point when only sane reason to upgrade hardware is machine's death.

I've lost any urge to upgrade PC... for what purpose should I do that? To play MGS5, Dragon's Dogma, Wolfenstein'14, D44M, Witcher 3... in none of these games there is a promise there's would be much better fun than with games that are currently available... it's not 1997/1999 when waiting for another Quake was waiting new best thing ever.

I'm prolonging buying PS3 as well, waiting for Persona 5, propably only geam that has a potential to became canonical thing but what is PS3 port won't be released or shall be but only in Japan? I won't pay 300$ for PS4 and still hesitating buying unnecessary PS3 hardware for ability to play single brilliant geam (Drakengard 3) and maybe few solid like Mk vs DC, Vanquished, Resonance of Fate...

With 50PLN Xbox, 1,7 GHz laptop and Dual Core desktop (+ android phone) I can easily point out 20, 30, 50? geamz that with my tempo of 2hours per day of playing can give me entertainment for months if not whole years... so buying new / upgrading old stuff feels pretty much like waste of money and demand of some spoiled brat.

Plus, people these days cannot respect power of their current hardware, it's pretty sad. I always admire those devs / coders who can squize 150% of each machine, I'm excited moar of some ZX Spectrum / C64 HQ demo or 2009 game Zaku for fukken Atari Lynx that bring 16 bit quality than another Unreal Engine 15 / Unity 74 bad optimized tech demo.

Plus 2: I'm laughing at upcoming PS4 Neo vs Xbox Scorpion teraFLOPs battle.