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For me personally, I've benefited from another aspect: AMD doesn't constantly change their sockets (edit: or at maintains some level of compatibility). My wife
by gregmac 10y ago
For me personally, I've benefited from another aspect: AMD doesn't constantly change their sockets (edit: or at maintains some level of compatibility).
My wife's laptop died, and she just wanted me to do put together something cheap for her office (she has a tablet and work laptop). I bought myself a new motherboard (keeping my CPU), gave her my old one and put in an older CPU I had.
A year and half later, I upgraded my CPU to an FX-8350. My old CPU (Phenom x4) moved to the basement NAS/Plex server, a nice upgrade to Athlon II CPU (without requiring a new motherboard).
Had I been on Intel, I would simply not done those upgrades because they wouldn't have been worthwhile. Basically every CPU upgrade requires a new motherboard. And in my experience, nearly every time I've had to get a new motherboard, my memory or video card or some other component is now outdated, and suddenly I'm basically building a completely new PC.
- RUG3Y 10y agoI'm in the same boat. Every computer I build is on a shoestring budget, re-using old components, etc. AMD has been a lifesaver. They provide acceptable performance at a price I can afford.
- soupbowl 10y agoThis is exactly what I have done also. It enables me to upgrade a lot of computers with every upgrade. I also end up with a lot of older spare parts, enabling me to build computers for elderly and people in need.
- RUG3Y 10y agoIt's really cool that you do that. I hate when hardware ends up in a landfill, when somebody can use it.
- digi_owl 10y agoThat is highly dependent on how often you swap motherboards but do not swap CPUs.
- theandrewbailey 10y agoPersonally, I hate to have either lying around that would work, but are unable to be paired up. The only instances that I've replaced motherboards but not CPUs are when the board has a problem (leaking capacitors, unbootable BIOS). CPUs generally aren't worth the cost of incremental upgrades anymore, and motherboards are cheaper than the CPU on them.