Somewhere around late 2016 or early 2017, at which point most machines I used had SSDs for system drives and a cheap SoC was running video from the media array

Somewhere around late 2016 or early 2017, at which point most machines I used had SSDs for system drives and a cheap SoC was running video from the media array to my TV (a Pi3 at the time, now a Pi4 is doing the job as the 3 struggled with x265 at 1080p). I'd just put together a new main PC with a GTX1080(6Gb). The biggest upgrade in that build was the 1080, which is hardly taxed ATM as I've stopped playing much by way of fancy games (due to a mix of having picked up other hobbies and the rest of life getting in the way). I have upgraded my main desktop recently, late 2020 IIRC, because I started doing a bit of video recording on it. The old CPU was fast enough but the new one does in less than an hour what would have been an overnight task for the old. The old kit was handed down to improve the home server, mainly to give it more RAM rather than for speed (the old motherboard in there wouldn't take more than 16G, at least not officially). The other “fast enough” question is home Internet. For me that was probably 2011 when FTTC became available with 10mbit upstream (more is useful, but 10mbit is fast enough). For downstream I'd say even earlier with 17mbit down (the 1.4mbit up I had then was much more limiting) and anything that didn't happen quickly at that rate wasn't urgent enough to leave running while I did something else. Of course what I do has grown but the connection has grown too so stayed in the “fast enough” range. I'd like faster either way (currently up to ~76down/17up though right now ~50/10 as after multiple disconnects I think due to the recent storms (my last section of line is string down the street from a pole)) but that would be luxury not something I need at all.