5 ms·

One of the best parts about desktops is being able to upgrade pieces at a time. I build my computer about 5 years ago. It's been slowing down a bit over the las

One of the best parts about desktops is being able to upgrade pieces at a time. I build my computer about 5 years ago. It's been slowing down a bit over the last six months and I realized that I only had 16 gigs of ram. That was pretty good at the time. Now 32 is much more standard. Upgraded to 32 gigs for ~$120 and its been great.

waynesonfire 4y ago
I have been doing this for over 15 years. The only original component at this point is the case. My strategy has been: 1) buy modern motherboard w/ cpu and memory at mid point 2) year or two later, max out memory 3) another two years later, i buy most powerful cpu that is supported by motherboard 4) repeat from step 1 I also upgrade hdds / video cards as needed. It seems these components are upgraded more frequently than mb / cpu / memory. Though, my video card has been plenty fast for a few years now, probably because I don't play as demanding games any more. I also didn't skimp on the power supply and it's been performing well. I use a UPS to make sure the power stays clean. When upgrading the motherboard, I also evaluate the technology space to see if it makes sense to upgrade any other components. For instance, I may buy into NVMe in the next cycle depending on what my research reveals. I'm still hanging on to Windows 7. I'll probably upgrade that in the next cycle but it's been smooth. I use VMware for software that needs newer version of Windows.
- AlexandrB 4y ago
  > Windows 7 Last good version of Windows. Possibly ever. I miss being treated as a user/customer and not as eyeballs to be monetized.
- nomel 4y ago
  > buy modern motherboard The next AMD CPU to be released will almost certainly have a new AM5 socket. I'm waiting for this reason alone, considering the amazing support AM4 has had.
- fomine3 4y ago
  Yeah PC of Theseus.
- wink 4y ago
  My wife's PC sits in a case I bought in 1998 and spray-painted around 2002. Back then it matched my car because I used up the surplus paint I had from some small paint job repairs...
  - nobodyandproud 4y ago
    And the color of the then car? I’m hoping the truth is a funky color like bright orange.
    - wink 4y ago
      Hehe, sadly not. It was one of the metallic blue colors of a '94 Ford Fiesta, 60PS, European model.
causi 4y ago
If you haven't changed hardware in five years it's more likely SSD degradation or RAM speed than the difference between 16 and 32 GB.
illuminerdy 4y ago
Yeah, I do the same. Although my 1070 is very long in the tooth thanks to the last couple of years of GPU madness. And now that prices have come down significantly, it's not really a good time financially for me to buy a new GPU. Murphy's law...
banana_giraffe 4y ago
And one of the unwritten things of this article: He's going from a "difficult, but probably doable" scenario when it comes to upgrading piecemeal to "hope you like what you get" scenario with the Alienware he had ordered. It's not 100% non-upgradable, but there are a lot of bespoke oddball parts in them, notably the motherboard and power supply. I do wish these companies were more upfront when it comes to how upgradable systems are. Some may not care, but I'm the go to tech support person for a bunch of people, and I hate having to tell them they can't upgrade their machine like they want to, despite being a desktop in principle.
deathanatos 4y ago
Both RAM and CPU sockets have changed within the lifetime of a build; any replacement in the set {CPU, Mobo, RAM} necessitates replacing the entire set, now. (Like the author, I'm at the EOL for a machine, and … all of those might have to go.)
- mxuribe 4y ago
  Yeah, maybe i'm old (and/or just have not conducted hardware upgrades as often as i used to years ago), but it feels like nowadays, the lifetime of builds and associated hardware has grown to be...shorter lifespan than in the past. Or, maybe its just me? I almost never play games anymore, and have long switched to linux for my daily com0puting needs, so admittedly that has allowed me to stretch things waaay longer than in the past...but hardware just feels like it needs to get replaced more often and has plain less life than in the past. Oh well.
  - deathanatos 4y ago
    Yeah, a bit, but it sort of depends? I have some parts that have lasted quite a while. The CPU in my current build is ~2012 and is fine; even stats wise its respectable, as a lot of the improvements of recent years have been rolled back by Spectre et al. But manufacture warranties are crap these days. Used to be a machine was warranted for 4 years, and a good one would last 10. But these days it seems like they're 1-2 years. Part warranties aren't great, but the stuff I've built seems to hold up. The 10 year old machine above current has a failure. I think it is the PSU, but I'm not sure. But in the 10 years it ran, the only failure it had was a HDD died like 4-5 years in. And that drive was a used datacenter drive, that when sold to me had a "it's been abused in a datacenter, 30 day warranty" on it, so it did fantastic. And I think its replacement is also now out of warranty, too, though I'd like to see it last a few more years, ofc.
    - mxuribe 4y ago
      > ...the only failure it had was a HDD died like 4-5 years in. And that drive was a used datacenter drive... Wow, i have heard that datacenter drives (more than any other datacenter equipment) gets trashed the most...so that's awesome that it lasted even that long! Nice!

waynesonfire 4y ago

I have been doing this for over 15 years. The only original component at this point is the case. My strategy has been: 1) buy modern motherboard w/ cpu and memory at mid point 2) year or two later, max out memory 3) another two years later, i buy most powerful cpu that is supported by motherboard 4) repeat from step 1 I also upgrade hdds / video cards as needed. It seems these components are upgraded more frequently than mb / cpu / memory. Though, my video card has been plenty fast for a few years now, probably because I don't play as demanding games any more. I also didn't skimp on the power supply and it's been performing well. I use a UPS to make sure the power stays clean. When upgrading the motherboard, I also evaluate the technology space to see if it makes sense to upgrade any other components. For instance, I may buy into NVMe in the next cycle depending on what my research reveals. I'm still hanging on to Windows 7. I'll probably upgrade that in the next cycle but it's been smooth. I use VMware for software that needs newer version of Windows.

AlexandrB 4y ago
> Windows 7 Last good version of Windows. Possibly ever. I miss being treated as a user/customer and not as eyeballs to be monetized.
nomel 4y ago
> buy modern motherboard The next AMD CPU to be released will almost certainly have a new AM5 socket. I'm waiting for this reason alone, considering the amazing support AM4 has had.
fomine3 4y ago
Yeah PC of Theseus.
wink 4y ago
My wife's PC sits in a case I bought in 1998 and spray-painted around 2002. Back then it matched my car because I used up the surplus paint I had from some small paint job repairs...
- nobodyandproud 4y ago
  And the color of the then car? I’m hoping the truth is a funky color like bright orange.
  - wink 4y ago
    Hehe, sadly not. It was one of the metallic blue colors of a '94 Ford Fiesta, 60PS, European model.

causi 4y ago

If you haven't changed hardware in five years it's more likely SSD degradation or RAM speed than the difference between 16 and 32 GB.

illuminerdy 4y ago

Yeah, I do the same. Although my 1070 is very long in the tooth thanks to the last couple of years of GPU madness. And now that prices have come down significantly, it's not really a good time financially for me to buy a new GPU. Murphy's law...

banana_giraffe 4y ago

And one of the unwritten things of this article: He's going from a "difficult, but probably doable" scenario when it comes to upgrading piecemeal to "hope you like what you get" scenario with the Alienware he had ordered. It's not 100% non-upgradable, but there are a lot of bespoke oddball parts in them, notably the motherboard and power supply. I do wish these companies were more upfront when it comes to how upgradable systems are. Some may not care, but I'm the go to tech support person for a bunch of people, and I hate having to tell them they can't upgrade their machine like they want to, despite being a desktop in principle.

deathanatos 4y ago

Both RAM and CPU sockets have changed within the lifetime of a build; any replacement in the set {CPU, Mobo, RAM} necessitates replacing the entire set, now. (Like the author, I'm at the EOL for a machine, and … all of those might have to go.)

mxuribe 4y ago
Yeah, maybe i'm old (and/or just have not conducted hardware upgrades as often as i used to years ago), but it feels like nowadays, the lifetime of builds and associated hardware has grown to be...shorter lifespan than in the past. Or, maybe its just me? I almost never play games anymore, and have long switched to linux for my daily com0puting needs, so admittedly that has allowed me to stretch things waaay longer than in the past...but hardware just feels like it needs to get replaced more often and has plain less life than in the past. Oh well.
- deathanatos 4y ago
  Yeah, a bit, but it sort of depends? I have some parts that have lasted quite a while. The CPU in my current build is ~2012 and is fine; even stats wise its respectable, as a lot of the improvements of recent years have been rolled back by Spectre et al. But manufacture warranties are crap these days. Used to be a machine was warranted for 4 years, and a good one would last 10. But these days it seems like they're 1-2 years. Part warranties aren't great, but the stuff I've built seems to hold up. The 10 year old machine above current has a failure. I think it is the PSU, but I'm not sure. But in the 10 years it ran, the only failure it had was a HDD died like 4-5 years in. And that drive was a used datacenter drive, that when sold to me had a "it's been abused in a datacenter, 30 day warranty" on it, so it did fantastic. And I think its replacement is also now out of warranty, too, though I'd like to see it last a few more years, ofc.
  - mxuribe 4y ago
    > ...the only failure it had was a HDD died like 4-5 years in. And that drive was a used datacenter drive... Wow, i have heard that datacenter drives (more than any other datacenter equipment) gets trashed the most...so that's awesome that it lasted even that long! Nice!