Time to upgrade my PC?

[Bailes1992]

I fear I need some sense talked into me.

Back in 2012/2013 I built a pair of computers ready for my Wife and I to move into our first home.

Spec as follows:-

• Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2 Motherboard
• Intel i7 3770
• 16GB DDR3 1333MHz Ram
• 500GB SATA 2.5" SSD
• ATI Radeon R9 270X GPU
• Plus various HDD's

To give you an idea of their modern-day performance, my Wife's has been repurposed as a home server which sits in the corner of our dining room running PfSense, PiHole, Home Automation, Plex and TrueNAS on Proxmox.

However, I am still using mine for daily duties. My PC runs Ubuntu 24.04.1 and it generally gets an easy life. I use it for web surfing, emails, watching the odd series on Netflix etc, the occasional FreeCAD use, etc. It's still quite fast and has been very reliable.

When do you decide it's time to upgrade? Do you wait for performance to start to be an issue? Software compatibility? or do you just upgrade after a certain time period?

And then would you look to build an entire new system? Or just throw a new motherboard, CPU and RAM in what you have?

It's been an awful long time since I was into all this stuff and so much has changed it's unreal.

 

[racer12306]

If it still meets your needs, It's not time to upgrade IMO.

Since you're running linux, I think compatibility will be less of a concern than in the windows environment. Other than FreeCad, you could do all that you do on a tablet or chromebook and be happy.

 

[Urshurak776]

Anytime someone asks me this question, I always ask if it is meeting their needs. If so, good to go. If not, time to upgrade.

 

[I<3oil]

Upgraaaaaaaaaydddddddddddd

 

[cptbarkey]

Its all about your budget. Set one arbitrarily ($500) with a spreadsheet and see what that gets you. You are at the upper limit of that CPU family, motherboard and memory. You could buy those new individual parts and keep the video card and chassis, but what do you do with the leftover parts? I have a son which gladly accepts such things and he tinkers with them. I would also consider replacing the power supply proactively.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

If it's doing everything you need it to do, then no need to mess with it unless you're just bored with it and want a change.

 

[Lubener]

Just because it's old is no reason to upgrade the PC. If it can effectively run the programs you have, I would continue using it and ditch the upgrade idea.

 

[Pew]

Two thoughts to this:

1.) Don't upgrade if it fits your needs.

2.) You don't know what you're missing until you try something new. You may be blown away at just how fast hardware has gotten compared to your current setup. There's absolutely no comparison between the current generation hardware and something 6+ years old.

Personally, I upgrade as my wallet allows or if I'm bored (like a new PC case) if I can justify it.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

• Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2 Motherboard
• Intel i7 3770
• 16GB DDR3 1333MHz Ram
• 500GB SATA 2.5" SSD
• ATI Radeon R9 270X GPU

Those specs are very close to the 10 year old system running Windows 10 that my wife still uses daily and reliably to run Adobe Create Cloud apps and light gaming.

SSDs were game-changing from a performance standpoint.

 

[dubber09]

Only if you need to, I still run desktop I put together many many years ago (14 or so) with an AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE, only replaced MoBo about half way thru (as original one fried after a heatsink on a chip fell off), added some RAM and a PS upgrade when I went with a dedicated video card. Serves me well with fairly basic stuff I do on it. I ran Workstation 2000 on it, Win98SE/7/8Pro and currently on Win10Pro. I don't plan to upgrade entire system but will replace SSD (system disk) to a larger one.

 

[wsar10]

You upgrade when it can no longer meet your needs..... Like anything else.

 

[Vil_Riker]

It's still a robust computer and I wouldn't touch it.

I used to get in a similar mindset and build new computers every couple of years. I enjoyed doing it as a hobby but the logic otherwise was flawed.

 

[PandaBear]

When do you decide it's time to upgrade? Do you wait for performance to start to be an issue? Software compatibility? or do you just upgrade after a certain time period?

When it start being unreliable and freeze, hang, reboot intermittently even after reinstalling windows. When it stopped working with the newest software I need to run and I have to upgrade.

I'm still using a Ryzen 3 2200G from around 2017? Prior to that I was running a Phenom II X6 for almost 8 years till I need to upgrade from WIndows 7 to 10. Luckily the Ryzen 3 2200G should support Windows 11 so I don't have to upgrade.

I do replace my HDD / SSD when the price is right though. I also upgrade monitor when I get a good hand me down for cheap or free.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

Seriously what isn't it doing for you?

 

[Paco Pena]

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[BaronHK]

Upgraaaaaaaaaydddddddddddd

I understood this reference.

 

[FordSVTGuy]

I feel like you got your money’s worth on those systems. I’d upgrade and enjoy another decade of worry free computing

 

[jmillet]

My old Dell XPS was not upgradeable to Windows 11 so after much research I went with a GMKtec M5 Plus mini-PC with Windows 11 Pro.

 

[WeyounDS9]

Now is poor timing to upgrade especialy if u r not passtionate about these systems.
We just had a lot of new CPUs' and GPUs drop, production of the old gear had been stopped for a bit, so as a result there is a shortage and a price peak right now, as a lot of folks are competing for the new stuff.
I would wait 6 months for the hype to down if I was a regular user.

(I am No 1 in line for the new Ryzen 9950X3D at my local shop, and I will pay twice than what I paid for my last CPU less than a year ago, a Ryzen 7800X3D which is still considered very competitive. But I am saying "No" to the new GPUs from INVIDIA, the new 5000 series has seen the smallest generational uplift, from the previous generation in recent memoryand my 4080Super performs within production variance with the New RTX 5080)

 

[dubber09]

Meanwhile... Meta/FB/Zuk is considering Linux a 'cybersecurity threat'... LOL