When I can’t play a new game I want to play, I’ll upgrade. This varies. My last computer i7 920 with a GTX 470 lasted me for a long time – around 9 years. I have a Ryzen 2700x with a 3060TI that I built in 2018 and added the newer GPU in 2021. I’ll probably upgrade next year so around 7-8 years. Before that I had a Pentium 4, Pentium 2, Pentium 1 so those are roughly 4 years between but progress was more impactful back then.
Averaging things out – I’d say 6-7 years between major builds.

Case/chasis: 15 years and counting

Motherboard/CPU: ~5 years (currently: 6.5 years)

RAM: ~2 years until maxed out (currently: maxed out)

GPU: ~3-6 years (currently: 3 years)

I had hoped to do a new build last year, but it’s just too expensive. For now I’m planning to use what I have until it breaks.

Is blowing on the fan so it starts spinning again counts?

I tend to stagger my platform and GPU upgrades. It tends to be about 3-4 years between something being upgraded. So I’d technically call the platform upgrade a new build, even though it inherits some older components.

My last build was used for 10 years, and the one before that 4 years. I was planning to have my previous build last for about 5-6 years, but those were the days when Intel stagnated with 14nm++++ and AMD wasn’t really showing up, so I ended up prolonging its life a bit more. My current build should last me well into the 2030s since it’s an AM5 platform. So this is the timeline:

2008: New build. 2012: New build, plus old hard drives inherited as data drives. 2015: GPU, PSU and SSD upgrade. 2018: GPU, CPU and heatsink upgrade, retired old data drives from previous build and replaced with new ones. 2022: Platform upgrade (motherboard, CPU, RAM), case upgrade and new SSD to use as the main drive. 2025: GPU and PSU upgrade. 2028: Most likely going to be another CPU and SSD upgrade (provided that prices come back down to sane levels), and retirement of older drives.

I usually go 10 or 15 years on a motherboard. I’ll upgrade the CPU, GPU, and RAM in that time.

My memory is getting fuzzy but my list from as far back as I can remember;

• A 386 system somewhere in the late 80s early 90s
• Then had a pentium I, II and III system all in the 90s
• We had a PC with an Athlon XP 2400+ in the early 00’s
• Then I bought an Athlon X2 4800+ with an Nvidia 7600gs somewhere around 2007

I also bought a laptop with an AMD e-350 chip in this period

• Next PC was in 2014 and had an Intel i3 4360 and a 970 GTX

Then I bought 2 PC’s in 2024:

• AMD 5800x with an AMD RX 6800
• AMD 5600x with an Nvidia RTX 3060

I used to upgrade only every 5-10 years but that’s because I used to game on Sega and then PlayStation. But now I use PCs for gaming too (or would if I actually had time 😞) so I upgrade something every couple of years but tend to stagger out the costs. Last time I did a full upgrade at one time was about 2016 with a i5 4k series CPU, DDR3 with a GTX1080 - PC before that was a pre-built one from 2008ish. Improved monitors to triple Dell 2515s. Most of the 2015 PC is still going, or was until recently and will be repurposed soon as my kid’s PC.

Next build was over 2020-2021. New case, DDR4 and change of CPU to Ryzen 3600. Same GPU as prices went a bit mad. Changed to 49" monitor and got a RX6800 in 2022-23. Everything second hand though. Went a bit RGB crazy during this time too so did a whole lot of cosmetic changes. Was also WFH too so I blame that as my reasoning.

Most recent upgrades have been in the last year or two. Same case, change to DDR5 and 7800x3d, a 9070xt and a 5k2k monitor (but non-oled as I am 80+% using it for work not play). Still have all my old stuff as it gets passed down to wife and then kids. So when I upgrade, I’m really upgrading multiple PC’s at the same time.

Whenever my old one can’t run a game I really want to play. Last time it was stalker 2. It had been about 6 years since I’d built a pretty much top of the line PC. The 1080ti was one of the best purchases I’ve ever made.

Previously it used to be about 2-3 years or so (mostly CPU, GPU, motherboard).

• I don’t drink or smoke so most of my money goes into hobbies.

Previous/most recent upgrade was a Nvidia GTX 1080 to an AMD 7900 XTX

Now it’s currently looking like once every 10+ years unless prices come down before then.

I’m usually on roughly a 5-6 year cycle. I typically aim for one or two notches below the best available and that tends to get me about 3 years on high-ultra, and another 3 on medium-high.

I normally change my computer when it breaks, “every 4 years, tops.”

It’s kind of a fluid, ship-of-theseus thing where parts flow in and out of a horde of various workstations and servers.

I usually go around 7 to 10 years before building a new machine with usually one GPU upgrade in-between.

I’ll keep the computer going until the frame rate on a modern game hits less than 40 on a game I actually want to play which may be longer now since I’m not exactly clamoring to play the next AAA game.

I generally like to aim for 5-7 years and then build for an “upper/mid” range trying to keep it below $1500 with a GPU update in the middle of the timeframe.

I got insanely lucky and decided to rebuild just before the ram crisis, so I’m set with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 64GB ddr5 ram, and a 4070ti. I really really really wish graphics cards weren’t so damn expensive… I hate being vram starved so often but with the way things are now I’m probably skipping my mid timeframe GPU upgrade :/

Used to every five years. I haven’t upgraded my rig since the R5 5700X3D came out. Haven’t bought a new GPU since the 2080ti came out.