Having just read the "No new AMD GPUs" thread, I started wondering about the history of my computer. Luckily, just about everything had been purchased through Newegg, so my purchasing history was easily found. I want to kinda summarize my computer for those who are thinking something along the lines of "I can't afford to keep my computer top of the line! You have to upgrade it all the time and it gets so expensive!" I've never had a ton of spare money, and the Newegg Preferred Plan is a great option if anyone has the ability to get it (no interest for 12 months. Win), so I've upgraded my computer over time to where it is today. The following are the dates and price at which I purchased the groups of items:

7/25/2008
$767.75

- OCZ 4GB RAM
- Cooler Master Centurion 5 case
- EVGA 8800GT 512MB GPU
- OCZ GameXStream 700W PSU
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Brisbane 2.5GHz CPU
- Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H motherboard
- Seagate Barracuda 250GB hard drive
- Vista Home Premium 64 Bit
- Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

This was the initial build. This was when I was living at home and was working 65+ hours a week and didn't have any real expenses. I built two, one for me and one for my brother. It was awesome. Played everything we threw at it. Over the next couple years, I added a hard drive and received 4GB of RAM as a Christmas present (awesome).

4/25/2009
$46.99

- Logitech MX518 Mouse

I figured that my wireless mouse just wasn't cutting it anymore and I needed something a little more refined. This had great reviews and I picked it up.

1/16/2010
$200.98

- ASUS VH236 Black 23" LCD Monitor

I wanted dual monitors and a 1080p display. I got it. For a decent price, too, I might add.

5/10/2010
$534.42

- EVGA GTX470 1280MB GPU
- Zalman CPU Cooler
- AMD Phenom II x4 940 3.0GHz CPU

Here was the big upgrade. Two components that cost almost as much as the original computer. I figured I should treat it to something nice for its two year birthday.

9/4/2011
$109.99

- NZXT Phantom ATX Full Tower Case

It was getting crowded and the fans were crying out for help. After consulting the forum, I was directed to this case. Fan speed control, LEDs, lots of room, cable management, sleek design. Perfect! This will be the case for the foreseeable future.

Various other parts:
- Logitech illuminated keyboard - Given to me as a present
- Logitech headset - Purchased a long time ago at a store for $50 and still works
- SSD - Purchased with a gift card

I've spent in the ballpark of $1600 over 5 years on a computer that can run BF3 at very high settings, Borderlands 2 almost maxed out, Skyrim at near max settings (with 10+ mods installed), and a great every day computer that allows me to do video editing, record gameplay video, and surf the internet. It's newest hardware is almost 3 years old, ancient in the electronics world.

Am I going to upgrade again? Of course. I'm hoping sometime next year after my car is paid off. Then again in two years as a "Congrats on taking 9 years to get an associates degree" present to myself. But it'll be done in such a way that I don't feel like I'm lagging behind anyone else.

So, what am I getting at with this giant wall of text? I guess it's that you don't have to go out every 6 months and beef up your computer. I've seen people scrapping their computer for a brand new one every two years. Buy smart, upgrade when necessary, and you'll have a computer that lasts you a very long time.

I made do with a thousand dollair budget and I run all my games at nice settings. So yes I agree with this.

I bought my computer in 2009 and only used fairly cheap mid-range parts, except for the computer case and power supply in which I spent a bit more for the nice stuff. And it works fine still.

However, back in 2005 when the 360 was released, games suddenly got a lot prettier and there was a noticeable bump in the game requirements (games stopped being pixel shader 1.x games and instead quickly started to require pixel shader 3, for example). I expect the same thing to happen next year when more the next-gen consoles been out for a couple of months.

I don't always upgrade my computer, but when I do...


Seriouly though, today's hardware is overkill for 99% of games out there. My prevous video card (550 Ti) could handle everything I threw at it such as Skyrim, Resident Evil 5 and NBA 2k13. The only reason I bought a 660 was for one game (Arkham City), whicvh I now definitely have overkill for all my other games.