When the cross section of hardware being reasonably affordable and me having money to spend meets.

So never again basically.

Last time I did a major upgrade was a few years ago, got a new motherboard/cpu/ram because the old stuff was broken in some way that was causing weird problems. Glad I got that and some additional drives bought before all the current craziness. Before that it was a better GPU. So every few years I guess.

I looked because I wasn't really sure. I upgraded late last year. The computer I'm on right now is that upgrade (based around a 5070). Before that, my last build was in 2020, but I didn't upgrade to replace the 2020, I upgraded to add a second computer.

I could have ridden the 2020 for another 2-3 years easy. Matter of fact, looking back prior to 2020, my previous build appears to have been 2011. So yeah, I "upgrade" every 8-9 years.

I added one other SDD to dual-boot linux, but it's otherwise the same as when I built it in May 2020.

I was looking at upgrading the video card before all the prices went to shit. I'd need to get a new mobo to really make it worth the effort. I'm not sure adding more memory would really do a lot.

My previous computer was a laptop since I knew I'd be moving across the world and I got it in late 2014 or early 2015. It technically still works, though it just sits in a closet.

I'm thinking I just want to buy a higher-end laptop next time and just use this machine as a server. If I can do some gaming and video editing on it, that's really all I need that's intensive. I'm also debating whether or not to live in Japan full time or see if I can get work authorization somewhere in the Schengen area and just live in Japan part time. Bit of a dream with jobs the way they are now, though.

Well I was planning to upgrade this year, but with the AI-fuelled RAM crisis and PC parts in general being jacked up in price, I think I'm just going to wait until something breaks and hope that is after we're out the other side of this.

10 years

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 :/

Can't upgrade; too poor.

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.

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’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 just upgraded my build. The original build was done 6 months before the Nvidia 10xx series came out (do the math yourself.).

The original disk storage setup was a disaster so that got changed a few years in. Three years ago, I inherited a GTX 970 from a friend (up from my 960).

And now I finally actually upgraded Mobo, CPU, GPU and Ram.

Still a AM4 socket from Asrock, basic DDR4 16GB. Intel B570. Less than 500 euro 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.

I rarely upgrade, I normally just continue using my PC until it eventually is so old that I feel the need to replace it entirely and last time I did that, I had had the old PC for 13 years.

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 match the average stated in the article. 5 years for a new build (CPU socket change is how I define that) since 2002. 2-3 years for GPU. Not counting 90's family computers since that wasn't my own money. Or laptops/mini PC.

Today I've reached my usual upgrade period but I didn't this time. 5-6 year gap since my last builds last done in 2020 and 2021. The GPU remains the most frequent upgrade I still do. The rest dropped off...sort of. I bought a NAS that changed how I deal with storage. Gets complicated. Anyways, I don't think I would've done a new desktop build for another 3 years at least even if things hadn't gone to shit. Now with corpo AI bubble and daily global fascist tantrums jacking up prices? Hard to say. 8-10 years looks realistic?

Just comes down to performance and I'm not feeling any pinches yet with the two towers, a Ryzen 5800X in the office and Core i5 12600 in the living room. Office PC only gets living room hand-me-downs from now on. My gaming habits have changed a lot I'm primarily a couch PC gamer now.

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.

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 just replaced my desktop with a gaming laptop. A 2026 g16.

My desktop was an i5 from 2018 that had a 980 in it until last year when I put a 6650 xt in it.

I didnt "need" to upgrade. It was a gift to myself and a way to consolidate laptop and desktop into one more powerful unit.

My last PC I ran for, I'd guess, 7 years. Built a new one about a year ago.

I could see upgrading the GPU in a few years. But otherwise I'll probably run it until it breaks. Hardware has a pretty long useful life these days. Assuming you don't run an OS that pushes planned obsolescence.

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