No need to upgrade your PCs anymore

[RCBH928]

I saw Ubuntu(linux) being run on an Android phone. Like a full desktop experience ,,, from your phone. Now if you are from the days where pagers were a luxury item you will knowmhow big this is.

so I started thinking...we do not really need to upgrade our computers anymore. My 2002 iMac was still good(yet not relevant) up until 2009. Computers today are powerful enough to do eveything you need a computer to do , so why would any one buy a new computer?

Outside gaming, and probably high def 3D rendering , the rest of the world probably doesnt need to. What do you think would be a good reason to buy a new PC?


Or do you think there is no longer a need tp upgrade like back in 98 , where by probaly 2003 , the '98 machine became obsolete?

[Jrecee]

There will always be a reason. Operating systems keep getting more complex and demanding more resources. Well, Windows does, because Microsoft keeps making pointless graphical upgrades because consumers like "shiny things". Apple's OSs simply require new computers so that you'll have to buy a new Mac.

Plus we keep pushing what our computers need to do. 10 years ago nobody went out and bought a computer so that they could stream live HD video.

I'm a video editor, and I could always use a little more power. 5 years ago I was editing SD footage from tape. Now I'm editing 1080p footage from 32gb sdhc cards. I've got a 2.66ghz quad core and 8gb of ram, but I could easily use double that. So in a few years I'll upgrade.

We are capping out on some things though. I'm doubting 2k or 4k will ever become a consumer standard, so how much better can video quality get, and therefore how much more power could I need to handle it?

As computing power increases, developers take advantage of more of that power, while spending less time optimizing their programs.

[Nemoide]

I built my PC in 2007, upgraded some parts in '09 with a new HDD last year - I expect I'll be able to keep it running for at least another 5 years without any real need of upgrading. I don't use it for anything super-demanding or play modern games, so even though it's on the older side of things it can easily handle everything I want it to do.

I think sold-state drives are the most obvious improvement. I can pretty easily imagine 1TB+ SSDs becoming the standard storage medium a decade from now.

But yeah, in general hardware isn't a limit anymore for the average user.

[J T]

If all you wanted to do was a bit of word processing, there hasn't been a reason to update your computer in a long long time. The only real reason of late (aside from games) is to simply keep up with new applications that expect you to have a modern OS, or that have become more graphics intensive simply to look flashy.

[ice445]

Upgrade cycles have gotten longer is all. There will always be a need to upgrade, but hardware has outpaced software demands....for now at least.

[AppleQueso]

I'm still running Windows XP, and until around 3 or 4 years ago i was still running Windows 98se/2000.

[Dakinggamer87]

I usually upgrade my PC every 5 years or so. The hardware capabilities of current tech today have made the cycle of upgrading my PC hardware much longer than it used to be.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I don't see myself updating mine for a long time. Most of the PC games I tend to like (like Trine and Torchlight) tend to be "low-end" anyway.

[pankakes123]

If Windows continues in the direction of awful Windows 8, there won't just be no reason to upgrade your PC, you won't want to upgrade your PC!

[Pulsar_t]

All those trillions of daily machine cycles, yet the world is still a fecked-up place.