I realized I needed an upgrade when I downloaded the bioshock demo, and only my amount of RAM met the minimum requirements...
Rules: List your system specs, and maybe a reason why you're stuck with something so behind the times
My Specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.1GHz Single Core)
MB: MSI (I don't recall the model)
RAM: 1 GB 'No-Name' DDR 400
HDD: Western Digital 80 GB IDE
Media: Sony 52x/32x/52x CD-RW
Media 2: 'No Name' Floppy Drive
Graphics: Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB <-- this is still pretty fast
Sound: Creative Soundblaster Audigy SE
OS: Windows XP
Average Age of System: 4-5 years (!!!)
Why haven't I upgraded???: Trying to rationalize the cost to my wife has been a challenge, as I have no real reason to upgrade other than for gaming I came to a point this year where I wanted to upgrade my video card (8800 GTX ), but realized that I would have to ugprade my motherboard as well (for PCI Express), and by extension the processor (dual/quad core, here I come). This would mean a RAM upgrade (to DDR2), probably a DVD-ROM drive (finally!), and most likely a new hard drive (something SATA).
I want to do the upgrade right, so it'll be ~$1500. Here's what I'm shooting for:
CPU: Athlon 64 3500+
MB: Unknown 939 board, got it from a friend
RAM: 2GB DDR 400
HDD: 2x 80GB WD SATA drives, then a ton of network storage
Media: TDK DL DVD+R
Graphics: Geforce 6600gt PCI-e
Sound: Soundblaster Live
OS: Fedora 7
Nothing too fancy, but it can handle whatever I need it to do, so no real reason for me to upgrade. Still, I'm getting the upgrade bug, and I have a spare 775 board waiting for a CPU.
My system specsmade by myself at the end of 2005:
CPU: Athlon64 X2 3800+ s939
MB: Asus Micro ATX mobo with 1st gen 6150/430 Nvidia chipset
RAM: 2x1Gb of Corsair DDR
HDD: Hitachi Deskstar 250 Gb SATA
Media: LG ATAPI DL DVD burner
Graphics: MSI 6600 Silcencer
Sound: onboard chip (7.1 sound anyway, so...)
OS: Mandriva 2007.1 Free
Like jt001, it just does whatever I ask it to do. Only way to put it to its knees is to try, say, playing Nexuiz in 1680x1050 with all details at maximum.
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Efficient coding leads to impressive software; sloppy coding leads to Vista.
I realized I needed an upgrade when I downloaded the bioshock demo, and only my amount of RAM met the minimum requirements...
Rules: List your system specs, and maybe a reason why you're stuck with something so behind the times
My Specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.1GHz Single Core)
MB: MSI (I don't recall the model)
RAM: 1 GB 'No-Name' DDR 400
HDD: Western Digital 80 GB IDE
Media: Sony 52x/32x/52x CD-RW
Media 2: 'No Name' Floppy Drive
Graphics: Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB <-- this is still pretty fast
Sound: Creative Soundblaster Audigy SE
OS: Windows XP
Almost same EXACT system, just have 2gig's of mixed (I think) of Corsair DDR 3200. Did have the 9800pro in it until recently and had to steal (pilfer) a 9600xt, from sister-in-laws (which I sold to her a year ago) Athalon XP (first build) system. This system still plays games well, not the newest titles (obviously), but WoW, EQII, CSS, HL2, etc. not too demanding titles. Unfortunately we just moved at the beginning of the year and I don't see any upgrade for at least another year. Thankfully I have a better rig I made 18 or so months ago in my sig Not the best but was pretty good at the time before C2D's came out.
--------------- PSU Tiers GPU Power 8800gtx w/e6600 OC'd will run on Antec 380w w/27A on 12v rail, PSU!!
My girlfriend's system (I built)
CPU: Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0GHz, 133FSB)
MB: Gigabyte GA-7ZMMH
RAM: 2 x 512 PC133 CL2.5
HDD: 1 x 80 GB Western Digital SE (8mb cache, WOW!)
GPU: nVidia MX4000 64MB
OS: Windows XP Pro
Reasons for Not Upgrading:
She's not a gamer and it has done whatever she needs it to do (internet, word, a little photo editing). However it has been getting slower recently and instead of doing the temporary fix by reloading XP, she'll be getting a new computer. So guess who gets to build one for her (which I'm kind of excited about)?
System I plan on building her (around Nov/Dec)
CPU: Intel E2140 or E2160
MB: Intel G35 based board (she only needs onboard graphics)
RAM: 2 x 1GB Name Brand (Corsair, Patriot, etc)
HDD: 320 GB WD AA-series
Media: DL DVD-RW (Probably the Samsung that's so popular on Newegg)
OS: I think I'll stick with XP Pro still
CASE: Lian Li (I know it sounds like overkill, but darnit, they're beautiful, and it'll probably be the last case she'll ever need)
3.0Ghz 631 Prescott
Asus P5ND2-SLI
2GB Geil PC5300 5-5-5-15
120GB Seagate PATA
200GB Maxtor PATA
LG DVD/CD-RW Combo PATA
Memorex DL DVD Burner PATA
ATI X300
Antec Ninja 2 case with 450W PSU
Win XP Pro and Linuxmint 3.0
Reason for not upgrading: Lack of funds and this system is still fast enough for what I do. Far as a new system, I'm still debating. I'll most likely build a new system based around an Intel CPU again.
CPU: Intel Celeron 1.4 GHz (Socket 370, 100MHz FSB)
MB: Shuttle FV25 (in a SV25 case)
RAM: 2 x 512 MB PC133 CL2 (Now we're cooking)
HDD: 1 x 80 GB WD SE PATA
GPU: Onboard (VIA something-or-other)
Media: CD-ROM (I think it's 24x)
PCI: USB 2.0 Controller (because it only has 1.1 onboard)
This computer was salvage from a guy I met who didn't feel like fixing it. I ordered 4 caps (look on badcaps.com it's one of the plagued MB's) from Digikey and it's been running strong for about a year. Last year when I was still in college we had it hooked up to my roommate's 42" Panasonic plasma for watching movies and stuff we downloaded or recorded, not bad for 8 bucks in electrical components.
Recently upgraded to Pentium D940 (my Intel D955XBK mobo won't support Core 2 - Doh!) to reduce power consumption and heat, and better-support HD Video. Also recently switched my HP DVD740i for a Lite-On (the HP burned out), and my X1800XL for a HIS HD2600 XT (better cooling as heat is exhausted from case and lower power consumption, and support for HDCP-protected digital video and audio for future-proofing. Plus, it actually fits in the case w/out me having to jury-rig the 6-pin connector).
Message edited by TeraMedia on 08-28-2007 at 04:54:23 PM
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Pentium D 940 w/XP90C
D955XBK,2 x 1 GB PC5300 @ 4-4-4-12
HIS HD2600XT
4 x 400 GB WD4000YR RE2 (1TB RAID5, 125GB RAID0)
CPU: AMD Opteron 165 @ 2250 MHZ
MB: Asus A8N5X Socket 939
RAM: 2 x 1GB Corsair PC3200
GPU: EVGA Geforce 7800GT 256MB
Sound: On-Board
PS: 550 Watt Rosewill
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate on my old 60 GB WD HDD and XP on my 250 GB Hitachi HD
It runs everything smooth on max resolution yet I really have the upgrade bug. I want to do water cooling in a nice lian-li case with quad core etc. However I think once the new Nvidia cards come out I will upgrade
Since I built it in 2003 I did minor upgrades. Added a DVD burner, upgraded memory, upgraded video card (originally a GeForce 5200?, now an ATI x1650 Pro).
Still does everything I need of it really, and I will be keeping it around as a backup but I'm ready for new. Besides, my even older system (1997 - AMD K6-2/350) just died last month!
Just ordered: e6750 Gigabyte P35-DS3R Antec Solo case 2 gb DDR2 800 ram 8800GTS Superclocked 320 2 hard drives 1 DVD burner LG 20" LCD
Now I just have to find somebody that wants my monster 22" Dell flatscreen CRT (80 pounds!)
Message edited by texasnightowl on 08-28-2007 at 05:48:43 PM
P4 3.2ghz 640 w/HT 800mhz FSB 2mb L2 cache (Socket 775)
Asus P5V800 Mobo
Radeon X1650Pro 512mb DDR2 AGP 8x
1 GB (2x512mb) PC2700 DDR
1x WD 80gb Hard rive (master)
1x Seagate 320gb Hard drive (slave)
Onboard sound, onboard Lan
2x DVD+-RW/CD-RW drives, 1 of which can burn dual layer
I built this machine about 3 years back, mostly through upgrades. I have had the same case for about 5 or 6 years. I have reached the end of my upgrade path as far as being able to justify spending the cash to upgrade an aging machine. I could double the ram, get a better video card and change to a Pentuim D, but would rather spend the money on a new build that will be better all the way around.
Also, there hasn't been a really good reason thus far because there really hasn't been a need to. While not the fastest machine, I can run just about anything out there, and that includes the demo for Bioshock. I run things on stock video settings and have never really had any issues.
With all the changes happening, I have decided to do a fresh build, not sure what parts I'm going to use as the build will be in March 08 (tax return) and the tech will surely have changed from now to then. I do know it will be at least a quad core, but from Intel or AMD I do not know, all depends on the budget (probably about 1k) and bang for buck.
I came to a point this year where I wanted to upgrade my video card (8800 GTX 
