What's the ideal price for a computer befor it costs more than you get

[Granter]

Well topic pretty much said it all.

Whenever i buy a computer i always want to get the best stuff without doing an overkill. The computers i have bought so far have been around 1100-1400euro.

Graphic cards i have always bought for around the 250-300euro mark as i tought more expensive ones would go over my budget with little gain. With CPU's i do the same

i guess in todays standard i would buy a 570gtx and a i7 2600k.

I have the mindset that i want to have this computer for atleast 3-4years befor i buy a new one, i wont uppgrade it, at the most change something if it breaks.

How does other people view this? do you buy things for a cheaper price and uppgrade it with time or do you buy a pretty solid comp and just stay with it, and where do you really cross the line between overkill and not overkill? (ex, money vs FPS / time)

 

[hunter315]

It really depends what you plan to do with it, and what components in it will last through multiple builds. If you are getting a nice triple monitor setup at the same time it will cost a lot more but they will be good for many years.

For me, the threshold of cost-benefit usually seems to be around 1500, but if you are doing some intensive tasks where your time is money a 5k workstation build could actually be worth it.

The ever improving nature of computers makes planning to never upgrade a computer forces you to have to do overkill initially to keep it going well for 5 years. If you spend 700 on a computer every 2 years, in 4 years you will have spent 2100 on a computer and likely have a machine better than a $2100 machine today, but it really depends on your usage and your financial situation.

 

[Guest]

My new computer is going to be in €1000 range (without monitor and other peripherals) which is probably borderline overkill. Once I buy it, I expect to use it for at least 4-5 years.

Smaller improvements could be better case (currently Antec 300), 2600k or 2700k (currently 2500k), SSD (currently no SSD), etc. Bigger improvement could be SLI or CrossFireX (currently single HD 6950). All of those improvements would considerably boost the price (upwards of several hundred €).

At least that's how I see it. In your case, 2600k is probably overkill if you plan to use it primarily for gaming.

 

[Sequences]

Whenever i buy a computer i always want to get the best stuff without doing an overkill. The computers i have bought so far have been around 1100-1400euro.

Depends on what 'overkill' means.

i guess in todays standard i would buy a 570gtx and a i7 2600k.

If you're browsing the internet and playing random flash games, then this is completely overkill. Even playing normal games, i7 2600K is overkill. I would consider spending around the 1K mark more than enough for a nice gaming rig.

 

[beavermml]

as a student, my budget is very limited.. i still using my p2d e5200 oced to 3.6 ghz + ati 4870 .. .. infact i can even play bf3 and rage smoothly at 1600x900 ( with seldom hiccups )

i have the mindset that the computer i want must be able to do what i want it to do.. after testing my frens sandybridge + gtx570.. i feel reluctant to upgrade becoz the only thing that his PC can do that my PC cant do is high-res gaming... so that i cannot justify on forking 1000$ just to play games.

i guess the time when i will upgrade my pc is when we have the next gen console out. im sick of having dx9 class grafix games all the time.. i know there are a couple of dx11/dx10 games out there but to me it just not worth to buy 300$++ gfx card just to play a title or two..

 

[Granter]

Depends on what 'overkill' means.

i guess in todays standard i would buy a 570gtx and a i7 2600k.

If you're browsing the internet and playing random flash games, then this is completely overkill. Even playing normal games, i7 2600K is overkill. I would consider spending around the 1K mark more than enough for a nice gaming rig.

For me, buying a new computer basicly means that i will be able to play all the latest games (wich would be BF3 today? like most people build there computers for.

I have never liked going down in resolution, always preferd lowering the shadow detail or other things like texture if i'm req to lower the settings in good games so my overall theory behind buying a new computer is that within the 3-4 year mark my graphic settings have been lowerd from high/ultra to something like low/medium. Basicly my resolution have been what's the better you can have on 1screen with around 21-24size.

My last screen had 1680x1050 and this one is 1920x1080, my guess is that 1080 will be standard for a couple of years to come so to come so my system would basicly be built to handle this resulotion for 3-4years.

This is just how i view it when i buy my things, but i find it interesting to know how other people think so keep posting your ideas and theorys!