How much has your pc changed over time?

[peche]

Its the same for me. Only PSU and case is the only things left from the original build from back in 2009. Every things else has been replaced, even CPU/motherboard al throw i stayed on X58 cause i just have to much love for this platform and i am planning on keeping it when i sometime in the future buy a new pc.

She started so humble,
Processor: intel 3770
Motherboard intel DZ68ZV
Ram: Kingston 1600 (could remember exact model)
GTX 550 ti
EVGA 600B PSU
thermaltake V3 Case
stock cooler,
Lite-On DVD drive,
2 TB HDD,
Logitech cheap mouse and keyboard combo,
Z506 5.1 sound,

no SSD, stock cooler and a tight, pretty tight case for cable management, but parts started to be upgraded, arranged and there we go, improving when possible,

 

[BarbaricSoul]

Let’s just say my i7 3930k system started out as a P4 2.6 ghz Northwood core/4200ti system. Been upgrading ever since then, but never fully replacing it.

 

[John Naylor]

I don't find it worth the T & E to upgrade.

We keep 10 systems on our SOHO network on average so can't be 2 deatiled but we build all the desktops. We also build a lot for others. Of all the systems over the past builds used at each desk...

a) On the SO side, the boxes leave pretty much unchanged from build day. Only component failures in past 10 years have been (3) SSDs.
b) On the HO side, we've done 3 GFX card upgrades and (1) memory upgrade. The latter was the result of a memory replacement on an outside box whereby I was left with the old memory.
c) We get feedback on the ones we've built for others and no changes outside of GFX cards. Every system thru 9xx series was either SLI from the get go or SLI capable (PSU and MoBo) ... about half were SLI on day one, maybe another 30% added a 2nd card down the line and 10% upgraded. As almost all 10xx systems were 1440p, all they SLI capabale but only signal card installed. Was so much preparing for "just in case" but that SLI MoBos w/ decent LAN and sound systems are same cost with or w/o SLi capability. Of these "outside" boxes built for others, we did have several MoBo and or CPU / MoBo upgrades when users broke something ... either breaking the board when over tightening a cooler or forgetting to unlatch the GFX card when taking it out.

As for the lappies, each laptop is custom built to our component list / specifications. I usually upgrade them every 3 - 4 years... the one I'm using now is 6 or 7 years old. Why still have it / it still does everything i ask it to do and it still works. One of my sons has a MacBook Pro, it's 9 years old and still does everything he needs it to. Another has an IPad, gotta be 3 years old by now. Only had 1 die less than 4 years old... suffered a "chocolate milk" failure.

Again for us it's just not worth the time and effort. Haven't gotten < 80 fps on anything I have played on my 4 year old box. Upgrading takes a box out of service. Replacing I can take as long as I want. Yes, when I do an outside box, it's built in an hour, software installed and OC'd and out the door in 2 or 3. But we put a lot of time into our personal builds as gotta look at them for years. The 1st week after the case arrives is spent making CAD drawings and test fitting the card board mockups of components. Spent another week just doing the acryic tubing. It's a hobby and it's great sharing / bonding experience with my sons. Given the snail's pace of performance improvements (outside of GFX cards for gaming) and ignoring benchmarks that have no impact on productivity, we just find that there's no justification to upgrading in a post Sandy Bridge era. Recently one oif the folks we built for stopped by asking about a new box. I asked what do you want the new box to do, and when answered, I couldn't see why his SB system would change his life in any way. He noted that the system takes longer to boot now than he remembered (likely resolved by fresh OS install) so he thought maybe it would be better. He works from home, wakes up whenever, puts on coffee, turns on his PC in next room, goes back for coffee and whatever, then sits down in his underwear and reads the internet while drinking coffee / eating muffin whatever and then starts his workday. An upgrade is not going to change his life in any way or make him more productive.

 

[Tomgang]

The only thing that changed was the PSU since I thought it died, but it turns out it still works. It only has a bad sata connection on one of it's leads so the Pc would not recognize the HDD. Oh and recently I changed the case form a thermaltake chaser A31 to the MS Cyclops IV.

Small upgrades also has it own charme

I didn't take pictures of most of my computers over the years, but I'll just say this: The first PC I built entirely myself, including picking out every single part, had an entirely clear acrylic case(I don't have a picture of that one), my current PC doesn't even have a windows side panel...

I've gotten old, I don't care about tacky flashy looks, I like stylish performance instead.

About the flashy part we are two then. That is also why i dit not replace all my fans with LED or RGB fans. All that flashy part i liked in the teenage days is over now.

I'm purely a hardware ***** so I can say safely up till about 2.5 years ago, that I've always had one mental PC, just it's not really kept up so much now but before I'd make sure it was the best I could get really.. 920 D0 @ 4.6Ghz and 3 GTX 580's was were it began when I moved into my own home some 8 years ago now

I've had that many pieces of hardware, some of which I've not sold and I've just added too the collection..

I've no regrets.. Aside from not buying 4 GTX 580's but I'm going to see if I can find another.. Has to be slightly awkward though, as I've got the 3Gb versions, so I'm going to need another one of those lol

I've hundreds of pictures on the home server, I can always post up a few pics if people is interested Until the current build (my X99 5960X) and whatever loopy build specs I can come up with to finish it off is done, I'll be holding on to it.. That said, I have a feeling the next few builds will be AMD's Ryzen and Threadripper 2.. If your going to do a job, you have to do it properly

Yeah just as you when i moved from home, i wanted a kickass pc so i dit also get me an I7 920 back then and as you might have seen 3 x GTX 285 for 3 way sli. GPU has since then been gear down to first 2 cards and now a single gpu.

Well, the OP did say "see how your current pc has changes over the years"; he just didn't say how many years. In modern times, I kept my Fractal Define Design R4 case and made the following upgrades:

Removed
Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H motherboard
Intel Core i3-4370 CPU
Zalman CNP9500 AT CPU cooler
Four 4GB Crucial Ballistix Sport DIMMs
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti WindForce video card

Installed
ASRock H370 Pro4 motherboard
Intel Core i3-8100 CPU
Cryorig M9i CPU cooler
Two 8GB G.Skill Aegis DIMMs
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 WindForce OC 3G video card

Not exactly high-end parts, but at least they're reasonably current.

high end or not, as long it does what you need it to do. That is what count in the end

Same case for the last 14 years, generic black one with two USB1.1 ports on the side, no headphones jack, but hey, it can use 1x120mm + 1x92mm + 2x80mm fans. I will change it when the paint falls off.
CPU/RAM/MoBo/VGA list as of now:

• Pentium D 805 2,66GHz - 1GB DDR 400MHz - ASRock 775i65g - EVGA 6200 256MB (AGP)
• Pentium Dual Core E2140 1,6GHz - 2GB DDR2 667MHz - Asus P5CG-MX/1333 - Powercolor HD3450 512MB
• Phenom II X2 BE 550 3,1GHz - 4GB DDR3 1333MHz - MSI 770-C45 - PNY 7600GT 256MB
• Phenom II X4 980BE 3,7GHz - 8GB DDR3 1333MHz - Asus M4A785TD-V EVO - XFX HD7750 1GB
• (NEVER downgrade like this) A4-4000 3GHz - 8GB DDR3 1600MHz - MSI A68HM-E33 - XFX HD7750 1GB
• Ryzen R3 1200 3,1GHz - 8GB DDR4 2400MHz - MSI B350M PRO-VDH - Sapphire R9 270X Toxic 2GB

And so many HDDs I lost count, first one was 80GB.

Holy "bip", talk about of reusing same case throw 6 builds That´s impressive. The case i have now will be replaced with the next pc, its to outdated for me desing as well as features. USB 1.1 that is old school big time and for what i remember very slow.

I've had two towers in the past 8 years.

I had been running SLI builds since I got into actual PC gaming, starting with 7600 GT. I was blown away by how well they ran Oblivion - cranked up those settings and I was off! Too bad I found the game itself to be bland and horribly boring. Anyway.....

I purchased a new tower to use - Cooler Master Cosmos 1000!

Spoiler

I finally decided to pull the trigger when I found a heck of a deal on 2 brand new GTX 280s - they were at EOL, replaced by the GTX 275 and surpassed by the GTX 285 - in March of 2010 to go with the new tower I had purchased. I think I spent around $200 on each card, brand new in box from Tigerdirect.

I then procured a CPU (Phenom II x4 940) and MB (ASRock K10N780SLIX3-Wifi) and eventually a new PSU (CoolerMaster SilentPro 1000W) and RAM (Corsair XSM2 2x2GB DDR2 800). By the first week of April 2010 I had everything I needed for my new build (step up from the Athlon X2 64 5200+, 4GB DDR, 2 7600 GT in SLI). I get everything installed and work in installing Vista (I know, 7 was out, but I already had Vista OEM from a computer class I was taking). Everytime I installed a GPU driver, the system would lock up or BSOD. I installed XP - same thing. I installed one of my 7600GT cards in Vista and XP as well, same thing. 8 different OS installs over the course of 2 nights......I worked with ASRock customer service via emails and did a few things that I had not thought of, but still the same issue. ASRock said to RMA the board. RMA with newegg and about 10 days later a new MB arrived. Install everything and no issues!

Fast forward about 3 months later and end of July I had sent in one of my GTX 280s to BFG due to faulty fan. They sent back a GTX 285. When I received the GTX 285 BFG announced they're closing doors and no longer taking anymore RMAs. That's cool. I got my replacement card, though I'm a bit said it's a GTX 285 - can't run SLI. Oh well. GTX 285 is faster than a single 280, so I'll make due. Or so I thought.....

GTX 285 gets constant driver crashes. Increasing voltage and dropping clocks didn't fix it. So now I have a faulty 285 that I can't return due to the manufacturer having closed....I spent a good 4 hours searching online if anyone had flashed a 280 BIOS to a 285, but I came across nothing useful. Every post I came across basically said it wouldn't work due to the difference between the cards. I had nothing to lose, so I tried it anyway. Success! It worked. I ran the 280 and flashed 285 in SLI for a couple of years. I actually found a pic of the build:
View attachment 104569

I last tested the CPU/MB/RAM and GPUs about 20 months ago and they all worked. I have since donated them to the Memorial to Kreij old school build - which will eventually happen, I think.

I eventually moved from the GTX 280s to 2 GTX 570s in mid 2012. Everything else stayed the same. I kept that setup until January of 2014. I moved to my current i5-4670k. Once I moved up from my OC'ed PII x4 940 (ran her at 3.6) to the i5, it was like a whole new system. Frame rates nearly doubled with my 570s in SLI. I ran those cards until July 2015 when I picked up a GTX 980Ti AMP! Omega.

Before the move to the 980Ti I got a new case, Fractal Design Arc XL.

Spoiler

I wasn't content with the basic black/white look of it. I wanted something that had more pop to the color. I spent a good bit of time sanding, priming and painting for this end result:
View attachment 104571

I had the i5 and GTX 570s in that case for a few months (though I haven't been able to track down a pic of it). I got the 980Ti and soon after a new 850W Seasonic 80 Gold PSU.

Here's the i5-4670K, 8GB DDR3 ADATA RAM (8GB more was added a short while later. Also, they're gold! One of the reasons I picked the yellow color for the case), the 980Ti - but before the new PSU:

That's what I've been using since July 2015. I did pick up a second 980Ti AMP! Omega that I ran in SLI for about 6 months, but I ended up moving it to the HTPC to be a second gaming computer, along with a Plex server. Kids can play games on that one and stay the hell off my computer.

I did have to get a new MB since the ASRock one (see in pic above) died on me. Eventually ended up with an ASUS Z97-AR.

Lovely builds you got there. GTX 285 brings back memory´s from then i got my own build brand new.

I wouldnt even know where to start. This case I have now has had at least 3 mother boards in 4 years. I buy a new GPU about every 3 years. I've been doing this sense 1995. And I have like 4 systems running

A true nerd never thinks he has to many system running

Well that was a surprise after writing it all down just how much stuff I've been through over the years
MOBO's : some piece of Compaq crap > SOYO Intel 440BX > Gigabyte VIA KT133 > Asrock VIA KT266A > Abit nForce 2 - 400 Ultra > Albertron skt 754 > Asus A8R32MVP-Deluxe > Asus Chrosshair IV > Asus Chrosshair V Formula
CPU's: Intel 286 > 286+287 > Intel 486DX2-100 > AMD K6-2 450 > Duron 900 > Athlon 2800+ > Athlon64 4800+ > Phenom x2 7750 > Phenom II x4 940 > Phenom II x4 965 > FX8320
RAM: 1MB 30 pin sip > 2MB 30 pin simm > 4x 1MB 30 pin simms > 2x 4MB 72 pin EDO Simms > 2x 256MB DDR133 > 2x 512MB DDR400 > 4x 1GB DDR2-1066 > 2x 4GB DDR3-2400
GPU's: Trident 256KB VGA 16bit ISA > S3 Virge 2MB + 2MB 32bit PCI > S3Virge 4MB 64 bit VLBus > nVidia TNT 2 16MB > nVidia GF400mx 64MB AGP> nVidia 5200 256MB AGP > Radeon 9600XT 256MB AGP > Radeon X850XT 512MB PCIe > Sapphire Radeon HD2600XT 1 GB PCIe > 2x Sapphire/Asus Radeon HD2600XT 1GB PCIe > HIS Radeon HD5770 1GB PCIe > 2x HIS Radeon HD5770 1GB PCIe > Sapphire Radeon HD7850 2GB > 2x Sapphire Radeon HD7850 2GB PCIe > Asus Radeon R9 285 STRIX 2GB PCIe > Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX480 8GB OC PCIe > BIOS Modded Sapphire Nitro+ RX480 to RX580 8GB OC (1411Core/2000Mem)
HDD's Boot: Seagate 545MB IDE > Quantum Fireball 2.5GB > Seagate Barracuda 20GB > 2x WD 40GB RAID0 > 2x WD 256GB RAID0 > 2x Samsung 512GB RAID0 > 2x WD 1TB Blacks RAID0 > 2x Kingston V300 120GB SSD RAID0
HDD's storeage: WD 40GB > WD 256GB > Samsung 512GB > WD 1TB + Samsung 1TB + WD RED 2TB + Seagate 2TB + WD Elements 2TB USB2.0 + WD Elements 512GB USB3.0 + WD Passport 4TB USB3.0 > Apple SSD 128GB M2 SATA via PCIe adapter card (this is where my Pagefile resides )
Case's: Various shitters until I got an Silverstone RV02 V1.0 and then added the USB3.0 upgrade to it and an 2x 5.25" bay to 3x 3.5" hdd caddy

Some of that hardware is from way before i even thinking on getting a pc my self, but must have been fun

She started so humble,
Processor: intel 3770
Motherboard intel DZ68ZV
Ram: Kingston 1600 (could remember exact model)
GTX 550 ti
EVGA 600B PSU
thermaltake V3 Case
stock cooler,
Lite-On DVD drive,
2 TB HDD,
Logitech cheap mouse and keyboard combo,
Z506 5.1 sound,

no SSD, stock cooler and a tight, pretty tight case for cable management, but parts started to be upgraded, arranged and there we go, improving when possible,

Improving something is al ways good to do. I as well started out my X58 with out a SSD but ran WD raptors in raid 0. Today throw i will never just settle with a HDD. Have you first an SSD and specially a M.2 SSD, there are no way back from there. Going back to a HDD after that would be to painful.

Let’s just say my i7 3930k system started out as a P4 2.6 ghz Northwood core/4200ti system. Been upgrading ever since then, but never fully replacing it.

That is also a way to keep going. Next pc for me will be a new one. Not gonna upgrade more on my current pc. But that shut also last a year or two more now.

 

[peche]

Improving something is al ways good to do. I as well started out my X58 with out a SSD but ran WD raptors in raid 0. Today throw i will never just settle with a HDD. Have you first an SSD and specially a M.2 SSD, there are no way back from there. Going back to a HDD after that would be to painful.

totally in the point, also now as builder for some customers and tech for others i always advise that SSD's could improve their experience, no matter if low end one, new era make almost any SSd better and faster than HDD's, for laptops they are amazing improvements on consumption, noise and portability!

 

[Tomgang]

totally in the point, also now as builder for some customers and tech for others i always advise that SSD's could improve their experience, no matter if low end one, new era make almost any SSd better and faster than HDD's, for laptops they are amazing improvements on consumption, noise and portability!

Agreed. SSD is one of the bedst thing you can invest in for your pc what ever its a cheap, exspensive or old pc. One of the things i like with this hobby is then i help people. When they come to me and ask for advises to bay a new pc, because the old one is to slow. Then i al ways take a look on the old pc first, cause many times and old pc is slow is because of an old slow harddrive and at the same time help them get more out of it by overclock it, replace aging parts and so on. People mostly at first are skeptick about it. They think its like 4-6 years old, its outdated. But not al ways. Just need to replace a few things or upgrade it and a few tweaks here and there and they are good to go again. Its al ways fun to se people faces look at there old pc after and make over. They can many times not believe it.

Or when i tell people my pc is based on 9 year old tech and they see it boot from my M.2 SSD or running games. They a just standing there and say nothing at first. But i has done exsakly the same to my pc as i do to others. Upgrade, replace and tweak where its needed and it can keep up again.

 

[peche]

Agreed. SSD is one of the bedst thing you can invest in for your pc what ever its a cheap, exspensive or old pc. One of the things i like with this hobby is then i help people. When they come to me and ask for advises to bay a new pc, because the old one is to slow. Then i al ways take a look on the old pc first, cause many times and old pc is slow is because of an old slow harddrive and at the same time help them get more out of it by overclock it, replace aging parts and so on. People mostly at first are skeptick about it. They think its like 4-6 years old, its outdated. But not al ways. Just need to replace a few things or upgrade it and a few tweaks here and there and they are good to go again. Its al ways fun to se people faces look at there old pc after and make over. They can many times not believe it.

Or when i tell people my pc is based on 9 year old tech and they see it boot from my M.2 SSD or running games. They a just standing there and say nothing at first. But i has done exsakly the same to my pc as i do to others. Upgrade, replace and tweak where its needed and it can keep up again.

the most common case is outdated OS, low ram, slow HDD and heat problems, so as you said, the point number, to help others and also i like to save them money re-using all possible when building,

 

[Athlonite]

@Tomgang Yup sure was fun times it was the little things though like upgrading the cache or video cards ram and overclocking the bus

 

[Tomgang]

@Tomgang Yup sure was fun times it was the little things though like upgrading the cache or video cards ram and overclocking the bus

Based on the fun and surprises i have had with x58, i can only relay to it. Getting things to work that arrent supose to work and get higher overclock than i had hoped for just to mentien a few thing: m.2 ssd on x58 fully working and it can be booted from to or then i upgraded from a i7 920 to my current i7 980x. That is truly times i enjoy and find fun to do or get to work.