Current Events > What's the average lifespan of a gaming computer?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Or do you just upgrade the video card after a few years?

Price wise is a $5-10K gaming computer worth its lifespan?

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What on earth are you planning on putting into a gaming computer that would cost $5k? Or worse, $10k?

Mines like 6 years old and still runs everything maxed out at 1080p.

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Those 8k mods will look great.

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$10K gaming computer so like $1800 on top-of-the-line parts and $8000 on terabytes upon terabytes of SSD.

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It depends on how willing you are to lower settings and deal with lower framerates.

Personally I upgrade my graphics card and processor every 3rd gen.

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pogo_rabid posted...

It depends on how willing you are to lower settings and deal with lower framerates.

Personally I upgrade my graphics card and processor every 3rd gen.

I see. What's the most you'd spend on a gaming PC then including monitor, mic, keyboard and mouse? And how much to upgrade those parts eventually?

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HODL_Austin_Era posted...

I see. What's the most you'd spend on a gaming PC then including monitor, mic, keyboard and mouse? And how much to upgrade those parts eventually?

Probably around 2k is the most i'd spend in one go, however once you already have a complete PC, you don't have to upgrade everything at once. Maybe you upgrade your processor one year, the graphics card a couple years after that. Your PSU should last you ages, your case should be good for ages, you generally will have to upgrade your mobo/processor at the same time. Your SSD's will last for multiple builds unless you need more capacity. Your ram will last multiple builds unless you buy in at a gen's end of life (kinda like how DDR4 is getting replace by DDR5 soon).

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Any of these expensive keyboards worth getting IYO?

https://www.ign.com/articles/the-best-high-end-keyboard-for-gaming

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HODL_Austin_Era posted...

Any of these expensive keyboards worth getting IYO?

https://www.ign.com/articles/the-best-high-end-keyboard-for-gaming

Don't overspend on paripherials with features you will never use, but with the best switches possible...unless you're a keyboard nerd like me who spent $160 on a ducky shine 5, ~6 years ago and hasn't looked back.

You can do really well with a no frills mechanical keyboard for like $50-80

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vupP1rS4MLw

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For mice, you need to find what you like. Personally i'm a logitech fanboy when it comes to them. I have a g903 for gaming and a MX Master 2s for productivity/work stuff.

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Which keyboard did you get?

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HODL_Austin_Era posted...

Which keyboard did you get?

A ducky shine 5 with cherry reds is my current keyboard.

but i've also had a corsair k95 platinum, but it was kinda junky for the price, so it's currently in a box collecting dust.

EDIT: https://www.duckychannel.com.tw/en/Ducky-Shine5

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I go for the high end specs a couple steps down from the enthusiasts parts. So usually the xx70 and xx80 cards or the amd equivalent.

Lasts me around 5-6 years before I itch to build a new one.

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Lmao 5k on a computer

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JBaLLEN66 posted...

Lmao 5k on a computer

I was just asking brah why you gotta hate on my uneducated ass????

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here, take a look at this guide

https://www.logicalincrements.com/

even the highest band on that site doesnt go above 5k. If you buy pre-made computers, or sites that build them for you, then you have to expect to get ripped off. Especially those alienware scum.

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Depends on what you're going to use it for. I'm using a computer right now from 2010.

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Here's how you (don't) build it:

https://youtu.be/M-2Scfj4FZk
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1337toothbrush posted...

Depends on what you're going to use it for.

This is basically what it's rounds down to.

If you want to play games at 1080p 60fps, then current hardware will carry you for ages. If you're going to be gaming at 1440p/4k and demand higher refresh rates, no way hardware will last you more than 3-4 years max, and even then you'll still be turning down a lot of settings by the time you hit the 4 year mark.

Especially now with the new consoles out and developers making games with those higher specs in mind.

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mine is almost 10 yrs old, cost around 5.5k back then, had to change the GPU twice but everything else still works very well

ROOTFayth posted...

mine is almost 10 yrs old, cost around 5.5k back then, had to change the GPU twice but everything else still works very well

I feel like you need to upgrade your CPU/Mobo too if you upgraded your GPU twice and its been 10 years

GPUs are pricy af right now but 5k is waaaaay overkill for a gaming PC. hell. 3k is overkill

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Im still using an Alienware laptop I bought on special back in 2016. I run everything on medium, but it does the job.

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Would you recommend buying hardware for 1440p/4k or wait till 2022 stuff drops? By lowering the settings slowly this should last 10 years or longer.

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AbstraktProfSC2 posted...

I feel like you need to upgrade your CPU/Mobo too if you upgraded your GPU twice and its been 10 years

GPUs are pricy af right now but 5k is waaaaay overkill for a gaming PC. hell. 3k is overkill

What's a good budget? I'm in Canada so it's be a bit more for me here.

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Following because Ive been thinking of getting a computer for gaming instead of going with the next PlayStation or Xbox.

My biggest concern has always been how long itll last. I always revisit old games and I can plug in my Sega Genesis or N64, for example, and start playing no problem. I was always wary of PC gaming because of the cost of a new computer. But if there are ways to make them last, Ill consider it more seriously.

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HODL_Austin_Era posted...

Would you recommend buying hardware for 1440p/4k or wait till 2022 stuff drops? By lowering the settings slowly this should last 10 years or longer.

It depends on the size of the monitor you game on. for anything 27in and above, the DPI of 1080p would make things look kinda shit, so imo 1440p monitor is needed. Above 32in, 4k is needed.

I personally use a Samsung G7 Odyssey as my monitor, so I need higher end hardware to drive high refresh 1440p at the settings I want in AAA games, and need to upgrade more frequently as new games come out.

The same doesn't hold true for someone who wants to play world of warcraft at 1080p and that's it. They can use more entry level hardware for years longer and not have any issues.

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I built my first pc about 4 years ago. I spent around $2000. I would say it was nearly high end as it had a 1080 and a 1tb SSD which were the most expensive parts. It could still play games at max settings at 1080p, most games at 1440p at 50+ fps and 4K at 30+.

i recently built a new PC. Everything was new except I kept the SSD but also added a 1tb m.2 gen.4 nvme. It costed around $2500 but it wouldve been around $2100 because I bought a scalped 3080 a few months back. It can run most games at 4K at 60+ fps but some newer gen games like cyberpunk at 50fps+. Have to tone down some stuff from psycho/ultra to medium to consistently hit 60+ fps. Mind you this is with rtx and dlss on. If rtx was off, easy 60+ fps.

Id say a monitor is just as important because I had a basic Asus 4K tn panel monitor. My most recent build I bought an Asus 43 VA 4K gsync compatible 48-144 hz monitor and an Alienware 27 IPS 1440p gsync ultimate 1-240hz monitor. high refresh and variable rates are fantastic. Both of them costed $1500 and $800 but theyre definitely future proof.

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AbstraktProfSC2 posted...

I feel like you need to upgrade your CPU/Mobo too if you upgraded your GPU twice and its been 10 years

GPUs are pricy af right now but 5k is waaaaay overkill for a gaming PC. hell. 3k is overkill

yeah i had come across a lot of capital back then and I was only 22 yrs old so I didnt care if I wasted money, wouldnt do it again, my CPU/Mobo still works fine, I didnt upgrade the GPU fwiw, just changed it because previous one broke, its not like a super good GPU, the game I play that requires the most out of my PC is FFXIV so its not a big deal

Reminds me of the verge computer build.

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The extreme high end of parts has you paying twice the price for like 10% more performance. Youre better off buying the lower high end and being able to upgrade twice as often than trying to stretch a machine for 10 years. You can spend like 1500-2000, invest the rest, and then upgrade like 5 years later

Granted some parts can absolutely go 10+ years

Monitors, keyboard, case, power supply, hard drives, headphones/speakers, DVD/blu ray drive (if you go for one), sound card (if you go for one) can last across multiple builds.

A mouse you can stretch longer if you know how to solder and replace the switches for the left/right click which are usually the first things to go in my experience.

Motherboard, RAM, CPU, and GPU are where performance comes from and so youll upgrade those more frequently.

I usually upgrade the GPU about twice as often. Theyre also the most frequent part to break/malfunction in my experience. I keep up my brothers PC as well and will hand parts down to him, and between our two machines (going back to the GeForce 3 ) Ive seen 5 video cards fail before their time while only retiring about the same number.

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I wouldn't ever spend more than $1500 on a gaming computer

depends on what you consider a lifespan.

playing all games released at highest settings at max resolution and for shits and giggles let's just say 60 stable fps... probably no more than a few years.

being able to just play games that are still released with low requirements or cuphead or pixel like graphics.. probably 20+ years:
https://youtu.be/ZIuWRVPPv2Q

the 8800gt was a midrange card released in 2007 and the newest game on the list he's playing is valorant released in 2020. the rest of his setup is obviously brand new but this is just to point out that you're never stuck without new games to play compared to consoles where publishers arbitrarily decide a cut off point to stop releasing games that could perfectly run on the hardware(see = wii u).

so yes, a decent gaming PC(read = NOT $5000+) is worth more than say any single console generation's worth of consoles combined.

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Spooking posted...

If you're paying $5k for a computer then you are willfully getting ripped off.

Just get yourself a CYBERPOWER PC for $700-900 and call it a day. Don't bother building your own - especially if you don't know what you're doing i.e. expecting the PC to boot up with WIndows.

Here's LTT's secret shopper review of cyberpower. Some things to look out for, notably some of the part choices are sus
https://youtu.be/Q2kCUbY4ZWs?t=1133

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Flockaveli posted...

so like $1800 on top-of-the-line parts

As someone who knows very little about this, isn't the best graphics card right now like $1,500? Wouldn't it be a lot more than $1,800 total?

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KainWind posted...

As someone who knows very little about this, isn't the best graphics card right now like $1,500? Wouldn't it be a lot more than $1,800 total?

The top cards right now are the 6900xt and the 3090 from amd/nvidia respectively. They have extremely minimal gains over the 6800xt/3080 and not worth the extra money.

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I'm not sure if I'd go above 32" since sitting a certain distance away. I'd probably prefer dual screens for browsing.

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Austin_Era is Canadian, so factor that into your specs. That said, spending 5K CAD is stupid unless you have absolutely nothing for PC gaming (monitor, peripherals, desk, chair) and have an amount burning a hole in your pocket.

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