How much time until a computer gets obsolete?

[Procyon]

So, in terms of games, how much time you can play in a computer without problems in games?

4 years? 3? 5?

Example: I have a 2.8 Ghz P4, GForce Fx 5200 128Mb and 1024 Mb ram; bought in 23 December 2003.

When should I buy a completely new pc?

[gryphon]

For corporations it usually is about 3 years.

I think you should buy a new PC the moment you can't play the games you want to play on your current computer.. ...

[veK]

depends on the games...

because if you had bought a new pc and 6 weeks later doom3 was released you probably would have to buy a new gpu again.

there are other games which are new but don't require that much new hardware so you can still play them quite good with an older pc.

I usually change parts from time to time, so I never really buy everything at once. I bought a new hdd and a dvd burner last march, a new board, cpu and ram in june, and 2 weeks ago a new gpu... and so on...

[Andrew]

Depends if you go spend $3000 on a new computer with all the best parts. It will last a while.

If you buy a cheap computer it wont last as long.

[Megashrap]

Id say bout the time you get a new game go to multiplayer and everyone is accusing you of being a lagger and you never get a game hehe. $3000.00 sheesh, I would never pay that, I even splurged and am getting some sweet top o the line upgrades that are gonna make mine look silly. Seriously, what pc alone is worth 3 grand that is not gonna need upgrading at the same rate mine is now?

[Andrew]

Alienware computers are priced at $5000, I doubt it has $3000 in brand equity.

I remember one time building a computer at Alienware.com and it came to more than $20,000.

I'm sure that a computer system priced at $20,000 is better than a $2,000 computer system.

I remember at one point (1999), an Alienware configuration was the top of the line (it was in pcgamer or something).

I'm sure you can build your own computer for less, and it will run great for games.

[veK]

I can't get it how alienware is doing maths, cause even if you put in dual cpu on a sli-board with 2 gf6800ultra (dunno if there even already is a sli board with dual cpu) and put in good ram and so on and the best watercooling system and so on (to make it short: if you bought all the good stuff you would most probably never pay more than 4-5.000$

so how can you build a pc which would cost 20.000$?

are you sure you didn't build a server? dunno if alienware even got some but this would be a conclusion - I once build a server @ dell which would cost 30.000

[Andrew]

It wasnt a server, I just had everything upgraded to the max including a monitor I think (or maybe two ;D).

[Nyarlathotep]

To give you an example, my PC's lasts 1 to 1.5 years. By that time I have a completely new one.

As said earlier, it depends on what type of gamer you are. If you're a fanatic, like me, your pc won't last that long.

If you're an average gamer, an upgrade of your video card in your current system will do just fine.

It all depends on you...