Are you one of those people who has to keep up with the trends and get what is new everything something comes out?

For example, do you have to upgrade your hard drive or memory every time so you can have faster speed?

Or are you like me and just get what you need when you need it?

What are the advantages of having the most up to date technology out there?

I upgrade when I need too. My most common upgrades are probably hard discs, as I keep running out of space

hugs

lilnymph

I upgrade when I need. The computer you buy today is out of date from the moment you buy it, if you constantly upgrade your system you will run out of money fast.
A typical system (in my experience) is usable for 3-4 years, after that it makes sense to buy a new one, in the mean time you may want to upgrade memory if the system is running slow or buy a new harddrive/removable media drive for your system if you start running out of space. I am a practical person when it comes to computers.

Are you one of those people who has to keep up with the trends and get what is new everything something comes out?

For example, do you have to upgrade your hard drive or memory every time so you can have faster speed?

Or are you like me and just get what you need when you need it?

What are the advantages of having the most up to date technology out there?

Oh, I'm not a trendy kind of guy, so I only upgrade when I absolutely have to.

You never know what kind of problems can happen when you try to upgrade something. One time I installed a new CD-ROM and it completely screwed up the sound card and it took forever and a day to fix it and that was even with the help of a tech geek. So I minimize the frequency of such problems by minimizing the upgrades. :)

The next upgrade I would probably require would be a new video card, but I'm holding off on that. The newfangled games can wait.

I upgrade out of necessity or perceived necessity.

Do I NEED to have a cd burner? Not really. I'd survive without it. But it makes my life so much easier that it was worth the purchase. I don't have a DVD burner yet because I don't feel the need for it.

Once every 12-18 months here. Generally, I'll build an entire new lower-end-of-the-high-range system (whole thing, case and mobo on up), then, a few months down the line, it'll want new RAM/gfx/CPU etc. By the time 2-3 years have passed, the motherboard will be horribly outdated, and I'll offload the whole thing onto some random relative and build another new rig. Thus has it been since the days of my very first P166. :|

Broke the chain last month and made a sidegrade from a desktop to a notebook. Minor performance gain, but it's a lot more convenient. Bought a three year warranty, but expect to sell it in 18mo - 2 years.


As regards software, staying current is absolutely essential. Windows, virusscan, and adaware/spybot must be eternally vigilant against all who would abuse my machine for their own purposes. Task manager is thy god, and shall be used religiously to monitor the appearance of rogue processes and to smite them as necessary.

Once every 12-18 months here.

pretty much same here. i've learned to buy a higher end mb that will allow for cpu upgrades..which sometimes becomes affordable and hard to resist.

the majority of my upgrades have been to get a whiny kid off my back so that he can have some decent fps :D

I play around with it for a year or 2, and then I buy a new one - standard issue, not the top of the range model - and upgrade my old one to webserver.

Staying up-to-date is only interesting if you're doing extremely intensive stuff, like the latest games and stuff. Otherwise, something comparable to the middle-of-the-road Dell will do, as long as it's not a Dell.

I do this:


I examine any new technology, or goodie, and ask myself, "Do I really need this?". Then I answer "Hell Yeah!!!!", and I run out and buy it. It's a common sense approach that has never failed me.

As for computer related, when I can, if I have the extra cash.

As for other tech gadgets...I just got a 5. mp/8x zoom digi cam, and am looking into a digi cam-corder, now.
I HAD to have a HDTV, got that! Sweet!
In that way, I am always 'shopping' for the next high-tech gadget. I don't always get it : (

Only when I'm really feeling the drag of an aging system. As others have pointed out, you'd have to upgrade pretty much once a week to stay up with the latest and greatest. It is fun to upgrade though; pop in that new card and power her up and run a few benchmarks to see what she can do. :nice:

The field is actualy slowing down. There hasn't been much/any new hardware for sound, video is slowing done to new hardwere once every 6-8 months. Memory is focusing mostly on increasing size, and new hardwere comes out roughly every year. Other then the advent of AMD's 64 bit Processing, not a whole lot new on that line...P4's and Athlon 64's are 1 1/2 years old now.

So is it really important to stay current?

No really. Even the most extream Gamers will only buy the best hardwere of the current year, and keep with that until they start experiancing bad lag, or if the games that are comming out no longer run on their hardwere.

I don't do enough high-tech stuff to justify investing in the newest and brightest. Yeah, more RAM is good, upgrading to a cable connection was smart, and my CD burner was one of my best investments, but I'm happier with two older machines than I think I'd be with one new one.

All the same, I do use some fancy peripherals. Camera, gyroscopic mouse, and mini, cordless keyboards.