How often do you upgrade your computers?
- Thread starter Civ001
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Every three years or thereabouts, for me. I used to build my own, but after the last couple were annoyingly hot or noisy I just went with a relatively inexpensive but high-end Dell refurb.
You mean how often do we buy new PCs, or how often do we buy upgrade components?
I buy new computer parts on a pretty regular basis to upgrade existing systems. (Though what counts as an upgrade? I've gone through like two dozen mice in the past decade.)
Last actual new system I built was in 2005. Then won a laptop in a contest last year that I'm using as my primary PC now.
Heh, my office desktop is a high-end Dell, and my biggest complaint with it is how noisy it is compared to the systems I build.
I buy new computer parts on a pretty regular basis to upgrade existing systems. (Though what counts as an upgrade? I've gone through like two dozen mice in the past decade.)
Last actual new system I built was in 2005. Then won a laptop in a contest last year that I'm using as my primary PC now.
Heh, my office desktop is a high-end Dell, and my biggest complaint with it is how noisy it is compared to the systems I build.
My wife and I only started buying new machines in 2007. We bought her a new laptop 2 years ago, and I got a new desktop 4 years ago. I recently upgraded her original laptop, but the motherboard, GPU and CPU are pretty limiting so there's not much I can do with it that's fun (KerbalSpaceProgram runs at about 3fps and civ4 won't even initialize).
I think we upgrade phones more frequently, but I'm a cheapskate and won't pay a new device premium. She's on her 4th mobile apple unit, I'm on my 3rd android handset which is 3 or 4 years out-dated (google nexus toroplus)
I think we upgrade phones more frequently, but I'm a cheapskate and won't pay a new device premium. She's on her 4th mobile apple unit, I'm on my 3rd android handset which is 3 or 4 years out-dated (google nexus toroplus)
Civ4 not initializing on anything remotely modern doesn't sound right, it's playable on laptops from like 2004.
Running CyanogenMod? My mother's got a Maguro handset she's happy with, but since Samsung/Google stopped updating it I've been thinking of throwing on CyanogenMod next time I visit... but I'm not thrilled that they've stopped producing "stable" builds and no real news on whether the installer project is still alive or not.
Running CyanogenMod? My mother's got a Maguro handset she's happy with, but since Samsung/Google stopped updating it I've been thinking of throwing on CyanogenMod next time I visit... but I'm not thrilled that they've stopped producing "stable" builds and no real news on whether the installer project is still alive or not.
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It depends on whether you mean upgrade components, or upgrade the entire system.
For the latter, every 4 years, give or take a few months, even when I was growing up and it was my parents' decisions. 1995, 1999, 2003, and then got my own laptop in 2007. Then I built my own desktop in 2011. Does that mean I'll get one next year? I don't know. The desktop doesn't need upgraded, but my laptop is rather old by now.
For upgrading components within the system, somewhat more often. I think the 1999 machine is the only one that was never upgraded, before it was eventually replaced due to not being able to run Civ3 well. I'd say each one gets one or two upgrades on average, not counting peripherals like headphones or mice that aren't on the same schedule. My laptop has been upgraded the most, with RAM, HDD, and WiFi, and CPU likely upcoming. So far my desktop has only had a hard drive replaced, but that was due to failure so the upgrade wasn't so much to upgrade as to replace what broke with something slightly better.
For phones, I keep using them until it is no longer practical to do so. I kept my first one for 4 years, at which point the microphone was almost useless. I've had two in the past four years, of which one is (barely) hanging on. But even though I've had to upgrade them more often due to failure, I still spend much less on my dumbphones than I do on computers.
For the latter, every 4 years, give or take a few months, even when I was growing up and it was my parents' decisions. 1995, 1999, 2003, and then got my own laptop in 2007. Then I built my own desktop in 2011. Does that mean I'll get one next year? I don't know. The desktop doesn't need upgraded, but my laptop is rather old by now.
For upgrading components within the system, somewhat more often. I think the 1999 machine is the only one that was never upgraded, before it was eventually replaced due to not being able to run Civ3 well. I'd say each one gets one or two upgrades on average, not counting peripherals like headphones or mice that aren't on the same schedule. My laptop has been upgraded the most, with RAM, HDD, and WiFi, and CPU likely upcoming. So far my desktop has only had a hard drive replaced, but that was due to failure so the upgrade wasn't so much to upgrade as to replace what broke with something slightly better.
For phones, I keep using them until it is no longer practical to do so. I kept my first one for 4 years, at which point the microphone was almost useless. I've had two in the past four years, of which one is (barely) hanging on. But even though I've had to upgrade them more often due to failure, I still spend much less on my dumbphones than I do on computers.
Man, you really do manage to live up to your user title around here, don't you?
Man, you really do manage to live up to your user title around here, don't you?
I don't put much effort into avoiding it.
Would probably sound a bit better if I expounded:
There are two main causes of enthusiast-built PCs typically being louder than mass-produced OEM PCs:
1. People who build their own PCs tend to focus on performance-per-dollar with selecting parts, rather than quietness.
2. People who build their own PCs tend to be less tolerant of high temperatures than PC OEMs. (e.g. The Mac Pro is known for having an excellent cooling vs. noise setup, but the CPU runs at 95C under simulated full load conditions. And with modern CPUs, this is pretty much fine, they'll throttle as appropriate.)
If you select parts carefully for efficient fan operation and low-power use, and let your PC run hotter, it's not too difficult to build a PC that's quieter for a given level of performance than an off-the-shelf system.
The error message I get is "Civ4 will not run on this hardware setup".
I know there's something amiss, because I used to run it on this very machine running either Tiger or Leopard. It was a long time ago, so I don't quite remember. I had to have all the graphics turned down, animations off, but it ran fine assuming I wasn't doing a giant map with 18 civs. I don't ever recall a ctd.
I'm not sure how to troubleshoot it, though, since I can't even get the core game to load up, let alone open a save. I'll likely start a thread over in the Mac subforum at some point. It's a low priority for now.
I started with CM 10.2, as that was the latest non-experimental build for my device. I liked a lot of the user features but the data handoffs were terrible. I have never seen an LTE connection (and I should get one pretty much everywhere I go around here). Wifi seems spotty except at my apartment for some reason. But if I'm at a place with public wifi I won't be able to hold the connection -- and then the 3g doesn't step in unless I manually turn mobile data off and then back on. I have no idea if this is a device issue or a ROM issue.
I'm now running the 7/3 nightly of CM 11. It's much better than 10.2, but I've seen on the CM forums that 10.1 is the last stable build that had no data issues. I haven't tried that one out, but I'm tempted to soon.
My network provider is Sprint through an MVNO Ting. When I "upgraded" to CM11 I got a really frustrating error message - "No APN specified for this device". It's a popup that sits in the foreground, low down on the screen so it covers 2 rows of my swiftkey keyboard. I can still type through it, luckily, since it seems to linger for about 5 seconds at a time. And it doesn't just disappear for good - it will pop up persistently over several minutes at a time, as if there's a process that's polling the APN configuration.
I found a potential workaround on the Ting help forum, but I think I missed a step in the method. I still get the message a couple times a day. It has to do with MMS and stuff, I think.
I also have a quirk with the notification pull-down. Sometimes the pull-down freezes half-way through. If this happens sometimes the screen goes totally dark and I have to pull the battery to restart it. More often, though, the phone will crash to the lock screen after being frozen for 20 seconds or so. No idea what's going on there, I haven't bothered to hunt around for an explanation.
From what I understand the Milestone Builds (M5, M6, M7) are the new "stable" builds. I don't know why that is or anything, but that's what a lot of people on the CM forums are saying. So maybe you shouldn't let the nomenclature stop you from trying it out. That said, I'm not sure how the different builds affect maguro vs. toroplus. I only haunt the toroplus subforum for the Gnex.
But now I've got an issue with the microUSB interface on the phone, which is a SMD motherboard connection. I can't fix that, so I may have to look into a new phone. I think I'll stay in the Gnex family, but I'd *really* like an iPhone quality camera. I'm sick of this slow grainy 5MP cheapo.
Well Maguro doesn't have CDMA/LTE, so that's not really a problem. It also stock updates to 4.3, and I don't really care about installing CM other than to update to 4.4 (and stay up to date) so there's no real point in me installing anything pre-11.
There's no real "Galaxy Nexus" family, LG took over the Nexus line after the Galaxy Nexus and it looks like the N4 doesn't work on Sprint. The Nexus line is kind of famous for low-quality cameras. Other than Apple, Nokia and Sony make top cameraphones, but neither available on Sprint so the Samsung GS5 is your only real option if that's a priority.
There's no real "Galaxy Nexus" family, LG took over the Nexus line after the Galaxy Nexus and it looks like the N4 doesn't work on Sprint. The Nexus line is kind of famous for low-quality cameras. Other than Apple, Nokia and Sony make top cameraphones, but neither available on Sprint so the Samsung GS5 is your only real option if that's a priority.
KMRblue1027
Deity
I used to go forever without upgrading with my old desktops but since switching to a laptop as my primary PC due to school use I'm replacing this one soon after about 2 and 1/2 years which is fairly normal IIRC.
That mostly seems like a function of what kind of monitor you have.
If you've got a 1366x768 monitor, you don't need much GPU power to run anything at full settings. If you've got a 4K monitor you've got about 8x more pixels to push and need significantly more GPU power, more than any single GPU can provide.
Well I got my new keyboard, and wow its so nice and luxurious and robust. All covered in black brushed aluminium at the top, and the keycaps are pure quality, best quality I've ever had in a keyboard.
But its gonna take me a while to get used to the mechanical switches. Even though I got the lightest ones (cherry reds), they still feel a bit bulkier than a normal cheap membrane keyboard.
But its gonna take me a while to get used to the mechanical switches. Even though I got the lightest ones (cherry reds), they still feel a bit bulkier than a normal cheap membrane keyboard.
Wait, the nexus 4 et alia are made by LG??
Just checked out the specs on the GS5. Nice! And not significantly larger than my current phone. I'm not a fan of the over-sized screens. I don't watch enough video for it to matter, and fitting in a pocket is still a requirement.
Yeah, N1 was HTC, NS, GN and N10 were Samsung, N7 is Asus, N4 and N5 are LG and upcoming N8/9 tablet is rumored to be HTC again.
Other than the camera on the GS5 I'm not a fan, the build quality is poor and all the Samsung additions are worthless - either the N5 or Moto X are nicer phones with faster updates from Google. (But cameras not as good.)
Other than the camera on the GS5 I'm not a fan, the build quality is poor and all the Samsung additions are worthless - either the N5 or Moto X are nicer phones with faster updates from Google. (But cameras not as good.)
My current gaming laptop has a 1920x1080 monitor 8GB RAM, a 1GB GPU and a 2.5GHz quad core processor. Aside from my processor seeming a little on the weak side, I think this laptop should last me a while (it's already a year old).
timtofly
One Day
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I usually built a computer when the current one stopped being of service. I could never really upgrade internal components because the hardware pairing changed by the time I needed to do so. I finally had to "upgrade" when Civ5 came out. But the laptop that was replaced failed soon after anyway. How often varied from 3 years to 5 years.
