Who else has already bought a new PC in anticipation of Civ V?

[Danielos]

If you just learn how to replace your components you can keep the same computer forever. Replace the graphics card here, then maybe a power supply, and when it starts to get really old just buy a new motherboard or processors, small changes at a time. Keeps it affordable and up to date enough to play whatever you want.

Yes, I have updated by graphic card and RAM on my 6 year old computer and I thinks it works excellent on Civ 4. Not sure about Civ 5 though...

 

[White Elk]

I really dislike this wasteful, spoiled habit of buying a new computer every few years because you always want the latest. It is a waste of both money, resources and the environment. I think a computer should last something like 10 years.

I'm with you Danielos. PC waste is a societal shame. Years ago, I wrote HAZMAT reports for my guards working in a chemical manufacturing plant. They only made chemicals for the computer industry. Some real heinous stuff! Some were so highly reactive that they explode on humidity changes. Many with vapors that eat flesh, particularly the lungs. And more. Poorly contained, not safe, such is the way of companies trying to stretch an already obscene profit margin (as I witnessed by observing the clothes, vehicles, jewelry worn by the plant execs). Plenty of money to invest in worker safety! Of all the various manufacturing sites we had officers in (the ones I wrote OSHA mandated MSDS reports for), that plant making chemicals for computer components was the worst. Thats just one angle to the cost of computing. Dealing with the discarded machines, the distribution of new machines etc all add up to big societal costs.

Many dozens of PC's per each individuals lifetime has a cost not payed by those who do it. I really want to play Civ5, but I'll not help shorten peoples life because I buy new PC's every couple years. One a decade is bad enough.

 

[White Elk]

If you just learn how to replace your components you can keep the same computer forever. Replace the graphics card here, then maybe a power supply, and when it starts to get really old just buy a new motherboard or processors, small changes at a time. Keeps it affordable and up to date enough to play whatever you want.

I like this approach. I might need to learn about building my own machine so it can be upgraded. The two PC's I have owned have both come from Dell's refurbished plant. They rebuild/upgrade old machines and support them with a great warrenty. But being a Dell machine, there are limitations towards component upgrades.

 

[EmpireOfCats]

They have already stated that Civ 5 will run on everything from a dead-slow crappy laptop to high-end gaming system much better than Civ 4, or even Civ 3 managed.

I hope that's true. I'll be getting a new MacBook sometime this year, they should upgrade to the i5/i7 line until then. Now that Firaxis will have the only game I'm interested in that doesn't run under OS X (StarCraft 2, the Valve stuff like Portal 2, and later Diablo 3 all will) I'm probably not going to dual boot the laptop after all. I have a quad core Linux server to do that with at home, but hope the MacBook will be fast enough with XP virtualized.

 

[Danielos]

I'm with you Danielos. PC waste is a societal shame. Years ago, I wrote HAZMAT reports for my guards working in a chemical manufacturing plant. They only made chemicals for the computer industry. Some real heinous stuff! Some were so highly reactive that they explode on humidity changes. Many with vapors that eat flesh, particularly the lungs. And more. Poorly contained, not safe, such is the way of companies trying to stretch an already obscene profit margin (as I witnessed by observing the clothes, vehicles, jewelry worn by the plant execs). Plenty of money to invest in worker safety! Of all the various manufacturing sites we had officers in (the ones I wrote OSHA mandated MSDS reports for), that plant making chemicals for computer components was the worst. Thats just one angle to the cost of computing. Dealing with the discarded machines, the distribution of new machines etc all add up to big societal costs.

Many dozens of PC's per each individuals lifetime has a cost not payed by those who do it. I really want to play Civ5, but I'll not help shorten peoples life because I buy new PC's every couple years. One a decade is bad enough.

Good post, my friend!

Also, I really want to add that it seems strange in these days when we hear in the news every day about pollution, human overexploitation of resources and the climate changes and that we need to adapt to a green society that doesn´t needlessly waste energy and resources. And still many here seems to believe that computers are a sort of disposable toys you should buy a new every other year or so.

Depressing really...

 

[Gamemaster77]

I really dislike this wasteful, spoiled habit of buying a new computer every few years because you always want the latest. It is a waste of both money, resources and the environment. I think a computer should last something like 10 years.

Thats kind of ridiculus. You are suggesting that computer makers should not make new really awsome computers as great and they should slow down thier development process? Technology is always changing, you need to stay on top of it.

 

[Danielos]

Thats kind of ridiculus. You are suggesting that computer makers should not make new really awsome computers as awsome and they should slow down thier development process? Technology is always changing, you need to stay on top of it.

Well, I prefer to be ridiculous than wasteful then...

 

[Chalks]

And what says you always have to stay on top of new releases?

I'm not saying you have to, I'm just saying that it's not a wasteful and spoiled habit to keep your computer system frequently up to date when there is documented evidence about the rate at which you have to keep up.

I'm not endorsing buying a new computer and throwing your old one into a nature reserve to rot or something. One assumes that you are re-using or at least selling on your old system or old components.

Buying new property is not wasteful - it is what you do with your old property that defines this.

 

[Danielos]

Thats kind of ridiculus. You are suggesting that computer makers should not make new really awsome computers as great and they should slow down thier development process? Technology is always changing, you need to stay on top of it.

Well of course computer makers are trying to crank out bigger. better, faster computers every year. They want to make as much money as possible. That´s how capitalism works. The question is if you are going to endorse this wasteful, unsustainable behavior by falling for it and buying the latest stuff all the time, or are you going to say "No, my standard of living is decent enough already even without the latest supercool gaming computer. I am satisfied as it is for the moment even without this materialistic temptations to always stay on top"...

 

[mjs0]

I haven't bought a new computer since 1995.

We just upgrade the components...eventually you end up with enough components to put together a dated but working second computer, etc.

After 15 years of doing this we have 7 computers, 1 x 1st tier, 2 x 2nd tier, 2 x 3rd tier and 2 x 4th tier...

• I use a 1st tier and 2nd tier every day for my development needs (my own consultancy business), and the odd game of course
• The other 2nd tier is my wife's primary computer primarily used for work,
• The 2 3rd tier computers are for the kids homeschool and gaming activities, they are still sufficient to run most modern games (and quite adequately participate in our Civ4 and AoE3 Lan games!).
• The 4th tier machines are our home server and my workhorse testing machine (with tons of disk images for all the OS I need to test on).

About every six months we go through an upgrade cycle with a few components and when beneficial trickle the used components down the line. One thing to note is that I never ever buy the hottest and newest (i.e. most expensive) components, I look for the best price/performance and normally something that has been out for 6-9 months is the best deal.

When a machine drops off the bottom it is normally still a fully functioning decent computer so we donate it to a charity, such as the local shelter, who are always happy to give it a new home.

It's never quite as clean as I describe it here because some things like the system case almost never get replaced so I'll often pick up a cheap old case, power supply or monitor (garage sales FTW) to assemble the computer that we are donating.

OK, so I'm sure this is way too much detail and it all sounds very sad and nerdy, but it works beautifully for us.

 

[Shiggs713]

I do that the same way, though I haven't been doing it long enough to have that many computers. I have 3, one is my beast machine, 2 is labtop, and the other is a clunker. No wife or kids to take up the older computers either. I buy stuff that is newish, but yea, usually 6-12 months after release. Basically just look for the good deals, most performance for your dollar. Components only for life, its cheaper and can be better anyways.

 

[cardgame]

Time = money

Computer parts = money

I spend time & money putting together a PC.

-----

Bulk buy = cheaper parts

Companies bulk buy and I don't have to assemble it. It may be more expensive, but time = money, and hassle/convenience is a force not to be underestimated.

I may even try to put together the next computer I buy, but IDK how it will work. I don't think I have all the know-how, I might totally mess it up and get incompatible parts for it!
There's also the hassle of loading an OS, drivers, etc. When you buy a new computer, all this comes with it, at least it came with mine I bought in 2006.

 

[MrTennessee]

Probably wind up getting a new one so I can upgrade my box and such and give my old one to my friend (which he will be beyond happy since it will have more ram than he's ever seen and us being CS guys that's kind of a big deal). The box I have now is kinda cramped for space so I cant really fit anything else on it.

Of course mine will be custom built and will be looking to have the box for a good long term amount of time. I figure desktops can go a while, but laptops have to upgraded about 5 years or so. This all depends on how much of a memory hog each iteration of Windows becomes.

 

[CanuckSoldier]

Yes but there is a point were it doesn't make financial sence to upgrade. When replacing the motherboard entailed a complete generation of technology that also means new memory and new video card(new bus style), and likely you need a larger newer HD as well, and a larger more effiecent PS to power it all, so end the end it is just cheaper at this point to buy a whole new computer and just sell or reuse your old computer as a house hold server or give it too your kids or someone elses kids.

CS

 

[CanuckSoldier]

Double post

CS

 

[Chimera1804]

I should be fine...I've "inherited" my dad's old Dell XPS Gen3...it's about 7 years old, but we've upgraded it to 4 GB of ram and installed a really good video card in it recently...

 

[eris]

I am in the process of shopping. It just so happens the old cpu died and is of too much of an earlier generation to try and fix. The fact that Civ 5 is coming is just another excuse to do what I needed to do anyway.

However, when I go to my friend who builds computer and say "make me a computer that will run Civ 5, but I don't really have the specs yet.", I get this understanding-but-exasperated look. Then again, I am sure I deserve that look for a multitude of reasons.

 

[Akkon888]

Moore's law will become obsolete in maybe a decade or two if they don't switch to carbon transistors instead of silicon. So, I might buy a computer every 6 years or so until that happens.

In the mean time, I think that the developers understand that most of us have mid-range computers, and they will try to adapt their program to this. Personally, I have a comp from 2006 and it will probably continue to work great for another 5 years.

 

[Drago Askani]

I am in the process of shopping. It just so happens the old cpu died and is of too much of an earlier generation to try and fix. The fact that Civ 5 is coming is just another excuse to do what I needed to do anyway.

However, when I go to my friend who builds computer and say "make me a computer that will run Civ 5, but I don't really have the specs yet.", I get this understanding-but-exasperated look. Then again, I am sure I deserve that look for a multitude of reasons.

How big is your PC budget? For around 700-800dollars you can build a great machine (no os) add another 100 for an os if you don't have your disks for XP.

 

[conception]

I definitely don't consider my new purchase wasteful. For all the new components I would have needed, the under $800 I spent was more than I could have gotten a great motherboard, processor, videocard, and internal HD for. And while Civ V's release was what made me realize I really should have a newer machine, the horrible performance, reliability and stability of my older machine was a tremendous factor.

And I am also going through a very complicated move soon. I'm a musician and photographer and use my PC's to work on both fairly extensively. Right now much of my work is held on an easy-to-break external drive and I simply don't have the space on my onboard hard drives to transfer all of my information. It was time that I got a computer that ran stably and could legitimately process all of my music and photography, but also time that I had a more reliable system to store my important files on. They will all be backed up externally, but I don't feel like I'm playing with fire by having too many important files in just one place. This is also the first computer I will have bought new since my 2006 laptop, which was primarily for school and not optimized for gaming.

So I didn't get a computer just for Civ V and thus waiting to get a system just before the game came out would have been silly. And the idea of getting a new computer just for a new game seems as silly to me as it does anyone here, but the reality was that there were a lot of reasons for me to get a much put-off newer PC and Civ V's announcement was the last straw.