Genuine Question Regarding Tech Nowadays
Posted by Ill-Leadership-863@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 14 comments
First, I wanted to say thanks to those in the past who have helped me with learning about PCs in the past. You guys are life savers to people like me who are just getting into PC building and PCs in general. I’ve always been a phone and console guy.
So, thanks.
On to the question, please only reply with unironic answers. I’m genuinely curious and want to know.
So, in an age full of nearly instant response times and fast working/godly PC parts…why should I keep up with new parts so much? I’ve met plenty of people who are like “If you’re planning to build your PC past three days away, you’re wasting your time” or “Your stuff will be so outdated.” I planning a year in advance because I CAN’T get the parts rn. I just don’t get it. How?? If things perform so well, wouldn’t I only be paying for parts to make an instant PC…more instant??
Thank you for any who take the time to respond. I have a few ideas as to why: bigger games, more detailed graphics, wear and tear. If these are the reasons why, please tell me. If there are others, please tell me as well.
I’m so sorry if I sound dumb, but I’m genuinely curious. Thank you, and have a fantastic day.
joeballs@reddit
I'd say within the past 20 years, building a pc with current hardware will last you 5 - 8 years with only maybe a graphics card upgrade. But any hardware upgrade could be negligible depending on what you're using it for. My last 2 pcs were able to play current games at decent framerates after 5 years (with tweaks to game settings).
Ill-Leadership-863@reddit (OP)
That makes a lot of sense! I’ll definitely keep that in mind as I pick out parts closer to when I get it.
aragorn18@reddit
If your current system meets your needs then there's no reason to upgrade. Spend your money on something that will bring you more joy.
The reason we suggest not trying to lock in components more than a month or two in advance is that prices change and new components get released. If you locked in that you want a specific GPU, but then the price of that GPU goes way up by the time you're ready to purchase, now you have to come up with a new plan. It's better to just wait until you're close to purchasing.
Ill-Leadership-863@reddit (OP)
I really appreciate the response. It makes a lot of sense, yeah. I’ll definitely be looking into the parts again a month in advance! I was going to get my stuff once I’m out of basic training.
Another question, and I’m very sorry: but how would a GPU unit go up in price as time goes on if it’s older??
aragorn18@reddit
Often when a GPU goes out of production, supply goes down and prices go up. As an example, my RTX 4090 is worth almost double what I paid for it.
Ill-Leadership-863@reddit (OP)
Oof. That really sucks. I was thinking of getting the RTX 5070 Ti 16GB one, but I have a feeling it’s gonna be overpriced? 😭
aragorn18@reddit
I mean, the 5070 Ti already selling for hundreds of dollars more than the MSRP. Just check prices when you're done with training.
Ill-Leadership-863@reddit (OP)
Sounds good! Still trying to get used to all the letters and numbers for the names of these products 🫠
MissingGhost@reddit
It's not like in the past. You don't upgrade every 5 years to get 1000% of your previous performance. It's mostly to keep up with newer game releases. Unfortunately, devs usually don't program on 5-10 years old computers. They make games so they work well on whatever they have in house which is usually always brand new. Also a lot of upgrading is to keep up with software bloat. Today, a simple software, say a chat application or word processor, will use 2GB of RAM! Many software are just a hidden full web browser.
Ill-Leadership-863@reddit (OP)
Thank you so much for your insight! This makes a lot of sense.
Ichabod_Crane19@reddit
Yeah I’ve always said (as a die hard pc gamer for last 7 years) that the hardware isn’t the problem, it’s the newer games that come out that seem to demand more and more each year out of a build which is why we get the urge to want to upgrade.
Ill-Leadership-863@reddit (OP)
Okay, that makes so much sense! Thank you for your time 🙏
Sea_Perspective6891@reddit
Hardware has actually gotten significantly better so if you did a build within the past 5 years you could probably get away with using it for another 10 plus years without messing with/upgrading much. It's mainly the price of things that is the problem right now. Most things using solid state chips like RAM & SSDs are getting pretty expensive but oddly enough GPU prices have gone way down or got better over the past 5 years. You can get a 9060 16GB for as cheap as $450.
Ill-Leadership-863@reddit (OP)
Damn, really? I wonder why GPU is not going up?? And yeah, the price is insane. I got a build plan and it’s around 3.2k for all the parts, the monitor, etc.
Idk if that’s bad…I’m new to all this 😭😭