Constantly Upgrading Hardware. Whats the point?

Hyo Hardell: Mostly for very basic tasks like Movies and internet browsing etc need very little in the way of performance.If your a hardcore game addict its much more necessary to upgrade your hardware to keep up with the cutting edge graphics and performance games.The issue is many people mis understand what you need Hardware wise to run a computer and seem to believe that bigger = better and so every 6 months they buy new Graphics Cards, more RAM and a faster processor because "It will make it faster" and the end result it was mostly a waste of time and money.I run a Linux file Server with 2TB of Hard disk space 2 GB of Ram and a 1.4Ghz processor, It sits in my loft running 24/7/365 And I connect to it from any PC in the house to play movies or use the printer. It has never needed an Upgrade (apart from disk space) and its now nearly 12 years old.I also run high end gaming RIG which Runs an i7 Processor at 3.4ghz 12GB of RAM and three Graphics cards, The whole system is! water cooled. This should allow me to run the latest games at full for the next two years by which point i might need to get some extra RAM or overclock the CPU and GPUs a little to meet performance demands.Hope this helps...Show more

Gregory Dilg: Because it's a hobby of mine. Ever since I took up the hobby I've met other people like myself. Then I met people who know other people. Then I met people who get the parts at a better price.Some of these I've met people attend LAN parties. I know someone who built a 6 PC network just to Fold@Home. If you're chasing Folding points then you're going to want a fast system.Last summer, I met people who build test systems for a popular online game network.I've met people who run flight simulator software.I know of quite a few people who belong to online communities that are devoted to chasing high benchmarks.Basically, we run large programs that require a huge amount of bandwidth and processing power. We play a numbers game. O! ur big cars do more than take us down main street to pick up a! soda.You don't ever see these people on Yahoo Answers. They're on other tech sites....Show more

Lita Thammorongsa: You are right in what you said “What's the point” Most ID TEN 2's have not got a clue reading their answers. They have little knowledge about computers or their operating system, (windows) Because that's all they know windows, They don't even know that windows is the worlds #3 most insecure operating system. Not counting the Viruses, Malware, Spyware, Worms or Trojans. Has for Mac users they think that Mac is the worlds #1. It is for being the #1 OS for the worlds most insecure Software and Operating SystemMicrosoft have never developed a windows dual or multi core operating system, let alone a hyper threading operating system they are still using the 64 bit operating systems There is mention that Jupiter the new windows 8 will be out sometime late this year or in the first quarter of 2012. that might run the Mulit core processors QuoteMercuri3D ! Gaming is very possible running on a Pentium 4 system with 512 megabytes of ram with a 512 megabyte graphics card. How the hell do you think we played Duke Nukem Quake, and the rest of the action games, in the 80's 90's, Games like videos can only run at a certain speed (FPS)QuoteJoelKatzWhat intensive application software do you run that needs all the power of a quad core system, Quote Karen Answer what operating system are they running at work Xp? Are you on a network running the same business applications software? Before very long you will have problems with your windows 7 i5 system , Like everyone else that come on Answers with their windows 7 problems QuoteComputer ER It also depends on the software versions installed, AnswerWrong it all depends on what operating system that is installed. Windows has always been noted for being unreliable and unstable not only with hardware, it is the same with third party software it crashes and freezes upQuote Mcgee CainAnswe! rWhat a power house you have there with your high end gaming RIG which ! Runs an i7 Processor at 3.4ghz 12GB of RAM and three Graphics card, Who do you think your kidding, Then again there will be some on here that will take all that in, No Operating System or Software has been developed for the Graphics/GPU for the Intel i3 i5, i7 processors or Motherboards or the Hyper threading built in graphics, You say your running Linux on a server read the Linux news Nvidia and ATI are having problems with their drivers,For those in doubt check out the statistics on the top 500 worlds fastest computers 95% are running on Linux operating system...Show more

Christy Tirabassi: When you say there is little different speed wise, how are you comparing exactly? If you don't play games, what CPU intensive applications do you run? Obviously, if you don't run any CPU intensive applications, you won't see much difference with a faster CPU.

Renita Sefton: Well the matter of fact is that, as you said yourself, you aren't a gamer. Being able to play blue! -ray videos is one thing. Being able to play a high intensity game that needs extremely good 3D rendering as well as good pixel shader support and anti aliasing. Sure, you could get away with a video card model that's 2-3 years old. But some of us gamers like to play on the highest settings which do require pretty powerful cards. Try popping in one of the newer games on highest settings and you'll see that your computer can't handle the 3D.Yes, I agree that hardware manufacturers especially CPU and video card manufacturers spend a significant amount of time marketing their products because of the fierce competition, but that doesn't mean they produce extremely powerful products....Show more

Nannie Kasee: My 6 year old system uses an AMD Athlon XP single core at 2.2Ghz and has 1GB RAM. It runs most functions just fine as long as I only do one at a time.My latest build uses an AMD Phenom x4 64 quad core at 2.3Ghz with 2GB RAM. It runs everything I have installed, ! and allows me to use three different web browsers, all using flash play! er, at the same time. That comes in handy while playing facebook games from different accounts at the same time.Both systems run Mint 9, and I do notice a speed difference between the two. The extra cores allow the background programs to stay in the background, instead of using up all of my processor. I will say, I am eager to replace the mobo in the 6 year old system with a new tri- or quad core setup, just to find out how much better my old WinXP install will run....Show more

Lanita Reichman: I upgraded to an i5 quad core machine with 4 Gb of ram and it smokes the machine I use at work, which is a dual core with 2Gb ram. The bottom line is, if you're happy with what you've got, keep it. Also, your ram is way slower than mine, I have DDR3 ram which is super fast and the motherboard is faster also. Of course, if you're happy, that's good. But I would suggest starting a New computer fund and put some money away each month, because one of these days, you will nee! d it.But in the mean time, good luck with your machine since it works for you........Show more

Raven Purl: If you feel that the archaic P4 has almost the same performance as the quad core you must be using the computer just for internet or spreadsheets. Just with bringing up explorer if you look on the task manager the CPU usage for a few seconds is maxed out to 100% while on the quad core it won't go over 16%. It also depends on the software versions installed on both computers and also the services that are running and the maintenance status of the computer

Jannette Kotz: Your friend's quad core computer is easily 2 to 4 times as fast as your computer. And Blu-Ray movies do not require a lot of power to play. Gaming is certainly not possible on your computer, but your friend's computer would handle most games quite well, assuming he had a good video card.In short, 5 year old hardware might be just fine for basic tasks, but anything intensive would benefit fr! om better hardware....Show more