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I'm not a car person but I do drool over a nice computer. Happenstance has put me in a position to buy a real sexy beast from digitalstorm (never used them before). I must have owned well over a dozen computers so far but this is the first time I went clinically insane during the customization procedure. Had to post because after I placed the order I started to sweat. Don't know why. It will prob take a little less then a month to receive it.

How often do some of you upgrade about? Is it based on funds or pretty regular?

I've only ever had one custom built computer (Which is my latest and current computer as of now) due to lack of funds, but I'm planning to upgrade some time in the near future when I save up enough. For my current computer, I spent around $250 on it ($100 for both an MSI mobo and AMD processor from a friend, $50 for my computer case, $50 for ram, and $50 for my video card), which is like 2009 quality build. For my next upgrade, I'm going to switch on over to Intel and *maybe* get a new video card if I need it.

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I only bought a custom PC once. I spent about $800 for it. At that time, that PC was very awesome, capable of handling any 3D games with maximum settings. That was... more than 10 years ago though... so right now my PC can only do some basic stuff (internet, downloading, typing, and printing, that's all I need right now). It can't even run a HD movies properly (as a benchmark, my PC can only barely run the first Halo PC game at minimum setting). And lots of its parts already wearing out, like two of its four USB ports are already dead and how my monitor sometimes let out strange sparking sound in it... My PC really needs a complete replacement (AKA throw out and buy a new one) but there is still no plan to replace it anytime soon.

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I only upgrade my computer when I need it, like when it couldn't run 3D game I created for my thesis (the game actually is not heavy it's just that my previous PC is really slow) and off course when it break .

My current computer is around 6 years old and begin to slow down badly .. so I'm buying some new parts in 1-2 weeks (CPU, Motherboard and memory).

Edit
woah .. you're using 10 years old PC o.o; ... my friends call me crazy for using 6 years old stuff .. I wonder what they will call you XD

yeah, my reason for preferring custom build is also funds ^^;

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Ummm...I think is 4-6 years?
Actually I didn't care if my computer is the newest or not, just can run the game and my basic programme (like Photoshop, chrome, etc) is a good reason for me to continue to use the computer and not to upgrade.
Seems my computer always need 5 minutes to turn it on and many game will lag while playing it, my friends always tell me to upgrade it XDDDDDDD

But for the reason that I will upgrade my computer...I think it is it broke down or cant turn on, and think it is old enough at the same time, then I will go to buy a new one expect going to the computer shop and ask them to repair it for me XDDD

I only ever upgrade my technology when it either breaks, or a game/program that requires high specs comes out and I really want it*. Since I am busy working on creative endeavors, I have no time to play games, so I have no reason to upgrade my computer.

*The sole reason I bought my Gameboy Advance and its DS successor were the Pokemon games. The sole reason I bought my PS2 was to play DDR at home.

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“When I stand before God at the end of my life,
I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left,
and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'”
— Erma Bombeck

The nice thing about a custom computer is that you can upgrade it in pieces, here and there, rather than having to pay the full chunk of money all at once. So I might buy a video card when I need a new feature from it, or an SSD if I decide the hard drive is too slow, and so on.

More ram is always nice - I'm at 16GB right now, but since I run Google Chrome, that might not be enough.

So, I'm a big fan of custom builds.

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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face in marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming" - Theodore Roosevelt

I have always built a custom myself, I remember when my father did buy a "Already built" computer from through work, and it wasn't very good considering what he paied for it.
So, I vowed to always build them myself and it has worked well. (At least on my Windows comp, the macbook is harder to build yourself )

I have built in water cooling and a fat GPX with an i5 CPU, and complementing with 16 gigabyte memory. But as PyTom pointed out, when you use chrome you do use a lot of memory, especially if you have three screens and have chrome with tabs on all of them

16GB of Ram?! Isn't that a little overdoing it?

Most people (Even gamers) have 4-8, unless you're running a server-dedicated computer or something.

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Visit my Colors! 3D Gallery for all my artwork. It is best viewed on a Nintendo 3DS, as some of my works are in 3D.

All kidding aside - I work with this computer for a living. RAM is cheap enough that it makes sense to get a lot of it, and anything I don't use gets turned into disk cache, which makes everything faster.

Plus, I tend to run chrome with dozens of tabs, eclipse, and various other memory-hungry tools - it adds up quick, and not having to think about running out of memory is nice.

Supervisor (the computer that runs the LSF) has 16GB of ram, as well. My work servers have 32GB each.

IMO, RAM is probably the single best investment you can make in computer hardware - since running out is a horrible slowdown, it often makes sense to go for more ram and a slightly slower CPU.

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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face in marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming" - Theodore Roosevelt

I choose 32GB for the new one. Those few programs that eat up ram just eat'm up. I'm running with 8GB at present and, similar to PyTom, I can only run chrome or something else, not both. I suffer from chronic tab addiction. Wait, I did that wrong. Hello, I'm Humbert and I suffer from tab addiction. The worst part of the disease is holding onto twenty some tabs, using them as mental reminders, and losing the lot to a computer malfunction.

Well, I suppose it's around every 4 years or so. I remember I went from a Windows ME tower with only 128 MB of RAM to a 2006 Sony Vaio laptop with 1 GB RAM and was like... whoa. I can open a messaging program and firefox at the same time without having all the graphics go black and lock up? NO WAY

Now I have basically the same laptop but with 2 GB. I really, really need an upgrade. I think I'm going to get my husband's computer once he builds a new one which is a major upgrade from this. Photoshop might actually not take over 5 minutes to save one of my PSDs for a CG or sprite. So yes, it is purely based on funds. If I was able, I'd definitely get a much more powerful machine. And now that I'm not as mobile (back in 2006-2008 I was flying back in forth to university), I don't need a laptop, which is good as they really suck xD

I also suffer from tab addiction. I currently have... *counts* 15 tabs open in Chrome. At least 10 are anatomy references for future use and I'm too stupid to bookmark. Sometimes when I'm doing outfit design I will have the entire upper bar turn into pin tabs. I honestly don't know how my computer functions considering.

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BTW, a good way to reduce chrome's memory usage is to run it with the --memory-model=low option.

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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face in marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming" - Theodore Roosevelt

Huh, didn't know Chrome eats up that much memory. I only have 5GB of ram on my computer, and I've never experienced any slow downs even with running a few other programs with Firefox + 5-7 tabs opened.

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Visit my Colors! 3D Gallery for all my artwork. It is best viewed on a Nintendo 3DS, as some of my works are in 3D.

I don't close tabs - I just buy more RAM.

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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face in marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming" - Theodore Roosevelt