How do you decide when the time is right? Tech keeps improving and getting cheaper at a really fast rate these days, perhaps waiting 2-3 more years is better?
First of all, I need to hit that point. My office machine is a potato, but it runs Ubuntu from an SSD and I don't spend time waiting for applications to open or close or do their stuff. It all happens instantly, so I'm happy and in no mood to upgrade.
On my home machine, I do occasionally play games, even though my busy schedule allows less and less of that.
I also use more demanding software, so that machine has a bigger pot to cook.
So when I hit that point where the game I installed does not run smoothly on settings between high and medium -
or applications take a while to launch or I get angry with the lack of power in any other way, it's time to do something.
My personal happiness with the performance of my system is the only benchmark that counts. I've had people commenting on my machines being potatoes before, but that never sparked anything.
So when I want more juice, I decide whats best - new parts or new system. When I go new system, I usually buy something used off ebay, rip both the new and my old box apart and frankenstein a system out of the best parts. With any luck, there will be enough parts left to build another working system that will go either to a good case or on ebay.
I upgrade parts when either my GPU or CPU are old and the mainboard is able to take a serious upgrade. Right now, I have something like the second best possibility there is in my CPU slot. The best, while being better, is not that much of an upgrade. So as soon as I run into CPU-being-slow-issues,
I'll need a new system. I won't get a new Mainboard and migrate everything else. The work involved usually is the same as building a new system.
Tech keeps improving and getting cheaper at a really fast rate these days, perhaps waiting 2-3 more years is better?
I've built my first machine in 1994, as an upgrade to an outdated 80286 that came pre-build.
I spent about three grand on a 80mHz CPU with a staggering 8 megs of RAM. To round it off, a 400 meg harddrive (so big, you'll never have to worry about space). Tech was improving fast and getting cheaper at a really fast rate back then and it has never stopped until now. It will, with a very high probability go on doing just that.
So basically, it is always the right or wrong moment to buy. "The new <chipset/gpu/cpu/whatever> will be released in three weeks" is a statement that is true at any given time.