Wallet is a bit lighter after this weekend...

[krislhull]

Well, after 9 years, the computer that I built back in 2014 finally bit the dust. Back in Feb, I had a corrupted file in the registry for Windows 7 that forced me to finally upgrade to Win10 (I tried 11, but the components wouldn't take it!). This was after over a year of having boot up issues with the machine, and replacing the dual GTX980 graphics card setup with a Radeon RX6750XT last month after a friend got me hooked on War Thunder, and wanting to be able to run Kerbal 2. This old computer was a Intel i7-5930K based unit, with dual GTX980s in SLI and 64GB of then top line DDR4 RAM all in a spacious and oversized Phanteks Enthoo Primo tower.

Well, a decent sale caught my eye last week, and $2500 later, I have a screaming fast machine, with all top tier components except for one major one. the new unit has a i9-13900K, with 48GB of DDR5 on a ASUS Maximus Hero board in a Corsair 7000D tower.. Only thing not top tier is the graphics card, which is the aforementioned RX6750 XT from the other machine.

Now to save up some more money to get a high tier graphics card.

 

[bjphoenix]

Congratulations.
I'm still running the computer I built in 2009- quad core intel Q9400 overclocked to 3.6GHz. It's running Windows 10 from an SSD so that and the high overclock allows the machine to stay useful for general use. I've been planning to build a new one for the past 6 months. Between watching prices, looking for sales, and trying to decide exactly what I want I haven't gotten to the point of driving across the metroplex to buy the parts at our local microcenter. My budget will be a lot less than yours, and I don't do any serious gaming.

 

[krislhull]

My budget will be a lot less than yours, and I don't do any serious gaming.

I definitely could have done it for half the price easily, less than $1000 even, as im not a huge gamer, but the few games I do play tend to be memory and graphics hogs. I like to go with current near top tier components, as it sort of future proofs my computer for at least a decade. I was contemplating reusing the tower I already had, as well as a couple of other components, but in the end, I just decided to bite the bullet and refresh the whole system.

 

[Steven]

What's a wallet?

 

[OverTheTop]

Nice.

I am lucky in that work gets us a new PC every three years. The old PC has been depreciated for tax and is not worth anything to the company any more, so we get to keep them for free. These are high-end engineering laptops so are not lacking in processing power and memory. They are, of course, boat anchors if you need to travel with one.

 

[OzHybrid]

Nice.

I am lucky in that work gets us a new PC every three years. The old PC has been depreciated for tax and is not worth anything to the company any more, so we get to keep them for free. These are high-end engineering laptops so are not lacking in processing power and memory. They are, of course, boat anchors if you need to travel with one.

I was offered one once. Turned it down initially but due to policy had to have it..... I can confirm they are the weight of a boat anchor.

 

[OzHybrid]

Well, after 9 years, the computer that I built back in 2014 finally bit the dust. Back in Feb, I had a corrupted file in the registry for Windows 7 that forced me to finally upgrade to Win10 (I tried 11, but the components wouldn't take it!). This was after over a year of having boot up issues with the machine, and replacing the dual GTX980 graphics card setup with a Radeon RX6750XT last month after a friend got me hooked on War Thunder, and wanting to be able to run Kerbal 2. This old computer was a Intel i7-5930K based unit, with dual GTX980s in SLI and 64GB of then top line DDR4 RAM all in a spacious and oversized Phanteks Enthoo Primo tower.

Well, a decent sale caught my eye last week, and $2500 later, I have a screaming fast machine, with all top tier components except for one major one. the new unit has a i9-13900K, with 48GB of DDR5 on a ASUS Maximus Hero board in a Corsair 7000D tower.. Only thing not top tier is the graphics card, which is the aforementioned RX6750 XT from the other machine.

Now to save up some more money to get a high tier graphics card.

It's only windows bloat that requires you to have screaming fast hardware to send an email.......
I've got Linux installed on 3 machines and windows on 2. Both used by my wife. Linux seriously outperforms windows and has a decent interface these days. The only drawback is that it only really runs on systems it already knows about. Not the latest and greatest. So a PC or Laptop architecture that's about a year old. But that's not bad for a secure system that costs nothing and doesn't need a reboot to install a new screensaver. And doesn't freeze on startup because it's decided you must have these updates. And then reboots before it can install the second part of the updates and then restarts.
Norm

 

[bjphoenix]

I am lucky in that work gets us a new PC every three years. The old PC has been depreciated for tax and is not worth anything to the company any more, so we get to keep them for free. These are high-end engineering laptops so are not lacking in processing power and memory. They are, of course, boat anchors if you need to travel with one.

About 5 years ago my company converted everyone from desktop computers to laptop computers, Dell professional workstation models. When Covid hit everybody was already set up to work remote so we just took our laptops and went home. Covid and other factors have kept me still using mine, 5 years later. It runs fine but yes it is very heavy. I have to carry it with me when I drive in to the office and connect it to the docking station on my desk. I'm hoping to reduce my work hours to almost nothing in the next few months so I'm not worried about getting a new computer. Well not a new computer from the company, I still intend to build myself a new computer for home use.
My company leases all of our IT equipment, I don't know what they do at the end of the lease, I think the equipment just goes back to Dell. I don't know if there is an option to purchase. I gather that a lot of companies lease Dell and Lenovo equipment, there are numerous companies that refurb the equipment and resell it, even on ebay.

 

[OzHybrid]

I bought one of my laptops on ebay. A refurbished HP. Ex govt laptop. Same as the govt issued to me. Only the serial number differed. I loved the HP. But USB-c did not do monitors out. I5. could run 3 monitors happily. But you needed the docking station. Which I have.

 

[Tobor]

I upgraded my desktop last November/December when MicroCenter had an in-store post-Black Friday sale. Went from a Core-i7 4790K to a Ryzen 7 5800X. This is only my second AMD rig, out of the twenty or so desktops I've owned over the years. Yeah, I was a huge Intel fanboy for many moons. I know the hardware is not the latest Gen, but, I did not have to pay the latest Gen prices....

It's running on the following hardware

MB: Asus Tuf-Gaimng x570
RAM: 32GB G.Skill DDR4-3200
GPU: MSI RTX 2060
PSU: SeaSonic SS-1250XM
Boot Drive: Samsung 860 Pro SSD
Optical Drive: LG UH12NS30 Blu-Ray
Case: Cooler Master Cosmos II
OS: Win 10 - De-bloated (aka Ameliorated)
Mass Storage: 8TB across multiple drives, Including SSD

Water Cooling

CPU Block: Swiftech Apogee XL (Modded for AM4)
Rad: AlphaCool NexXxoS XT45 140x280 Full Copper
Rad Fans: Noctua NF-A14 PWM (x2)
Pump: Swiftech D5
Res: Aquacomputer Aquabox Pro 5.25" Bay mount
Tubing: Primochill 3/8"x 5/8"
Compression Fittings: Monsoon Free Center

Everything other then the CPU, MB and RAM were carried over from the 4790K build.

The old hardware now runs in my son's rig for.............. playing Fortnite.

 

[bjphoenix]

I upgraded my desktop last November/December when MicroCenter had an in-store post-Black Friday sale. Went from a Core-i7 4790K to a Ryzen 7 5800X.

I don't think there is anything wrong with the 5800X. Yes it's not the latest, the latest would be a little higher in benchmarks but also significantly more expensive. I was interested in the AMD 7700X which I think would be the upgrade to the 5800X, I was also interested in the Intel 13600K which seems in the same performance ballpark as the 7700X but either of these would cost around $300 more. Personally I've been thinking about the 5700G because I don't game and I want to build a machine without a discrete graphics card. The downside to the 13600K seems to be its power usage and heat production, the downside to the 7700X seems to be the very long boot times.