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I upgrade my computer either when it's not working as desired or I come into some extra cash and wanna treat myself to a boost.
Sadly with the new memory and storage costs I'll probably ride this system out for ~10 years. (I pray she survives that long)
If I had to limit it to physically, I'd say the motherboard. It's the only thing in the box that everything has to be compatible with. Everything else is the extension.
Personally, I believe in a machine spirit. It's a nebulous concept and it muddies the water here, but really the object is new when it no longer feels like the old. If I install a new is some day and my fans don't breathe the same, my lights don't blink like they did, or the chirp of my drives sounds alien, then I know I've lost the ghost and will have to learn a whole personality. Same is true for all my objects.
I don't. I build new every time. previous PC was 1080Ti Ryzen 1700 16GB, current one is 9070XT 9850X3D 64GB. There's something about being able to build a new PC while knowing you have a fallback ready.
New mb, cpu, ram and videocard.
Ah yes, the classic Chip of Theseus problem.
PCtheus
I used to keep one cd drive from the 90s in every built. Technically it could be understood as the same pc I just upgraded everything around the cd drive.
Last build I made I finally ditched it. I bought a case with bays just in case but I noticed that I haven't used it in the last 10 years so I just didn't install it.
IMO, it's when you replace the motherboard. It's the real heart of the machine; without it, all your other parts ain't doing shit. And since you can get by longer on the same motherboard while still leaving everything else to be upgraded, getting a new motherboard very often necessitates getting at least a new CPU and possibly RAM if you're making a generational leap that requires a new socket type.
I always thought of the CPU as the beating heart and the MoBo as the vessel/body.
At the same time: upgrading CPU often requires a new MoBo too, so I guess they are bound together anyways.
For the original question I'd say CPU + MoBo swap is a new machine. GPU and RAM are upgrades.
The PC of Theseus!
Technically my my PC is the same PC I used decades ago. It started as a Pentium 3 with... 64MB of RAM if I remember, and something like a whopping 10GB hard drive. It's still the same PC of course, I swear!
PCeus
Chip of Theseus
The timeless "PC of Theseus" question. For me, it's when I replace the motherboard. Especially if it involves a new case.
When you have upgraded enough components that you can build another PC out of the old parts.
Definitely when I upgrade the mainboard + CPU, which usually also means new RAM. It's pretty expensive, you have to change several parts in one go and it's much more noticable in general usage than the GPU.
mainboard + CPU
To me thats the line. Unless you are like, a very active enthusiast, most people, once they get their CPU installed cooler installed, etc.. you probably aren't' swapping that out. Its pretty much a computer at that point.
Yeah, you pretty much need to be some kind of early adopter for your CPU socket to seriously consider upgrading just your CPU. Otherwise, there's just no point. I actually looked it up for my last mainboard, thinking the socket is so old that maybe you can get a somewhat better CPU (i.e. Intel i7 or i9 instead of i5) for really cheap. But the parts market doesn't seem to work like that, looks like they'd much rather trash their leftover CPUs than make an attractive price.
I knew someone who had essentially replaced every single component in their old PC over and over again, which resulted in the guts of a (then) modern gaming PC inside an old 486 tower because everything still fit.
Is it the same computer?
Nice sleeper build. On some level I want to get an old case for exactly this vibe, on the other hand the ventilation in these old cases sucks and I hate computer fan noise ...
Yeah that's an odd one. Because I've used old parts to build secondary PCs and they were basically my old PC restored. So at some point I got a new PC but it never felt like it lol.
I think as well if I got a new case on top of a new mobo, that constant visual feedback of new. It'd be my new PC but with some of the old parts in it still (most)
Usually I consider my PC a new PC once I change the motherboard. Everything being connected to it, if I change it, it means all my parts go back to being parts, then part of a new whole.
When windows insists your key is no longer valid, because to many parts have changed and you better buy a brand new licence or link your old licence with you microsoft account. But of course you never did befor upgrading, so now you are stuck in an endless loop of trying to find the right buttons online to fucking link your licence to your account and get it approved for the upgraded pc, but it won't work and where did that one link go? And why won't micorsoft allow me to use my key oh god, oh no. Please microsoft!
Penguins are coming for me.
I have the hdd bay plate off a laptop with a broken screen that I bought off a friend about 15 years ago. Every time I've needed to spin up a windows I put the code for that machine in and promise I'm upgrading to the current OS from an early win7 release. Works every time.
At some point I ought to cut it down and decorate it as some modern magical charm.
Haha, I had that recently setting up a VM. Using my old key I had since Win 7 came out, just upgraded along the way. Suddenly it doesn't work.
"Uuuuuh... Wtf do I do now?"
I got it working, but after forgetting how painful a Windows install is and then setting it up properly, I gave up. Got Vivaldi on and just was so over it at that point, knowing there was still at least an hour of more work to put in before Windows was under control.
Replacing the motherboard.
I would've thought that too. But recently I had to swap a new mobo in after a failure and no other parts got done. Felt like the same PC just working again.
Yeah I think upgrading the mobo would be more accurate, when it's a big enough change that you need to replace RAM and the CPU as well.
But you probably had to disconnect about everything, so in a way, they all became simple parts, in a way. Then, once your new mobo is connect, it becomes a new whole, a new PC.
In my head, for basically no reason, the motherboard is "the" PC. It's the one large part that really sets the overall generation. I could swap my previous PC's motherboard into my new case, the thing is DDR4 RAM and an AM4 CPU would have to come with it.
Because I do shit like build a SFF PC with an ITX board in a small case, and then turn around and build a fairly standard mATX board in a mini-tower, a lot of the case, case accessories, and GPU are fitted to the system. It would actually be pretty stupid to put the parts of my last PC in my current case because they'd swim.
If I want hardware I can't plug into my existing MB, I just buy all new parts and build a new PC and give my old one to one of the kids or something.
On the other hand, if I want a big upgrade and I have a bunch of leftover parts, I generally throw them into a new case with a lower-end MB and lower end versions of whatever I kept in my old PC and wind up with a leftover "old" PC anyway.
But I rarely can afford to upgrade my computer. I already gave away my old PC to a kid who needed it and I'm just using my work laptop as my only computer. I owe myself a new PC, but it looks like I'm going to be spending over $5k by the time I have the money saved up for it. That's a spicy meatball.
I've noticed some good secondhand stuff recently. If you think like getting a project car; $50K brand new, but got this one for $10K, needs about $10K of parts and some love then it's ready to go.
we got a hammer in my family thats over 1000 years old...
The case of PCeseus.
If I can build a new PC with the old parts. Wait...
For me it is the mobo + cpu + power supply since I do it rarely enough that I need all three. I usually do RAM at the same time, but sometimes expand it between upgrades. GPU is on a different cycle to spread out costs.
I used the same case for almost 2 decades, so it is definitely the innards that matter.
Weirdly, the case. If the case is the same, my brain doesn't register it as a new computer, but the case changing makes it feel new even if the only thing that changed is the case
I call it a new PC if its a new case.
Although a new motherboard and CPU is a close second.
The ship of theseus says hello
You have to decide what it is that defines the entity
The title of "my gaming PC"? Whatever which holds the title is that PC at any given moment.
Defined by some property? Desktop setup, game/file collection, hardware type (whichever has the hardware most suitable for the task, eg. the most capable PC being your gaming PC, etc)
Defined by substance/components? OS image, motherboard / CPU, or even just the case, etc...
You can even use all definitions at once with completely different choices in each, because your current gaming PC might become your next home server as you buy a new PC, then you move around some components like RAM, reinstall a device, make one a media center for your TV, etc...
When the hostname changes. So, never.
I'm definitely reusing hostnames when fucking around with my Raspberry Pis, too ...
After a CPU/GPU upgrade of more than two generations, each or combined, which usually necessitates a motherboard upgrade. Not always, but almost always.
Yea, motherboard is my metric. It's what defines the base system capability.
When you swap in a new motherboard.
When it's a new build lol
And a new build means a new motherboard, at the minimum.
We call that the Trinity in my family: mobo, ram and cpu.
