PC Gaming/Upgrading...Huh?

july 4, 2002

My PC has not had an upgrade in a LONG time. It's still a 850MHz P3 with 384MB of RAM and a GeForce3 vidcard. I used to upgrade this thing a lot, but lately I've found no reason to. The PC now just sits here and does what I need. But why haven't I upgraded the PC lately? What is the cause of this PC upgrading drought? The cause of this PC upgrading drought is my Sony PS2. Huh? You may ask, what the hell does the PS2 have to do with your PC? Well, the only real reason that I kept upgrading my PC over the years was to keep it fast enough to keep up with the latest games and OSes. Now that I have a PS2 the upgrading for gaming is gone. I find it much more fun to game in front of my TV and sitting on the couch rather than sitting in this damned "ergonomic" computer chair in front of a 17" monitor. As for OS upgrades (and/or application upgrades) the 800MHz really handles my Windows OS fine and all the apps that I need to run. Why do I need to upgrade to the newest 2GHz Intel chip to do my email, websurfing, and word processing? Here's the thing I see, AMD just announced that they are cutting their sales forecast for the second time in two weeks (maybe Intel will come to follow?) because it is becoming harder and harder to convince people that they need to upgrade their computers. Unless you're a hardcore gamer, the need for a 2GHz machine is not necessary -- why do I need 2000 freakin' megahertz to surf the web? I'd rather take that money and invest it into a DSL or cable connection (the true limiter of slow websurfing!) So, I wonder what chip companies are going to do. What is Intel and AMD going to do to convince the masses that they need to really upgrade their machines? Should Microsoft release a new, extra-bloated OS so that the public will need the new processors? I don't even think that will work because I know there are still people running DOS and Windows 3.1, and even (more likely Windows 98) on their systems. Why bother to upgrade your OS if it is working for you? So, what do you think? How will the chip companies convince you to buy a new chip? Or upgrade your computer?


<< back || ultramookie >>