Sweet PC Cases & the problem with upgrades

Today we came across some really cool PC cases while trying to find one to hold my 12"x13" motherboard. Not only do some of the new cases not look like PC's at all, they have some neat features. This got Matt and I talking about upgrading our home PC's again, and we came to an interesting conclusion.

In the past, it was easy enough to buy a new motherboard and processor and call it an upgrade. Now, the accessory technologies have changed so much that both of the PC's we have at home would basically need complete replacements. This has us both frustrated to the point of not wanting to upgrade.

Basically, we both have AGP video cards, so we'd want to change to SLI or PCI-Express as a minimum. We'd also want SATA Raid-Spec drives, and memory technology has changed enough to make our RAM need replacement if we get a new machine. But what really bugs us is that we would only be re-using the sound card, and those are sort of outdated as well. Oh, and we'd also need new Windows XP licenses since we were thinking 64 bit processors.

Whatever happened to the good old days when it was possible to do an upgrade of a machine for $200? I guess it's all part of this throw-away society we've become accustomed to, and it doesn't make either of us too happy about paying 100's and 100's of dollars for a new computer any time soon knowing we'll probably just be replacing the whole thing again in a few years. If we were sure we could just upgrade parts of it later, we'd both be more likely to buy something now. Instead, we'll wait a while longer.