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your mother on 09 August 2007
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Legend11 said:
Incrementally helps but it can add up over the years and big shifts seem to happen every 5 years (a console cycle). For example anyone that bought a PC back in 2002 very likely has an agp card and ddr ram as well as a motherboard with a socket that doesn't support the latest processors. So if they wanted to upgrade that would literally have to change almost all the major components in the system (cpu, ram, videocard, motherboard). They then have to worry about unforseen costs such as a power supply that doesn't supply enough power or that doesn't have the right connectors. It can get expensive.

Changes in computer architecture do not necessarily happen every five years, and they definitely have nothing to do with consoles. And you certainly don't have to change everything as long as you know what you are buying.

For example anyone that bought a PC back in 2002 very likely has an agp card and ddr ram as well as a motherboard with a socket that doesn't support the latest processors.

  • You can still buy AGP cards if you want:
http://computers.pricegrabber.com/video-cards/p/5/popup2%5B%5D=1:596/popup1%5B%5D=15:387
  • You can still buy DDR RAM (which in case you didn't know, DDR4, DDR3 DDR2 and DDR are backwards-compatible - you can use the memory modules, but the speed is throttled back):
http://computers.pricegrabber.com/laptop-memory/p/43/popup2%5B%5D=9:210
  • Even pin instructions are relatively safe from change for around 7.5 years if you know what you are buying. Athlon's Socket A lasted around that time, and I bet that the new Core2Duos will last about the same.
http://computers.pricegrabber.com/processors-unboxed-oem/p/209/form_keyword=socket+A

What you are saying is only half the picture. While new technology keeps on coming out, that doesn't mean they immediately throw away the old. You can still buy Socket As, AGPs and DDRs for your aging system, and if before you only had a 128MB Radeon 9500, 512MB of DDR and a Sempron 2000+, I can guarantee that upgrading to a 512MB 7950GT, 2GB DDR and Athlon 3800+ will make that aging fossil of a computer you have feel like new.