So about a month ago I pulled the trigger and bought myself a whole new system. It felt great, for about two weeks. Then I got that itch. I was looking at how fast my 500gb SSD was filling up and I couldn't shake the feeling that something had to be done about that. So last week I found myself eagerly running off to the hardware dealer again to get my fix. As the second 500gb SSD went into the case I glanced at my spanking new GTX980 sitting there all alone in its top slot. And again the itching started. What if I had two of those? I did buy a pretty powerful PSU after all and my motherboard came with a shiny SLI bridge. So after a couple of days looking at benchmarks and reading about all the ins and outs of SLI I decided it was probably a bad idea to get a second card. So this morning I ordered a second card. I need help.

Hey if you can afford it then why not. Unless you can't afford it then maybe ease up on those $300+ purchases

Damn son.

I can afford it so that's not the issue.But I do feel that spending this much on a PC is hard to justify none the less. I know full well that in about two years this system will start to show its age and the cycle might start all over again. It's a disease, and I'm powerless against it...

That sli will be real nice when you can finally double your vram when DX12 comes out. Are you going to get a 4k monitor to take advantage of all that digital horsepower?

I certainly hope that DX12 will live up to all the promises. I have a suspicion that it will depend on how well the developers will support it though. I will probably end up buying an Asus Rog 27 Swift 278Q 1440p monitor as most 4k monitors I've seen are just not that well optimized for gaming.

Thats PC gaming for you. Technically your PC will be fine in 2-3 years, just won't be able to push all those Ultra settings anymore, maybe medium-highs for the more demanding games. If you have the money to spare then I think by all means, stay as current as possible. Many people would want a PC like yourself but are financially constrained from building one. The whole point of gaming on the PC is being able to play games that look and perform way better better than their console counterparts, not "marginally" better.

As long as you're able to stop yourself at some point and just use the behemoth you've sunk all this money into for a few years before splurging again then I don't think you have anything to worry about. IF you had 3 racing wheels then I'd start being worried. No one should own a racing wheel.

EDIT: I just recently bought a newer and bigger TV. My family asked what was wrong with my old one? It's this sort of mentality that really differentiates people. There was nothing wrong with it, I just wanted a bigger and better one so I could enjoy games and movies more. Some people subscribe to the theory that if it works well then no reason to replace it, and some people see all the new technology and innovation and you want that funky touchpad remote control - because it's new and it's cool, and as long as you can afford it, then theres nothing wrong with that I think.

You should get a 144hz monitor, that way you will actually be able to justify buying new hardware for awhile.

Only getting 143 FPS? Time to upgrade.

Yes unless you are one of those hardcore simulation types a racing wheel is not worth it. I have one that's been collecting dust for about two years. It was fun for about a month but the hassle of setting it up caused it to be retired on the shelf of shame next to that stupid Triton "real 3d" headset. I guess I'm just an impulse buyer when it comes to that stuff which is strange because I'm usually more of a miser with my money. I will never spend beyond my means. When I was a kid we lived on a very tight budget and that has made me pretty good with budgeting my spending. I guess that's why I always feel a bit guilty when I spend on something I know I can do without. It' s a stupid first world problem really.

True, most have pretty low refresh rates. Does that ROG monitor have Gsync, that with the SLI 980s and eventually 8 gigs or vram w/ DX 12 would be friggen off the wall!

@humanity: His PC will be fine in 3 years. I'm still using my 5 year old GTX 470 and I can get medium settings on new games and it's not even overclocked. His machine is probably 10 times as powerful as mine.

There is a culture of adults with disposable income feeling guilty for spending money for their own enjoyment. There is no cure.

lol

You may just be joking about this, which is fine I'm sure many people have the itch to upgrade their PC's (we are the master race afterall).

But if you think it may be a uncontrollable compulsion to then it could (note I said could) be a part of a bigger issue. People who have things withheld from them or were made to feel inferior during their young years often find ways of compensating in later life, I have a similar problem. Anyway just food for thought. Also I am very jealous of your 980 :)

It's probably fine unless it's getting in the way of you actually enjoying the things you've bought it for. If your upgrade itch is preventing you from enjoying any of the games you play on there because they could be better, then it might be getting out of hand.

Sounds like something I'd do if I had the budget. I mean, some people have this with smartphones or tablets where they have to have the most powerful technology. I am guessing you have no one scolding you for your unnecessary expenses?

I want your job.

Seriously, if you're spending this much and you're not a billionaire... maybe stop.

Hey man if you can afford it more power to you. I would by lying if I wouldn't do the same if I had that type of money laying around.

You should upgrade my PC too.

I've been really looking into buying a PC, money isn't a issue so i was looking at pre-built models. However, when it comes to upgrading i would be so lost and feel i'll be buying a $4000 comp every 2 years.

Generally the only thing you need to upgrade is the videocard. So if you're starting to notice that your computer isn't pushing the graphics you want and you want to stay top of the line just buy what ever nVidia has in the GTX __80 of the current line up. If you'd rather maximize your power:price ratio buy the GTX __70. CPUs can usually last 5-6 years for a middle of the road processor and RAM has negligible effect on games, 8 gigs will be enough for the foreseeable future.

Just because you can (afford it) is really not a good reason to do things. That just leads to all sorts of trouble (down the line). By making this thread I assume you actually think you have a problem. As is often said, admitting you have a problem is the first step to solving said problem.

It might help to carefully look at the actual benefits you would see from the kind of upgrades you're thinking of. Rule of the thumb: the higher end you go, the more incremental the gains.

No it's not a real problem it's more like an irrational quirk of my personality. My older builds have a been rather modest. I think my last build was around the 1500€ mark and that one lasted me for about 4 years. The fact that I did get some financial luck lately probably triggered the hardcore gear lust in me. I've always wanted to build a killer system like this but I never really could. Now that I have the means I decided to double my rig budget.Even with the second card I'm able to stay in that budget (barely :)). I never buy things like this on credit and have always been debt free. It's just that I do feel kinda guilty splurging on something as trivial as a gaming PC. As I said earlier it's a first world problem.

@bdead: It's not trivial if it's your passion hobby, brotha!

So I installed the card and did some testing. Farcry 4, absolutely maxed out, runs pretty much perfect at 60fps with the occasional minor stutter (to remind me it's still a Ubisoft title).The the cards stayed pretty composed temperature wise so I upped the core clocks by 135mhz without touching the voltage settings. They peak at 1500mhz now and run stable. The master card reached it's max temp of 79°C and the fans on that one did ramp up to about 80% after running the firestrike benchmark. So I might install a side panel fan to improve airflow a bit. Otherwise I think this build is done for now.

Get back to me when you're an updogaholic.

@bdead: Ah the old "I suddenly have a lot of money and feel a massive urge to start spending like crazy". I guess it depends on one thing. Is it a one-time windfall or a continuous stream of income. If it's the first you have to be very careful, if it's the latter then you're probably fine.

A second SSD is kinda pointless because you can only install you OS on one. If you're real gangsta you could go for one of these: http://www.fixstars.com/en/ssd/ The 3TB one (if you have to ask how much it costs you can't afford it).

I'm no fan of SLI/CrossFire either, but that, at least, does give a performance boost in the short term (for what, though?). Long term, it's usually better to go with 1 high end card today and get a new high end card the moment you feel it does no longer keep up. That's the way it used to be, anyway... the last couple of years graphics tech hasn't increased as exponentially as it used to, so maybe SLI is more viable these days.

What I would do if I decided to double the budget for my rig is simply get 2 PC's. Or get a real shiny monitor.

It's both a one-time thing (bonuses) and a permanent thing (promotion) so in that regard I really see no problem. It's just my irrational feelings of guilt I need to get in check.

Well, admission is the first step. I'm going to assume that you're alone, with no one to pressure you about your finances. I'd put a stack of cash in an envelope (or Bitcoins in an e-wallet) and stick to it monthly.

If you technically have money to splurge, if you're a "whale", then by all means go SLI some Titans while we sneer with disdain. People are different, have different values, value money differently.

I've been aching to upgrade for a while now, but first off, I don't have the money to spend (I have >5K in the bank but I'm stingy) and I'm brutally honest about the cost-benefit analysis: if a couple hundred dollars really worth a few more frames? I have a 7870 that is still chugging along well. It drops frames now and then on intense stuff, but I'm not that much of a graphicsophile to care. The only real upgrade I can justify is an SSD. At this point they're relatively cheap for what you're getting (usually more than a gig per dollar) and I can get a small one for the important stuff. That's about it. If I had a LOT of extra cash, I might think differently, especially since this is a fun hobby (both the gaming and the building) but I can't definitively say.

Somewhat related tangent: I'm looking at this week's Humble Bundle (Square Enix) and am having trouble deciding whether or not I should go for the $15 tier. It includes Sleepy Dawgs and Tomb Raider, which is an excellent deal. HOWEVER, the problem I've encountered is that the constant bundles devalue games to the point where everyone has the games. If you don't have any of those games, why wouldn't you pay $15? Since I do have them, I will have two keys that I literally can't do anything with. Maybe I can sell them, but like I said, everyone has it, and I don't want to go through the hassle just to get 10 bucks total.

I bought this PC over 2 years ago and am still running modern games at 60fps or more at high or highest settings, i haven't tried Assassin's Creed: Unity or Far Cry 4 yet so i probably can't run those very well, but with The Witcher 3 and GTA5 on the horizon i'm starting to wonder how much longer i can stretch this machine.

Watch_Dogs ran brilliantly... so... will GTA5 run well too? It's impossible to know. I live alone and have the money to buy a whole new setup no problem, but unlike you i can't justify moving on from this machine since my most anticipated game, MGS5, will probably run smooth as silk, if Ground Zeroes is anything to go by.

I'm upgrading from a GTX 760 to a GTX 980 today, so I kind of sympathise.

But my games were starting to have frame drops, so I feel kind of justified. Plus I worked tons of overtime the last fortnight.

heh great story! but it isn't a problem until you start doing all that upgrading when you don't have the money. Only then it becomes a problem and need help! :D

Wow. I felt kinda bad for upgrading my HD7950 to a GTX 970... And now I can't stop thinking about buying a new CPU(go from i5 to i7), a new mobo(because for some stupid reason I have an LG1155) to fit it in, and a new power supply(because I want four pin connectors in case I decide to SLI my 970, my current only has two).