I think that a lot of what made us unsatisfied with our old PCs was exactly the stuff that GhoS is talking about. When your PC crashes all the time, and needs to be rebooted everyday, it makes you feel like you need a new one, but once things begin running smoothly (usually with the introduction of Win2k, or XP) you just have an overall feeling that you have a good computer. Programs work the way they are supposed to, and you aren't always blue screening (that always made me feel like there was something inherantly wrong with my computer (instead of my OS))

I'll bet if you polled users that still run Win9X, most of them would still be pretty close to an upgrade. (although I'll probably only get responses from loayal Win9X users that love their PCs now that I've mentioned this.)

I was an upgrade junky for the past decade, but I've been in an upgrade drought for the last year. A rule of thumb I've used in the past was when processor speeds doubled my current system I was due an upgrade. At first this seemed to happen every few months, however it seems to have slowed due to the physics involved in producing a processor that breaks the current top speeds. My pocket book seems to be grateful, but I still feel the mental itch to pop open the case and tinker. I have added more fans and cool cathode light kits (even a lighted fan!), but that just doesn't seem to take care of the jones's. I think an upgrade is in the near future

Ahum, I still use my p75. Only upgraded the drive and video card, but that was years ago.

Yeah, I have to agree with the majority myself. I built my own PC last year and have had to do some repair works (upgrade OS, more RAM) but overall I'm very happy with it! I have to run two OS' now so the kids (and wife) can still play their games; but since I partitioned the drive I have been extremely happy! Especially since I can't lose any of my work again, like I did when I was sharing with the Kids!

I usually only upgrade when a new game comes out that revolutionizes gaming and therefor needs more power. My upgrades go something like this:
Jediknight (P 300; 3GB HD 12MB video)
==> CS Mod for Halflife (P3 600; 20GB HD 32MB Riva TNT2)
==> Jediknight II (ASUS A7V266 AMD 1GHz; 20GB HD; Geforce2 GTS 64MB; 512GB DDR)
==> Medal of Honr/Battlefield 1942 (ASUS A7N8X; AMD 2600+; 80GB HD; Gaiward geforce4 TI4200 128MB; 1GB DDR).

My CS upgrade lasted me about two years and I suspect is will be a while (such was the case for CS) before I feel a game deserves an upgrade out of me.

To satisfy my upgrading lusts, I just mod my case (which is pretty sweet now!).

I just built a new system as well:

AthlonXP 2500+ (Barton @ 1.83GHz, 333MHz FSB)
512MB PC2700 DDR 333MHz
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
IEEE-1394
3Com 3C520-TX
Nvidia NIC
WinTV Tuner
56K Modem
3 x IBM Deskstar 7200RPM 60GB's - 2 in RAID, 1 for storage
1 x Maxtor 7200RPM 30GB's - boot drive
16X Pioneer DVD Slot drive
SiliconImage SATA RAID 1/0

I use to update/upgrade alot, but computers are so fast now, I don't feel the need, still running a P3 @ 866MHz 512MB Ram etc etc.. I don't see myself upgrading anytime soon. As long as I'm satisfied with the speed, I'll just keep upgrading the OS etc. I never thought the time would come after having had 5 computer over the last 7 years, that I would be running this one for 2 years(I think), and still satisfied.

I've got the same system that GhoS handed off to his kids. For surfing, my kid's homework, Email and instant messaging it works just fine. Mind you, it's the switch to XP that keeps it sane.

We don't do any serious gaming so faster isn't an issue here.

i usually upgrade my pc part by part, from 1998 - 2003,

started with a AMDk6-2 that gives me blue screen of death twice a day.. (was a heating problem)
went to a celeron, then to a AMD 1ghz, and now finally AMD1700XP
these upgrades were all done in 1998-early2002. but since mid 2002 - today, i haven't done any serious upgrades. only last upgrade that i did was bought the ATI radeon 9700 pro (to play C&C generals ) everything else in my computer seems to have stalled..

now i can't foresee myself upgrading any parts (except for my sound card - sblive) to a audigy2 platinum. but my only reason for this upgrade is simply to have the finest part avaliable in the market. otherwise, for performance sake, the good old sblive (not 5.1) is good enough for all mp3 music, game playing. and such.

i would agree with most guys here.. it seems that we've come to a stall for the average user. Even for gammers. there are only few good outstanding games coming out soon. (doom3) that really requires a system more then 2ghz and a 128mb video card. and those games won't come out till like end of this year or so..

thx to stark i upgraded from my laptop which was a dell inspiron 7500, to a new desktop,

amd 1900xp
512 ram
radeon 7500 AIW
witha soyo dragon MB

nothing thats like screaming fast but much better than what i had