Originally by: Qordel

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Well, I usually buy one or more new laptops every three years (at the least frequent), but I stick to Thinkpads (for linux) and Apple's laptops (because in the last ten years, I've found them to be the best portable experience). That's usually $2,000 USD to $3,000 USD each laptop every 36 months, I guess. Though you'll get some gaming done on those, the purchases are never made with gaming in mind. At all. Period. Doesn't enter into my judgement.

For the desktop? Well, I usually build a new gaming-specific rig with whatever the current top of the line card is every year for around $2,000, give or take. My non gaming rig doesn't get upgraded as frequently, because it is primarily used for day to day work and development projects. It's a dual quad core with 32gb of RAM and dual 8800s (to run 3 30" ACDs and a 22" spare LCD for monitoring some work data 24x7).

Then there are several testbed machines for compiling, debugging, etc. Mostly for personal dev projects and work related stuff. I don't pay for these, though. Thankfully. My biggest rig at the moment is a pretty well-kitted SPARC T5150 that would probably run about $18,000 if I bought if myself (even with my employee discount).

Of course, the average person has gotten themselves into a situation where they have more obligations and responsibilities and they have different priorities, so their willingness varies greatly. That said, "works just fine otherwise" is not an argument. Riding a horse works just fine, other than the fact that they're an outdated mode of transportation that won't meet the needs of most persons in modern society and modern cities. People need to buckle up and realize that you can't sit on technology forever or the world will pass you buy and nobody owes you the "right" to play a modern game utilizing modern technology on a system dating back to before Britney Spears was old enough to drink. So they can upgrade. Or don't. *shrug*

It should also be noted that if this is an attempt to start a "but upgrading to a system that will play EVE a year from now is sooo expensive!" -- it's not worth the trouble. If you insist on playing it on a laptop in the future, then that's the life you have to accept being tied to a laptop. And if you're playing on a desktop -- upgrading all but the most ancient of systems is rather cheap (an SM3 capable card can be had for under $40 USD).

And for EVE? If I had to, I'd sell plasma to fund it. *shrug*

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