I was wondering when people consider themselves to have a new PC. Technically I’ve had the same PC for close to 20 years now, but every part’s been upgraded several times over.
I figure everyone’s got a different mind about it. For me, I’d have to say when all of the big three—CPU, GPU, mobo—have completed a phase, my brain thinks of the previous setup as “the old PC”.
The PC of Theseus!
PCeus
Chip of Theseus
Ah yes, the classic Chip of Theseus problem.
PCtheus
The timeless “PC of Theseus” question. For me, it’s when I replace the motherboard. Especially if it involves a new case.
When you upgrade the motherboard that’s a new PC.
When you have upgraded enough components that you can build another PC out of the old parts.
That’s my qualification. It’s a new computer when I’m just nicking a few bits out of the old computer, either leaving the old computer still functional or could be made functional again without too much trouble.
In my head, for basically no reason, the motherboard is “the” PC. It’s the one large part that really sets the overall generation. I could swap my previous PC’s motherboard into my new case, the thing is DDR4 RAM and an AM4 CPU would have to come with it.
Because I do shit like build a SFF PC with an ITX board in a small case, and then turn around and build a fairly standard mATX board in a mini-tower, a lot of the case, case accessories, and GPU are fitted to the system. It would actually be pretty stupid to put the parts of my last PC in my current case because they’d swim.
When it’s a new build lol
And a new build means a new motherboard, at the minimum.
When the motherboard gets updated. Because you can only upgrade the CPU so much before you have to get a new motherboard to get something better. And if you upgrade the motherboard you have to get a new CPU.
In this context, an upgraded motherboard has a newer socket type on it. Not just going from a budget motherboard to a top tier.
When you swap in a new motherboard.
We call that the Trinity in my family: mobo, ram and cpu.
I knew someone who had essentially replaced every single component in their old PC over and over again, which resulted in the guts of a (then) modern gaming PC inside an old 486 tower because everything still fit.
Is it the same computer?
Yeah that’s an odd one. Because I’ve used old parts to build secondary PCs and they were basically my old PC restored. So at some point I got a new PC but it never felt like it lol.
I think as well if I got a new case on top of a new mobo, that constant visual feedback of new. It’d be my new PC but with some of the old parts in it still (most)
I call it a new PC if its a new case.
Although a new motherboard and CPU is a close second.
Usually I consider my PC a new PC once I change the motherboard. Everything being connected to it, if I change it, it means all my parts go back to being parts, then part of a new whole.
If I had to limit it to physically, I’d say the motherboard. It’s the only thing in the box that everything has to be compatible with. Everything else is the extension.
Personally, I believe in a machine spirit. It’s a nebulous concept and it muddies the water here, but really the object is new when it no longer feels like the old. If I install a new is some day and my fans don’t breathe the same, my lights don’t blink like they did, or the chirp of my drives sounds alien, then I know I’ve lost the ghost and will have to learn a whole personality. Same is true for all my objects.
This is just the Ship of Theseus.
