[glonq]

As a PC enthusiast, I can't remember a time when PC upgrades were less necessary than nowadays.

For the average user and even semi-enthusiast, 5+yo hardware with Win10 works just fine. I just upgraded last year, but it was probably the longest stretch I've gone between new PC's and even then it was as much FOMO as it was necessity.

[HankStallone]

Yeah, my Linux desktop PC is five years old and definitely wasn't cutting edge when I built it, and I can't see any reason to upgrade it. I just put a new CPU/MB/RAM in my 9-year-old FreeBSD system, only because it was starting to act flaky under heavy load converting video. But horsepower-wise it still had plenty for normal use.

[everdrive]

I've even say that midrange hardware from the entire i5 era, even from 2011 would still be just fine for most users if you're just doing normal computing.

[stetrain]

Most of my gaming PC is from 2017. I have upgraded the GPU and CPU once each (thanks AMD for putting out new generations of AM4-socket CPUs), and expect the current build to last for another 3-5 years.