hardware survey

[Maverick_]

I have designed a hardware survey as a way to do some initial market research into what makes flight sim enthusiasts tick as far as their hardware is concerned. It is a quick 6 question survey and any feedback is greatly appreciated!

 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3FNSMV3

[cichlidfan]

#4 Last answer. "Other, please specify."

 

This is redundant as the answers above cover all possibilities.

 

EDIT: The answers to several questions may be skewed by the economic situation of the respondents.

Edited January 15, 2014 by cichlidfan

[Maverick_]

EDIT: The answers to several questions may be skewed by the economic situation of the respondents.

 

 

I understand this completely, I am simply looking to see what as a community people are generally spending on their hardware, without regard to economic situation. Thanks for the feedback though!

[ZaltysZ]

Lots of us don't buy a gaming computer. We build one and constantly upgrade. It is hard to judge how old our computers are. I.e. I still use i7 920 I have bought in 2009, I still use HDDs I have bought in 2006, but I also use VGA and SSD I have bought last year. My computer also had a RAM upgrade (6GB@1333 -> 12GB@1600), new PSU, 2 other VGAs between 2009 and 2013.

[Koekemoeroetoe]

I'd want to, but I "can't" fill in your survey, because:

- Question 2: My pc had different ages (CPU, Mainbord and half of my RAM are 2 years old, other half of RAM is 1 year old, GPU and Case is 6 months, PSU is 1 month old and HDD is 2 months old)

- Question 4: I'm not buying a complete new PC, only upgrading, so none of the options suite my answer

- Question 5: None of mentioned, I look at all of those + performance you get for the price you pay

- Question 6: See Q4, Im not buying a complete new PC. I probably will buy new parts/extra within the next year though. (E.g. second GPU for SLI or a SSD)

[Gloom Demon]

Same here - I don't buy a prebuilt PC but build my own and then modernise it. And I find the question about Quality, FPS and Stability a bit strange - what's the sense of having high FPS or Quality if the PC is unstable? Or having a rocksolid PC and a framerate of 5? Voted for stability though and fps plays a bigger role for me than quality.

 

And the question about the purchase of a new PC - voted unlikely, but mostly because of a lack of performance gains in CPU's. AMD will not roll out steamroller in 2014 and Intel is going the way of lowering the TDP and performance gains are negligible (3-5%). What's the sense of upgrading? If this was not the case - I would happily upgrade, given a 20-30 performance increase.

Edited January 16, 2014 by Gloom Demon

[TimeKilla]

Lots of us don't buy a gaming computer. We build one and constantly upgrade. It is hard to judge how old our computers are. I.e. I still use i7 920 I have bought in 2009, I still use HDDs I have bought in 2006, but I also use VGA and SSD I have bought last year. My computer also had a RAM upgrade (6GB@1333 -> 12GB@1600), new PSU, 2 other VGAs between 2009 and 2013.

 

Thats what I was thinking myself, you tend to upgrade parts sometimes its only the case thats the same after awhile.

[EtherealN]

Thats what I was thinking myself, you tend to upgrade parts sometimes its only the case thats the same after awhile.

 

Very true there.

 

Most of my machine was bought in Feb 2011 (I think it was). Autumn of that year I got an addin sound card. Autumn 2012 I got an SSD and also reworked the cooling a bit. But it's all sitting in a computer chassis I bought in 2009, and the speaker system was purchased in 2006-ish. I've also spent about 400 dollars since 2011 on keyboards and mice...

[ENO]

I too build my computers and swap in parts as new tech emerges... I took the value of those individual parts and answered that question.

 

The one question about "how old is your current computer" is harder to answer since like most of these guys we all swap parts in and out as technology improves or prices go down... How many generations we wait between CPU / Mobo upgrades may be a better question... or how many generations do we wait between GPU upgrades... But yes, the "how old is your computer" question is a bit broad.

 

I suspect that by feedback you're actually talking about results on your survey- not on the survey itself... but knowing the assessments many of us make on the hardware we use for the sims we love- the survey in its current form won't generate much (if any) useful data.