The software gets updated all the time - I'm in the Developer chain for Windows 10 and get a new build every couple of months - but the hardware has been left out in the cold for quite some time.
Anyway, all that has now changed with major upgrades to the Motherboard, Processor and Memory in my main system. Memory is frighteningly expensive and I've actually had to downgrade the quantity from my previous setup.
Before
AMD FX8350 CPU (4 Cores/8 Threads over-clocked to 4.0GHz) on an Asus M5A97 LE motherboard with 32GB of DDR3 Memory. There's a AMD radeon R9 200-series graphics card, the 1TB SSD, 2x2TB Hard drives and a 3TB external back-up. A 23" 1080p Monitor and a 49" 4K display finish off the system.
After
AMD Ryzen 7 1700 CPU (8 Cores/16 Threads over-clocked to 3.7GHz) on an MSI X370 Gaming Plus motherboard with 16GB of DDR4 Memory. The AMD radeon R9 200-series graphics card, the 1TB SSD, 2x2TB Hard drives and a 3TB external back-up, 23" 1080p Monitor and 49" 4K display all stay in place for the new system.
An Improvement?
Absolutely, performance where I need it - video editing, photo editing and panorama stitching is probably 2 to 2.5 times better. I'm amazed that even program loading times and windows start-up have improved further as well.
I don't miss the 16GB of memory I've lost too much, but it is something that I will revisit. I'm also looking at an upgrade to the graphics card. I don't really play games any more, but video editing and Photoshop can benefit from a better graphics processor than the one I have now.
It's also great to have fully working USB 3.1 ports as I'm copying stuff on and off USB memory sticks all the time.