To be honest, the case is still the original one, but almost every other part has since been replaced. Now, I’ve taken it back to the shop where I bought it 20 years ago and asked them to upgrade the motherboard, CPU, and memory - the last of the original parts.
So, is it still the same computer?
I also like that I can just keep replacing parts on an existing product rather than buying an entirely new device each time. That’s exceedingly rare feature these days.
I don’t think it is personally but I think that depends on your thoughts about its character. To use an analogy, if you think of metal bands where swapping out members is quite common, I’d argue that the changes are much more noticeable than on something like a PC. The vocal or lyrical style changes, or the guitar solos, while still good lose something in their character.
Thinking of my own computers going from when I was 17 to the one I have now at 37, the technology is so vastly improved that the character would’ve been lost with most upgrades.
I think unless it’s a purely cosmetic change or maybe a storage upgrade, i.e. an improvement to existing components, it just isn’t the same.
That’s just me. This was a very interesting question.