# A future proof pc build (in these trying times)?



## kairi_zeroblade

Nothing seems future proof..it highly/often depends on how long would you want use the product (as you see it fit for your current needs)

if anything I can help you with, is to advice you to hold on for a bit more as the end of the year would be more enticing to us PC Consumers, Intel would be releasing a new platform on DDR5 and their 1st Dedicated GPU, AMD "might" also have something up their sleeves (3D V-cache thing, refresh for Zen3), that is if you can still hold out, otherwise any platform from both (Intel and AMD) should still give you a solid system that should last you up until the time DDR5 is already mature or upto the point where you most likely on the next next gen platforms (probably pre-dating DDR6)


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## o1dschoo1

Nothing... Ddr5 is releasing next year, dx12 with raytracing is taking off so you would need a next gen gpu to last.


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## Section31

Eidam655 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> My question in short is - which platform (CPU / motherboard) would you choose as a base for a gaming pc which should last next 10 years or so?
> 
> My current desktop is a PC i threw in together in 2009 and have steadily upgraded its components until now. It's based on an LGA775 Socket with a Xeon X5460 in there right now, 8GB of DDR2 RAM, a GTX 660Ti, SSDs and a solid PSU. On medium details I can still enjoy modern games in 1080p but obviously I'm not getting the full AAA experience.
> I have been wondering about a new machine for the occasional game night, but have been out of the loop in HW news in the last 4 years or so. (Also a machine for architectural visualisation would not be a bad investment as that is also what I occasionaly do for work - the trend currently seems to be in favor of GPU rendering.)
> 
> The way I would like to approach this is to choose a quality socket/cpu combination - something solid, which in time can be upgraded to better components. The Intel platform scares me with its currently too many Sockets to choose from, AMD on the other hand seems to have currently very good backwards compatibility and the Threadrippers. Which would you choose? Any chipsets worth looking at in terms of functions (USB3, NvMe) etc.? Are there any good mobos in small factor (ITX) as well?
> 
> The rest (GPU, more RAM storage, modular power) has been upgradable until now as well, so I don't really see that as a potential problem. The choice of socket is much more perplexing to me right now.
> Thanks for any suggestions.


My advise is just buy an used intel 10900/amd 5000 series from here cheap. This place is overclock.net with lot of people updating on frequent basis. So i predict whole slew of people jumping to Alderlake/V-Cache Ryzen. Once DDR5, etc matures then go into it. In meantime, you save money. The super interesting stuff is suppose to come out in 2024/2025 so Zen 5 (suppose to be big/little) and Intel LunarLake/NovaLake (replacement for ringbus). Lot of stuff coming including next gen NVME.


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## umea

I wanted to go the same route as you prior to learning more. The reality is, nothing is future proof, however, I tried to make my machine as "future proof" as far as current gen limitations go, meaning I aimed to build a machine that will push 240fps at 1440p, or over 360fps on 1080p in any competitive shooter. It depends entirely on what you are looking for. Next gen AMD coming out next year along with DDR5 (although it'll probably suck for a while and be ****y). Of course, you can buy things second hand for cheap. I'm running a 5900x, 3080ti, and 4266cl17 ram. Haven't found a game in my lineup that doesn't hit 400fps consistently meaning I get full use of my 390hz monitor. 

My plan is to just replace things as they come out and sell the part being replaced to make back most of the money. You can build "cheap" systems that will run any FPS title at above 240fps consistently for 1k USD to 1.5k USD, completely depends on your budget and what your use case is. I'd look at a lot of reviews, benchmarks, etc of different combinations of parts to see what is going to fit your use case best.


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## Section31

umea said:


> I wanted to go the same route as you prior to learning more. The reality is, nothing is future proof, however, I tried to make my machine as "future proof" as far as current gen limitations go, meaning I aimed to build a machine that will push 240fps at 1440p, or over 360fps on 1080p in any competitive shooter. It depends entirely on what you are looking for. Next gen AMD coming out next year along with DDR5 (although it'll probably suck for a while and be ****y). Of course, you can buy things second hand for cheap. I'm running a 5900x, 3080ti, and 4266cl17 ram. Haven't found a game in my lineup that doesn't hit 400fps consistently meaning I get full use of my 390hz monitor.
> 
> My plan is to just replace things as they come out and sell the part being replaced to make back most of the money. You can build "cheap" systems that will run any FPS title at above 240fps consistently for 1k USD to 1.5k USD, completely depends on your budget and what your use case is. I'd look at a lot of reviews, benchmarks, etc of different combinations of parts to see what is going to fit your use case best.


I wouldn't even buy CPU/Mobo/Ram atm. Wait for the fallout of Alderlake and Ryzen V Cache. The goal being picking up the previous Ryzen3000 or 5000/Intel 9th-10th Gen stuff from them on the cheap. Coupled with ever dropping cpu/mobo prices, the resale value is going to lot lower.


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## UltraMega

As has been said this is not a great time to build a future proof PC with DDR5 right around the corner. 2 years from now when DDR5 is out and has had a little time to mature would be the best time IMO.

Considering that the hardware you're on is ancient.. maybe you should consider upgrading to something modest for now, maybe something used, and do a big upgrade in a few years. You could get something like a ryzen 2600 for $140, add another $150 or so for mobo and ram and you've got yourself a decent upgrade.


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## geriatricpollywog

Intel 10th gen (10700K/10850K) is already dirt cheap and won’t get any cheaper (new), it will just become unavailable. Upgrading to very 5 years makes more sense from a cost standpoint. When I hear about upgrading every 10 years, I’m reminded of the maintenance guy at my first job who bought a $25K MacPro that hoped would last 10 years at which point he could give to his kids 🤣


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## Section31

0451 said:


> Intel 10th gen (10700K/10850K) is already dirt cheap and won’t get any cheaper (new), it will just become unavailable. Upgrading to very 5 years makes more sense from a cost standpoint. When I hear about upgrading every 10 years, I’m reminded of the maintenance guy at my first job who bought a $25K MacPro that hoped would last 10 years at which point he could give to his kids 🤣


I already am hearing ryzen 5000 owners looking for buyers for there CPU's as they are looking to get Vcache Ryzen 5000. Some 9900/10900K owners looking at same but with Alderlake


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## umea

Section31 said:


> I wouldn't even buy CPU/Mobo/Ram atm. Wait for the fallout of Alderlake and Ryzen V Cache. The goal being picking up the previous Ryzen3000 or 5000/Intel 9th-10th Gen stuff from them on the cheap. Coupled with ever dropping cpu/mobo prices, the resale value is going to lot lower.


I agree, if OP can wait a bit longer then it's fine. But for what I assume they are going to be doing any 5000 series CPU will be more than good enough for them


Section31 said:


> I already am hearing ryzen 5000 owners looking for buyers for there CPU's as they are looking to get Vcache Ryzen 5000. Some 9900/10900K owners looking at same but with Alderlake


I'm one of them  if the performance gains really are 10-15% at 1080p then I have no reason not to get one. Not sure if I'd go for a 5800x or a 5900x though as it's much harder to get a good 5900x chip than a 5800 or 5600x chip.


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## Section31

umea said:


> I agree, if OP can wait a bit longer then it's fine. But for what I assume they are going to be doing any 5000 series CPU will be more than good enough for them
> 
> 
> I'm one of them  if the performance gains really are 10-15% at 1080p then I have no reason not to get one. Not sure if I'd go for a 5800x or a 5900x though as it's much harder to get a good 5900x chip than a 5800 or 5600x chip.


I'm going 5950x to 12900k myself.


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## KingEngineRevUp

If you're here, then you more than likely have "the itch." There is no future proofing. Anytime new toys are released, that itch will come back until you scratch it (buying next gen hardware). 

Sorry to say, but you're one of us. There is no future proofing. Only frame chasing.


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## UltraMega

KingEngineRevUp said:


> If you're here, then you more than likely have "the itch." There is no future proofing. Anytime new toys are released, that itch will come back until you scratch it (buying next gen hardware).
> 
> Sorry to say, but you're one of us. There is no future proofing. Only frame chasing.


He's still on lga775, I don't think he's got the inch. Probably should have read the op and not just the title.


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## KingEngineRevUp

UltraMega said:


> He's still on lga775, I don't think he's got the inch. Probably should have read the op and not just the title.


Post was clearly a joke... I guess not a funny one. You can't hit home runs all the time I guess.


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## o1dschoo1

Eidam655 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> My question in short is - which platform (CPU / motherboard) would you choose as a base for a gaming pc which should last next 10 years or so?
> 
> My current desktop is a PC i threw in together in 2009 and have steadily upgraded its components until now. It's based on an LGA775 Socket with a Xeon X5460 in there right now, 8GB of DDR2 RAM, a GTX 660Ti, SSDs and a solid PSU. On medium details I can still enjoy modern games in 1080p but obviously I'm not getting the full AAA experience.
> I have been wondering about a new machine for the occasional game night, but have been out of the loop in HW news in the last 4 years or so. (Also a machine for architectural visualisation would not be a bad investment as that is also what I occasionaly do for work - the trend currently seems to be in favor of GPU rendering.)
> 
> The way I would like to approach this is to choose a quality socket/cpu combination - something solid, which in time can be upgraded to better components. The Intel platform scares me with its currently too many Sockets to choose from, AMD on the other hand seems to have currently very good backwards compatibility and the Threadrippers. Which would you choose? Any chipsets worth looking at in terms of functions (USB3, NvMe) etc.? Are there any good mobos in small factor (ITX) as well?
> 
> The rest (GPU, more RAM storage, modular power) has been upgradable until now as well, so I don't really see that as a potential problem. The choice of socket is much more perplexing to me right now.
> Thanks for any suggestions.


Also forgot to point this out. Every socket that intel and amd has out right now is dead end.


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## Section31

KingEngineRevUp said:


> If you're here, then you more than likely have "the itch." There is no future proofing. Anytime new toys are released, that itch will come back until you scratch it (buying next gen hardware).
> 
> Sorry to say, but you're one of us. There is no future proofing. Only frame chasing.


Great term. The itch is hard to stop. It's not just one itch but many itches in fact.


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## 649694

If you want something now, I would go with a 10900K/10900kf/10850k or a 5900x/5950x. The extra cores/threads will scale well into the future.


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## rdr09

A minimum of an 8-core cpu with SMT or HT. Preferably a 10 or 12-core to be safe. The 10850K at 400$ is a fantastic option.

With the news TSMC will charge more i do not see chip prices falling. More probability that they will continue to go higher.


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## crastakippers

rdr09 said:


> A minimum of an 8-core cpu with SMT or HT. Preferably a 10 or 12-core to be safe. The 10850K at 400$ is a fantastic option.
> 
> With the news TSMC will charge more i do not see chip prices falling. More probability that they will continue to go higher.


I am with this guy. The 10850K is a steal at $400. 
And I have been an AMD CPU guy in my personal systems for 30 years.
If you make your PCs last seven to ten years, then this looks a pretty good choice right now.

I would not wait for new tech if you want a PC now. Contemplate what's happened over the last two years. Personally, I don't feel anyone can predict what will be available and at what prices in 6 months time.


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## crastakippers

KingEngineRevUp said:


> Post was clearly a joke... I guess not a funny one. You can't hit home runs all the time I guess.


It is funny once you point it out. 

Emojis are useful in this case. 
I could create a slide deck explaining best use practices if it would help.   

See what I did there. 

I really hope you see what I did there. 

Now you met someone with really bad humour.


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## kairi_zeroblade

KingEngineRevUp said:


> Only frame chasing


and EPEEN loving..


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## MikkelBreiler

Well You should not feel overwhelmed by the number of sockets, only the latest sockets are relevant for your project. New with a high scoring CPU so thosetwo do not need replacing early on.
Check out cpubenchark.net and look at the best cpu per socket page, for LGA1200 which is current for Intel and there is one for AMD, the page lists the year the sockets were introduced.
Using server parts is asking for trouble like picky parts compatibility and few other people using them as a concsumer, so just ignore sockets for servers.

If you get a cheap high end-ish 11th gen Intel right now you should be able to use it for a long time and perhaps upgrade should you get a good price on the top tier cpu for the socket. But asking a motherboard to live for 10 years is a lot. Usually games are fine with 4 cores and the best thing is 2x8GB fast memory and a relevant GPU. Just leave two of four DIMM sockets open for future expansion or replace the current DIMMs with a set of faster memory.
In years to come you add memory, replace gpu and failing components such as fans and drives and what not, but your initial investment will determine how long this platform will last before you wish to upgrade some part of it. I never really got into paying top dollar for premium parts as pretty soon they are just older, and I am perfectly fine with not ever having the newst, as long as my primary computer setup it is not completely out of date. 

I had a i7-8700K for 3 years now and recently bought a ASUS WS C246 PRO board for it. I never used that CPU much as I favor Windows 7 on my older gear, and on this new combo I just installed Linux, so hopefully it will become more relevant to me and I will actually start moving away from primarily using Windows 7.


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## fastturtle

First thing to do is forget trying to build a system for long term upgradability. What you need to consider is Usable Lifespan. In other words don't worry about upgrades as much of the tech is coming into a major change cycle so you want a system that can be useful for a decade as anything beyond that puts you too far behind.

Right now, I'd go with AMD's AM4 due to long term support with these particulars

128GB of Ram Support
NVME Support with either PCIe x4 or even x8
Minimum of x4 Sata Ports with nothing sharing with a Sata based M.2 unless you have x4 Sata M.2 ports.
PCIe 4.0 but pay attention to the boards. 

Most of them by Intel/AMD are only x8 to force you to get the latest/greatest unobtainum GPU's. You will loose half the bandwidth on a PCIe 3.0 card in such a slot.

Any other hardware based on your choice


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## MikkelBreiler

But 640KB ought to be enough for everybody.


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## o1dschoo1

MikkelBreiler said:


> But 640KB ought to be enough for everybody.


Troll


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## Barry

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I'm now having to build a new system, mine is eight yrs old. It still plays the games I want but it got to where I need to update my OS, I'm still on Win7. Now I'm thinking I should build a new computer. I want to have the latest hardware but the prices are crazy. I just know that new things need to get through a few updates to be problem-free. I will end up buying a generation behind so I need the current hardware. The prices will be cheaper and will have proved its self.


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## MikkelBreiler

Barry said:


> Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I'm now having to build a new system, mine is eight yrs old. It still plays the games I want but it got to where I need to update my OS, I'm still on Win7. Now I'm thinking I should build a new computer. I want to have the latest hardware but the prices are crazy. I just know that new things need to get through a few updates to be problem-free. I will end up buying a generation behind so I need the current hardware. The prices will be cheaper and will have proved its self.


Well if you have the money to go one generation behind current technology then that system you build has a chance to become a long time companion.
Buying tech one generation behind means prices should not be the worst to deal with. Any items you buy will have a history of problems or not, solutions or not. Ratings on sites make sense from one generation behind. And buying them second hand means they are even cheaper. I have only Intel CPUs and therefore only Intel ecosystem platforms. but my experience is that intel may make CPUs but the motherboard makers may bring the actual juice to the table or not. If few motherboard have the features you desire you will suffer from decisions made during implementation of features on a motherboard for a perceived segment of a customer base.


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## kairi_zeroblade

Barry said:


> Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I'm now having to build a new system, mine is eight yrs old. It still plays the games I want but it got to where I need to update my OS, I'm still on Win7. Now I'm thinking I should build a new computer. I want to have the latest hardware but the prices are crazy. I just know that new things need to get through a few updates to be problem-free. I will end up buying a generation behind so I need the current hardware. The prices will be cheaper and will have proved its self.


In a few months time now Intel would be releasing Alder Lake, I would really suggest wait for it, if also rumors on prices are true, Intel does intend to cut down prices, and you're in for a lot of cheap combo's which would fit your budget, if you can wait a little longer more til around December, AMD is already preparing the V-Cache SKU's and would be doing a release later this year or early next year to combat Intel's, its going to be a win-win for consumers since Intel is starting to catch up now (Alder Lake performance rumors says its 15-17% better than AMD's finest)


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