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How long would a gaming computer last?

If the price range mentioned in the pcpartpicker thread ($500) is firm, then you can't do much better than the FX-6300 / 750Ti

Generally, you can expect a high-end gaming system (Say, an R9-290 or Geforce 780 and an i7 CPU) to play all current games, plus whatever is likely to come out within the next 2-3 years, quite happily at 1080p.

After those 2-3 years are up, a GPU upgrade will generally bring you forward another 2-3 years. A 5-year old high end CPU is about ready for an upgrade. (A Phenom II x6, i7 920, etc., would still be a contender today, but... yeah.)

Now, buying a midrange system like that, I'd expect that you'd be able to get reasonably-okay performance on current games, but there's probably an AAA title in the pipeline for release in the next year that simply won't run. In which case you're looking at multiple less expensive "good enough for game ____" upgrades over the same 4-5 year period of time.

The more-frequent-cheaper-upgrade-cycle isn't always cheaper in the long run. (i.e. a $150 GPU every year vs. $300 GPU every 3 years.)

If you are like me and your gaming habits trend towards titles that are a couple years old, you'd probably be perfectly happy with an FX-6300 / 750 build for 2-3 years, at which point you'd probably want to replace the GPU. (See above comments re: high end builds.)

However, I will point out that occasionally, a "casual" game of a genre that is not usually very intensive will come out that completely crushes low-end and midrange systems. Civilization V was one of several nails in the coffin of my Q6600 - I actually kept my Radeon 7750 for a while longer, but with the new CPU it went from barely playable to quite pleasant.
 
Excellent reply. I will add that it's unlikely that your actual PC components will fail in under 5 years. (Well, some HDDs might. Always have a backup!) Especially if you get a decent-grade motherboard, that has solid caps, and at least a half-decent PSU to power everything.

Edit: Depending on the GPU though, if you run it at heavy loads constantly (distributed computing, mining, etc.), then the fan(s) may wear out in 3 years. I experienced that with my GTX460 WindForce cards.
 
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If possible I'd try to save up enough extra to get an intel i5 to pair with the 750ti, so that your CPU is good enough to use with the new graphics card in a couple of years.

AMD/ATI makes nice graphics cards but their CPUs aren't competitive any more unless you're building a cheapest possible system.
 
DaveSimmons said:
If possible I'd try to save up enough extra to get an intel i5 to pair with the 750ti, so that your CPU is good enough to use with the new graphics card in a couple of years.

AMD/ATI makes nice graphics cards but their CPUs aren't competitive any more unless you're building a cheapest possible system.
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I would agree. $180 for CPU/motherboard vs. $180 for an i5 CPU and ~$75 for an inexpensive motherboard.

That's, like, 3 pizzas, or a month's worth of cigarettes for a light smoker. Or two cases of mediocre beer.
 
Playing the odds: The hard drive unless it's a SSD, then one or more of the fans, then the motherboard.

Chips can easily last 10+ years, it's the moving parts that usually die first followed by cheap capacitors that swell or burst. Get a motherboard with solid caps and it will just be the fans going bad.
 
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