Long term build

[Icaros]

I build my current rig in 2006, an early C2D and upgraded everything but the mobo, but now it’s getting long in the tooth.

I would like my next rig, which will be before Christmas, to last a long time as well. So I want go for something either upgradable or lasting as well into the future as possible while remaining cost efficient.

I play some games, and I currently have a 1200p 16:10 monitor. I plan on getting a 4k in a few years, but I want prices for a good IPS monitor to come down some and I don’t like having to bind myself to one of the competing standards for variable refresh rate. I’m thinking the best strategy is to factor in a GPU upgrade at that point rather than getting something capable of running that now. From what I can see it seems like there should be some new generations of GPUs coming out in the coming years with HBMII worth waiting for. I’m looking to start playing some newer titles such as Fallout 4 or GTA 5.

I’m wanting to build in a micro atx form factor as I’d like small but feel the two memory slots and no extra PCIe-slots of mini-itx is too constraining.

With that in mind my thoughts so far are:
CPU: core i5 6600 or 6600 k or?
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5
Memory: 16 gb – speed? – brand?
GPU: Geforce 960 or 970 – or a cheaper refurb?
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G2
Case: Lian-li PC V360 or Fractal Design Core 1300
Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 (with the LIan-Li) or Noctua NH-D15 (with the Fractal)

CPU
I’m not quite decided on how much it makes sense to spend here. On the one hand the GPU is probably the limiting factor in most cases (as games are the only really taxing thing I run), on the other hand it’s a much easier upgrade than the CPU.
As far as I can see I can save about 25-30 percent by going for a cheap i5, which might go towards upgrading to a kaby- or cannolake later.
Does oc’ing affect CPU longevity? I think I read about electron migration back in the northwood days. As I expect to run this build for at least 7-8 years longevity is a factor.

Motherboard:
As said I need micro atx, and since it’s a long term build it’s important for me to have features that are relevant in the future. This has lead me to gigabyte because of their exclusive on thunderbolt, as far as I understand? – I’m not sure if that’s a must have feature on a desktop build though?
I would want USB 3.1 type c and I also appreciate S/PDIF for audio. I’m open to suggestions.

Memory:
It looks to me like 16 gb is becoming the requirement (I think I see games out there needing 8 gb minimum already). I am pushing towards my current 6 gb some times already.
As far as I’ve seen from tests there doesn’t seem to be that much benefit from faster memory at this point. Should I expect that to change as software matures and games evolve?

GPU:
I am pretty sure I am going to upgrade this when I move to a higher res display, but I still want to feel I have a new good system right now. I’d prefer something not too power hungry and therefore I am leaning towards NVIDIA. Would a 960 be sufficient or should I go for a 970? – is my money better spent here with a cheaper CPU?
I’d like the GPU to be silent during idle (it doesn’t have to turn of the fans though).

PSU:
650 watts is way above what I can imagine using, but I like the 7 year warranty. I also want something fairly efficient and quiet… I guess I could plausibly save about 30-40 percent, but unless I can save a significant amount I like the warranty because of my long time horizon… Any thoughts?

Case:
Not that unsure here. I want something fairly small and understated. I like Lian-li and I think I can make it work thermally (I like the fresh air intake right over the CPU and under the GPU) but I’m considering the fractal as well.

CPU Cooler:
Quiet is important for me, and I want some headroom for a possible upgrade. I am aware it may be overkill but I went with a more modest solution last time and regretted it.


I don’t have a budget as such, but I want to use my money sensibly. Thanks in advance for your help.

I'll be buying my parts in Denmark.

 

[tynopik]

undoubtedly it's cheaper to sacrifice 'future-proofness' now and just get another system when the need arises

buuuuutttt, if you really want a system that can hang around for ages, you might consider the xeon e5 v3 platform

What's forced me to upgrade the last couple times has been lack of memory upgradability and you can cram up to 512GB in some of these boards

also if you want to keep a system around a long time and stability is important to you, ECC is the way to go

and if you need moar cores in the future, there are options all the way up to 14 cores

and if you need lots of pci-e lanes for video cards and/or SSDs, then this platform delivers

you can start at not unreasonable prices with an E5-1620v3

of course the downside is that the architecture is already 2 versions downlevel, on the other hand the improvements in raw performance since haswell haven't been terribly significant

 

[Icaros]

@tynopik
I know future proofing is not really possible. But as you can see from the fact that I am still running an old processor I'm not that much of a power user.

What I want to is to postpone the point where I hit a serious bottleneck as much as possible. I'm not willing to spend substantially more now to avoid having to upgrade later, but if a hundred bucks pushes a bottleneck a few years further into the future I'm willing to spend that.

I'm definitely thinking that 48 (16 gb now + 32 some time in the future) or 64 gb of memory is going to be more than enough for my needs.


@all I'd love some input the concrete part pics from you guys.

 

[Charlie98]

Looks pretty good to me... I'd spring for the GTX970, it doesn't cost that much more than the 960 but has a reasonable performance gain over the 960.

I'd get a K-chip in any event, a reasonable OC shouldn't hurt a good chip in the long run, particularly if you can undervolt it (as I did with my DESK 2500K, running @ 4.1GHz OC.)

I built a rig in a Core 1000 case, the predecessor to the 1300, and it was a decent case. The 1300 still has that wonky vertical HDD mount plate, which has it's advantages (better airflow from the front) but is just a bit unusual, and not as convenient as the typical HDD trays. You can forget about reasonable cable management with the Core 1300. Spend a little more on the Fractal Define Mini... same basic size as the 1000/1300, but much better built. Removable HDD trays, filtration (the Core isn't filtered,) better cable management, and just a better case all the way around.

For a new rig, I'd just spec 16GB RAM. I don't know enough about DDR4 to make a recommendation for speeds, but in any event I would just pick whatever is on sale with an appropriate speed. RAM is RAM...

650w is too much, see if you can find a reasonable 500w unit with an equivalent warranty.