Future-proofing

[191x7]

When it comes to future-proofing a system you're building, which route do you take? Can you share some of your experiences? Is future-proofing something you bother with? What's your take on upgrading builds that weren't meant to be upgraded?

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[BobVonBob]

Only going to speak about general devices because I can't be bothered to lay out my opinions on high performance tasks. Suffice to say I think that's complicated.

 

At current time, at least for x86_64 based consumer devices, future proofing isn't necessary. There have been only relatively minor improvements in performance since the very first Core i and FX series chips, and even most Core 2 and old Athlon/Phenom chips are still running strong for the light workloads that most people use their computers for. We'll see how it goes in the coming years with skyrocketing core counts on smaller and smaller chips.

[LukeSavenije]

i don't "future proof" something, because in the end i know that in the time i want to upgrade, even the highest of the highest at that time is mainstream by then

 

just get whatever is best for your money would be my opinion

[ELSknutson]

Just get the best parts you can for the budget you have.  Also spend extra in the areas that count  like CPU, GPU, PSU and Case ( unless you dont care what it looks like.) and skimp on the cheaper items that can easily be upgraded down the road like ram, storage, CPU cooler (if needed), and fans. 

[Princess Luna]

There's no such thing as future-proof, get what suffices your needs today, replace it when it no longer does.

[Manderis]

A system for 1000 $ would fulfill your needs but you could spend 2500 $ get 6+ years of a usable experience out of it. 

Or just buy a new system for another 1k after four years if it doesn't fit your needs anymore, sell the old one as an office pc and get more performance and new features compared to the 2500$ system. 

 

Only thing you can future proof is your psu and case/cpu cooler because if they are good quality they make 10 years or more and usually things like power consumption get lower over the years or stay around the same.