Futureproofing

[Ergroilnin]

So...

 

The almost curse word in this forum, "futureproofing".

 

I have read a lot of posts saying that futureproofing is a BS and that there actually is not such a thing in a computing world. But I find that hard to grasp... Sure, the whole computer is more or less impossible to futureproof (speaking to you GPUs and HDDs), but surely there is somewhat of a sweetspot, that could be called "futureproof" if you are not a hardcore user in one way or another isn't there?

 

I got my current PC (well, the core stuff such as CPU, MOBO and RAM) in 2013 and it was not a cheap purchase, but it was not an ultra high end by any means either (i7 4770, 16 gigs of RAM, ASUS Z-87 iirc, 256 gb kingston SSD) and other than changing GPU from 760 2gb to 1060 6gb and replacing my internal 2TB HDD (that I keep in external enclosure for somewhat cold storage) for 1 TB 860 samsung SSD and also changing to a newer case (really wanted that glass side panel) year ago, I just cannot find an excuse to upgrade right now. So the core of this rig lasted for 6 years and I expect it to last a few more years unless it somehow dies.

 

For me that was pretty much a futureproof build even if I did not think of it like that six years ago. And from what I have read, most people actually are like this as well, getting a decent mobo, cpu and ram right now = no need to upgrade unless you are the 1% that actually need it. 

 

I of course am taking a futureproofing with a grain of salt, because I would never tell someone to build extremely high end PC just to have that performance last for years, but if someone had somewhat a decent budget, I would certainly do encourage them use that budget instead of buying cheaper parts and just upgrade the whole PC every year and half or so...

 

Sure, there are things like GPUs, that get a very serious boost every two or so generations and the requirements on graphic computing is also rising very fast each year, so that is one part of a PC, that should get other treatment than the rest of it and yes, even though the PC world has gotten somewhat stale (no more hundreds of percents % of performance between two generations etc), you may get left out of new tech if you do not upgrade somewhat often (such as idk... M.2 slots and NVME drives, ray tracing etc.), but then again, unless you are an extremely heavy user, it hardly matters, it mostly means that you skip the early adopter phase and either jump in matured technology or just completely skip it if it is a dead end.

 

I personally cannot be arsed enough to save enough money / sell and buy newer every year or two, because it just does not make any sense to me, so buying a pretty decent CPU at the time and overkill amount of RAM six years ago was totally worth it for me and it is still going strong.

 

So how do you go about making your PCs and what do you think of "futureproofing"?

[UrbanFreestyle]

I think futureproofing is the wrong word. I like to use longevity. 

I'm still running my 4790k as my main photo and video editing rig. No complaints. Actually started selling parts from my 8400 build

[Zando_]

Most futureproof part of a PC (assuming the future proceeds as the past has) is the CPU, those you can generally hang on to for a few to many upgrade cycles depending on use case and assuming you got a high end one in the first place (there's still people on i7 2600Ks and X58/X79). GPUs have so far evolved a lot faster (CPUs jumped a lot and then kinda plateaued), but they're not as aggressively changing anymore. The difference between a 580 (Nvidia 580, not the RX one) and a 780 in modern games is pretty damn big AFAIK, but you can still play fine on a 970 or higher now and those are the third generation back. As far as futureproofing a rig goes, just get a solid CPU and the best GPU for your games/res/refresh rate you can afford, then kick back and relax until your rig fails to give you the performance you want, then you upgrade. Can't really predict when that will be, but it should be a good few years. 

[Master Disaster]

Unless you're a witch with a crystal ball or a scientist who invented time travel no one has any idea what the future might bring.

 

Tomorrow R* might announce GTA 6 and tell everyone it requires a 2080TI just to play on 1080p low settings. Sure it's incredibly unlikely but it's not impossible.

 

This is why future proofing is impossible, you cannot plan for something that you do not know about.

[Ergroilnin]

Well while there are some slight differences, for the most part I think that futurerproofing and longevity in this sense are basically synonymous.

 

There is certainly one thing I would have changed if I could redo my purchase 6 years ago (apart from getting a non-K CPU on OCable MOBO, shame on me) and that would be the PSU. It is not by any means a good PSU and I just did not understand the significance of it at a time. It is weak, it does not even have any 8 pin connector etc. which is why I could not upgrade my GPU to more than 1060 6GB (well maybe I could have gone for some 1070 I guess, but no way I could get anything more power hungry, not to mention getting a similarly powerful AMD GPU... Just nope). So if I get to make a completely new build in the future, I know that choosing a high quality PSU with maybe at the time overkill choice of connectors and maybe even a bit of wattage headroom will do me good in the long run.

[Princess Luna]

5 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Tomorrow R* might announce GTA 6 and tell everyone it requires a 2080TI just to play on 1080p low settings. Sure it's incredibly unlikely but it's not impossible.

#NeverForgetthi

[iHardware Shelden]

I wish I had built a nice Core 2 Quad system back when they first came out, those held up well over the past 10 years. Personally though I do not game as much as I used to and my current system, if I was a hardcore gamer, would probably be upgraded but since I don't it performs more than well enough for anything I throw at it. Not a lot of people keep that in mind when they build a system, especially since I was younger (15) at the time and lots can change over even 4 years so your computer use might as well. Hobbies, Work, School/College, etc. End of the day there are so many variables.   

[Mira Yurizaki]

31 minutes ago, Ergroilnin said:

So how do you go about making your PCs and what do you think of "futureproofing"?

If someone says "I want a futureproof system", they don't understand what they really want/need.

[SupaKomputa]

I think "Futureproofing" is not applicable to PC build in after dual core.

Why i'm saying this. Back in the day, there's a race in MHZ both in the cpu and also the software.

Get a cheap cpu, in a year or two it will get so slow due to the MHZ requirements are higher in most newer software.

After the advent of multicore cpu, it gets more relax, software are not that demanding, most even try to optimize their software so it can be run with older cpu.

Now, when the MHZ reaching it's dead end, cpu scaled horizontally, it gets more irrelevant.

CPU with viewer cores can still enjoy the things that upper end do.

 

I say for this topic, PC hardware evolve in different speed, let your pc evolve with time.

Buy what ever meets your requirement now, and upgrade when you have to.

[TehPlayer14]

1 hour ago, Princess Luna said:

#NeverForgetthi

NOW I'm going to need 64GB of ram

 

But seriously some emulators like Yuzu can take like 10GB of ram soooo....

[Dubious]

Wait for AM5 and hope they keep that socket for as long as they kept AM4

 

I'm still rocking i5-2500k  (waiting on all the bugs in 3k Ryzen to be fixed and not in stock either)

[Giganthrax]

I'd definitely say it's possible to future-proof a computer as long as you know what level of performance you're aiming for. 

 

For instance, my current system is built for 1080p gaming at 60fps at medium to ultra settings. Right now, except for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, it's fully capable of running any AAA game on ultra settings at stable 60fps 1080p.

 

Unless the next generation of consoles dramatically increases the average game's graphical fidelity, I'm 100% sure I won't need to upgrade anything about my rig for the next 3-4 years at least. As far as tech is concerned, that's very much future-proof to me. 

[LogicalDrm]

Problem with using the term is that people really don't understand what it means. Same way like "bottlenecking" has become curse word. People throw it around without knowing what it even means.

 

I'm actually in same place with you in terms of specs. This core was built 2013, and I was in situation where it would have been cheaper to go Ivy. Or FX. But I came from LGA775 and C2D which I had upgraded to C2Q for few more years. So when I started to plan core upgrade, I knew that I wanted something I can upgrade later. Back then it was widely known that Intel would release atleast another gen for same socket. Thats all the info I needed. Probably no motherboard upgrade if I happened to need upgrade in next 3 years.

 

So in order to "futureproof", one must think upgrade path and longevity. Those are both parts of futureproof-concept imo. And doing that requires reading and research. Just forum post asking for such won't cut it. As that requires also knowledge about doing BIOS upgrades, what chipset to go with, how long can higher end CPU last vs lower end etc.

 

But looking into future based in past experiences is also hard. I made mistake with this 2013 build. Two of them, actually. From one I learned from, to read mobo manual before buying next. Because reading just spec list doesn't tell the whole truth. Another was going for higher clocked RAM. Back in C2D that was different thing, and I had trouble upgrading RAM because it was too low clocked vs what was available when I needed more. So when I now went for 2133MHz, that wasn't needed at all, and 1600MHz were more common.

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, WikiForce said:

That is totally ridiculous, to say the least.

BTW, i googled it and it says :

> 1080 ti 

> 4gb vram

Which is an utter contradiction

The pic is the specs of their demo machine, I think someone got confused and thought a high end rig built to showcase the game was somehow the minimum spec. 

[mr moose]

The term future proofing is kinda pointless. 

 

The only way you can be sure your system is future proof is if you can ensure there is nothing in the future that will require better hardware than what you have.  And even if you could control that, it becomes different for everyone so there isn't a single unified method to determine what would be.

 

Technically speaking all hardware is future proof if you plan not to buy new games or upgrade your software.  Let your current PC die a natural death and it isn't the future that killed it but normal wear and tear.

 

What most people think when they use that term is what can I do to ensure I don't have to upgrade too soon.  Simply buying the best you can afford at the time of purchase is best because without a crystal ball there is nothing else you can do.  

 

[RejZoR]

Futureproofing exists and is a thing. Just don't be cheap with processor, RAM and motherboard. If you have a solid platform, it'll last you for 5+ years easily and serve you excellent. It's also one of hardest things to upgrade because it usually involves changing entire platform which is cost and time consuming. But don't go with top of the line stuff either. Great example were Intel's lowest end HEDT parts. Like Core i7 920 or Core i7 5820K. They essentially cost about as much as mainstream parts, but with some overclocking, you turned them into top of the line parts. i7 920 (~$300) was 50% cheaper than i7 970 (~$600). Only difference was in clock which you could easily make up with OC. Gap with 5820K was a bit smaller, but still roughly 200 bucks difference for some clock that usually topped at around 4.5GHz for all models anyway. So, essentially you were getting top end performance at budget prices (for the segment).

 

It's hard to futureproof graphic card because things there change a lot faster, although in recent years, unless you're aiming for stupid resolutions, you can be fine with mid end card and get good framerates for several years.

[19_blackie_73]

honestly, I can't agree more. my rig is 2 years newer (mid-2015, but still haswell refresh), but even the midrange gpu did hold up pretty well.
I'm really tempted to upgrade to the 3700X, though atm I can't justify the cost for the 1% of the time I need more power. When that changes, I will upgrade, but atm I'm just rolling with it. But I have to say, if I still would do the same stuff I did 4 years ago, I'd probably upgrade (3D rendering and a lot more gaming). As I stopped doing that that often, I won't notice much difference.
As always, it depends

 

[Guest]

When you say "futureproofing", I say "How long? " !

 

As other said previously, you have 2 ways of considering the world word (interesting lapsus):

Longevity and upgrading capacity

and... Forever and ever (the song plays in my head now! Argh!)

 

Personally I go for "longevity and upgrading capacity". But I had some misguided customers who went for the 2nd option and it was very difficult to make them understand that this option wasn't one a realistic one, even more difficult when the seller sold them this 2nd option by telling them that a low/mid-range computer could be kept and usable for 10 to 15 years with just a little addition of RAM.

 

I often need(ed) to use the car analogy to make them understand. And sometimes, even that didn't do the job.

 

Back to the point, personally I prefer to invest in a good mobo, eventually upgradable CPU and a good main Memory (M.2 now) and all the rest I upgrade as I need to.

[greenhorn]

I believe there are different concepts floating around the ominous word "futureproofing":

There is longevity as in "how long will the components remain operational". While a certain component life span is a requirement for a "futureproof" system, it doesn't tell us anything about whether that system's performance still will be adequate some time in the future. That's why I would prefer a term such as long-term adequacy or something similar.
Ensuring upgradeability can be quite tricky. Upgrading the GPU often is quite simple (requiring a PSU replacement at most), upgrading the CPU can often mean having to upgrade the motherboard (and the RAM if you are unlucky) because socket changes do happen.

Whether a system is futureproof or not also depends on what it is being used for. An PC used for MS Office and light surfing is more likely to be adequate for quite a long time.

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

I would describe "futureproofing" as how long do you expect it could serve you well enough.

 

take my gpu as example, its a gtx970 bought 4.5yr ago. 

I expect to use it for 8yrs (ideally 10yrs), at 1080p while lowering the graphics setting if needed, I dont really care about fps as long as its smooth gameplay etc.

I would say gtx970 is futureproofing to me

 

futureproofing varies from the need and expectation for each individual

[Lathlaer]

It's funny because a video on FP just appeared where Linus is busting a 10 year old balls to the wall (back then) dual Intel CPU system and checking how it fares with today's different use scenarios 

[MadmanRB]

well the question of futureproofing is starting to be a moot point, we are at the tail end of moores law after all so what you build today will still probably be good in 5 years time.

Sure both DDR5 and PCIE5 are coming out but you know that stuff will be hella expensive and wont start tricking down to mainstream until at least years so what a coincidence.

I say if you built  a AMD rig though you would be better off then a intel rig as intel will probably change the socket again as for AMD who knows. but if you builty a amd machinee right now it will probably be great fopr at least another 5 years even if intel makes something better its no use worrying about the future when you can try to have fun now.

Live for the moment.