Should I be worried about obsolescence so soon after building my PC?

[SafetySkull]

So. This might be first-time nerves but I'm building my first PC and I'm worried that the parts I'm buying will be replaced by something better in a few months.

I'm thinking of putting an Intel Core i7-4790K into my build which closely resembles Linus' ULTIMATE Surround Gaming PC. But that guide (and CPU) came out almost a year ago.

 

Should I try to avoid purchasing a processor on the tail-end of this generation? Will games start coming out in the near future that my build struggles to play? Or am I concerned over nothing?

[TheRunningOtaku]

Or am I concerned over nothing?

You probably are - the Intel CPU is quite a high-end one, and it should have more than enough power for what you want to do for now and for quite some time into the future. 

[Syntaxvgm]

a 4790k will do you fine for a long time unless you must be on the bleeding edge. 

I'm using  a  sandy bridge i7 with a 970 myself, and I'm not feeling any rush to upgrade my CPU. (not at least until we see 16GB non-ECC sticks on ddr4, I hope. I have an itx build so this would be nice)

 

You'll always have GPU envy before CPU envy

[Comessy]

That CPU will be fine for at least 5 years

[QueenDemetria]

Should I try to avoid purchasing a processor on the tail-end of this generation? Will games start coming out in the near future that my build struggles to play? Or am I concerned over nothing?

You are concerned over nothing . CPU's last a long time with games, but rarely do new games ever require the latest hardware to even run(those days are long over). To put it into perspective, I'm still using a Athlon II 620 from 2009, and still can game fine(I could even bump up my GPU a few levels too).

[VioDuskar]

IT IS WORTH NOTHING!

as soon as you drive it off the lot is is worth 3,000 less than you paid for it!

oh. wait. that's cars.

 

 

computers normally last 4-5 years until the high end becomes mid grade.

[Syntaxvgm]

IT IS WORTH NOTHING!

as soon as you drive it off the lot is is worth 3,000 less than you paid for it!

oh. wait. that's cars.

 

 

computers normally last 4-5 years until the high end becomes mid grade.

That never works. I've tried test driving a car and then asking for a reduced price when we leave the lot. They don't take kindly.  <_<

[foxhound590]

a 4790k will do you fine for a long time unless you must be on the bleeding edge. 

I'm using  a  sandy bridge i7 with a 970 myself, and I'm not feeling any rush to upgrade my CPU. (not at least until we see 16GB non-ECC sticks on ddr4, I hope. I have an itx build so this would be nice)

 

You'll always have GPU envy before CPU envy

i only recently upgraded from my i7 970 to a 5820(then manged to get my hands on a 5960 on the cheep) but i still have that rig running and going strong. i use it for when a friend comes over and we wont to play coop. your cpu should last you for at least 4 years tho most people upgrade around 5

[Manny Calavera]

an i3 can run games, so you have like two i3`s, one for games and another for coming tech

+ you have overclock headroom (base is like 4.ghz witch is enough allready) at least to 4.6, so :

 

you have two i3`s clocked at 4.6ghz

[Syntaxvgm]

i only recently upgraded from my i7 970 to a 5820(then manged to get my hands on a 5960 on the cheep) but i still have that rig running and going strong. i use it for when a friend comes over and we wont to play coop. your cpu should last you for at least 4 years tho most people upgrade around 5

I was referring to the gtx 970 if you missed that, if not, I get it. I mean I'm probably gonna upgrade in much less than 4, but well see. I used to use an old rig for someone coming over without a PC, and I'll likely do the same with this one once I upgrade it. 

[foxhound590]

-snip-

oops missed that

[VioDuskar]

That never works. I've tried test driving a car and then asking for a reduced price when we leave the lot. They don't take kindly.  <_<

damn, really going to try this when i buy my next car. if i every buy new.

 

i have a huge list of the BS tactics that dealers use to jack up the price and swindle the average joe. i'm seriously going to grill them

[WedgeBob]

That's why I'm looking at a i7 4790k (preferably on a ASUS Z97-PRO or MSI Z97 Gaming 7 motherboard) and a GTX 980 SC (SuperClocked) build.  This seems to be the sweet spot in terms of where bang for the buck, and most futureproofed build both seem to meet, imho.

[Overkilled]

Well you could wait if you want broadwell or skylake are coming out at the end of Q2 2015 and I think they use 2011 3 boards so ddr4 can be harnessed but unless you wanna wait just get a 4790k

[ThomasD]

Just did a 4790k build for my kids at Christmas, I expect it will last them for at least five years, with probably one GPU upgrades in that time frame (currently a 970.)

 

Me?  I'm still rocking an i7-860 with a GTX 660 (third card - can't even remember what the first card was.)  I'm not a bleeding edge gamer though - currently play moderately modded Skyrim, Civ V, TF2, & Europa Universalis.  But the kids still use it for Planetside2 and Payday2.  Although I am planning a replacement build for later this year/early next.

 

Like KidJT94 said, high end eventually becomes mid grade; it is the mid grade that goes obsolete.

[MoonDoggy-X]

I am starting my build in a week or so and posed the exact same question. The answer is to build the best system you can when you need to. There will always be something better "right around the corner". There are better processors now. Its computer technology, that's the nature of the beast. Really, you could build a i7 5820k/x99/ddr4 system for about $100 more than the 4790k system would run. As far as what's coming up, Skylake is coming later this year, but I do not believe that they have announced when the unlocked versions are coming out.

 

This does look like it is the end of the road for socket LGA 1150. Skylake will be LGA 1151. However, the 4790k will be in the "high end" of gaming CPUs for at least the next 2-3 years and "mid-range" at least for 4-5. Its not like the next gen will be twice the power of this one.

[SteveGrabowski]

The five year prediction is kind of crazy. Just because Sandy Bridge CPUs are still top notch gaming CPUs 4 years later doesn't mean you can extrapolate that out to an unknown future with Haswell. If Skylake comes with the same pretty weak ~ 5% IPC improvement we saw with Ivy Bridge, Haswell, and Broadwell, then an i7-4790k is pretty likely to still be a really high end CPU until at least the generation after Cannonlake (the scheduled process shrink of Skylake). But if Skylake ends up being an enormous jump in IPC like Sandy Bridge was, your i7-4790k might drop from very high end to maybe upper midrange overnight. I'd guess we'll be more likely to just see the standard ~5% IPC improvement in Skylake since Intel is concerned most with power consumption and integrated graphics for mobile, as they're pretty much unopposed for high performance on the desktop when AMD's top desktop processors weren't even that good in 2012 when they were released. But it's just a guess. 

[MoonDoggy-X]

3+5 years should be pretty accurate for in-game performance. Look at the i5 4690k. According to all the benchmarks, even the Futuremark one, the 4690k is "middle of the road". However, in-game, the 4690k is within a few frames of way higher rated CPUs. I have no doubt that withis the next 5 years, there will be processors released that will put even the 5960x to shame, but games are slow to take advantage of new technology.