3 ms·

Something I've noticed over the years is that a lot of PC enthusiast discussion seems to be self-selecting for those most likely to chase the latest hardware, w

Something I've noticed over the years is that a lot of PC enthusiast discussion seems to be self-selecting for those most likely to chase the latest hardware, which affects how they think and talk about future proofing or upgrade ability. The challenge with x86 PC is that because the platform is so flexible it casts the widest net over huge amounts of use cases and circumstances. The example that comes to mind is criticism over intel vs AMD chipsets/sockets with longer compatibility, but it comes down to what your demands are plus where you buy in the cycle of other components (DDR4 vs DDR5) and needed support. There are trade-offs everywhere.

throwup238 2y ago
Definitely. My last self built desktop ($8k total in 2012-ish) lasted a decade under heavy use like M/ECAD and compiling stuff, with only a midlife upgrade from SSD to NVME. When you buy top of the line cutting edge parts that are binned for overclocking, they remain competitive for a very long time, especially now that we’ve hit diminishing returns. Now all you need to make sure is that it’s got enough PCIe lanes if going to a performance build. I only retired the desktop because of how much power it burns and our electricity rates going up here in SoCal. That 64gb OCed 3200 (maybe 3500) mHz DDR3 RAM for example, kept up with DDR4 speeds for most of that decade when I benchmarked every few years. Intel extreme processor, workstation motherboard, and GTX Titans also kept chugging along. I’ve been looking at some of the higher end DDR5 coming down the pipeline and those are also likely to be on the higher end of performance for a decade while the consumer parts catch up. The only problem is that the workstation motherboard market seems to have disappeared. (This was a work computer for my consulting)

3 ms·

Something I've noticed over the years is that a lot of PC enthusiast discussion seems to be self-selecting for those most likely to chase the latest hardware, w

by keyringlight 2y ago

throwup238 2y ago
Definitely. My last self built desktop ($8k total in 2012-ish) lasted a decade under heavy use like M/ECAD and compiling stuff, with only a midlife upgrade from SSD to NVME. When you buy top of the line cutting edge parts that are binned for overclocking, they remain competitive for a very long time, especially now that we’ve hit diminishing returns. Now all you need to make sure is that it’s got enough PCIe lanes if going to a performance build. I only retired the desktop because of how much power it burns and our electricity rates going up here in SoCal. That 64gb OCed 3200 (maybe 3500) mHz DDR3 RAM for example, kept up with DDR4 speeds for most of that decade when I benchmarked every few years. Intel extreme processor, workstation motherboard, and GTX Titans also kept chugging along. I’ve been looking at some of the higher end DDR5 coming down the pipeline and those are also likely to be on the higher end of performance for a decade while the consumer parts catch up. The only problem is that the workstation motherboard market seems to have disappeared. (This was a work computer for my consulting)