I want to start putting together my next rig, and was wondering what platform is best to start with. I 'm not brand loyal by any means, and would like to build something that can last for the next 5 years with normal upgrades to GPU, ram and storage. I'm going to have to buy the components piece meal because of money constraints. I don't need bleeding edge, but I want to be able to game 1080p, do some virtualization, and program compiling. I'm trying to do some app development, and would like to become more proficient with Blender and such. I currently am running a MAC Pro 1.1 with HD5770, 10GB ram, OSX, Windows 8.1, and Zorin 9. I have no wish to start a fanboy flame war, just some opinions. Should I wait for what's coming next?
Unfortunately, it seems like the two platforms both have consumer platforms that are nearing the edge of their release cycles, so if you're looking to be upgrading the CPU in particular in the future, your choices are slim. If you want to wait a little while, Skylake will be coming out soon, and AMD potentially has a new socket/chipset coming out in 2016?
That said, you could probably easily do with a Z97 i7 4790K or even i5 4690K for another five or so years without running into many problems. Both should do a fair job of the upcoming and improving multi-core support, and still have strong single core to last a while. Z97 is still on DDR3, though, and while it is a lot cheaper than DDR4, it may become more expensive or more sparse in another few years as DDR4 takes over? Someone else with more experience may have input on this. However, you should be able to have up to 32GB on any given Z97 system, so I wouldn't worry about that for a while. As for storage, you should be fine unless you're wanting to move a lot of data quickly (with NVMe SSDs on the horizon). GPUs are usually upgradeable without a problem. PCI-e's always have backward compatibility.
Thanks for the input. I'm not in a big hurry, as I can still do most of what I need. I just have to run games on medium settings to get playable frame rates, and rendering really stresses out the HD5770 1 GB of vram. I was planning on going Intel just so I Hackintosh and the better per core performance. I really need VT-d for full access to hardware when virtualizing.
Both of the processors I mentioned, the 4790K and the 4690K, support VT-d - it's just a matter of finding a motherboard that supports it as well.
As for motherboards, the MSI Z97-G45 might be - unfortunately, all MSI claims is "VT" support and twenty minutes searching brings up nothing. (Too bad I don't have a VT-d CPU right now...) The Z87 G45 does have VT-d support (but it's not a Haswell Refresh board, and would need a BIOS update); I would contact support to check just in case the Z97 doesn't. As I understand it, Z97 VT-d boards are hard to come by.
If you're fine with not overclocking, there are plenty of H97 boards that support VT-d (I might be wrong, but I don't think you can overclock and have directed I/O anyways). It's pretty much a Google search away. I've had good chances with MSI, so I'd recommend the MSI H97 MG43, but Asrock H97 Pro4 is another.
I have had 5-6 year spaces between updates many times in my PC history. The last maybe 3 years everything has flatted out and a 3 year old PC is perfectly fine but maybe not as power efficient.
If you have the cash to upgrade sure do so. If you have a need to upgrade because of an issue then address that.
Even now games still seem to be optimal on quad core CPU's. If developers pull there finger out of there ass and multi thread more then maybe in 5 years 4+ cores will be needed. Ram is cheap and most games dont go over 4g anyway. I have 16g in my machine and dont think outside of productivity video / rendering I would need more.
Same with storage. Outside of video and raw photo data. 3-4g hard drives are hard to fill and cheap.
As for what OS to use. God knows. I just switched from Windows to Linux. But in 5 years Apple and Microsoft could do anything stupid to brilliant. There greedy so I dont hold high hopes. Its the apps you need that matters more than the OS.
@Jeol is correct. The best option is a 4690k or 4790k. It will scrape 5 years.
Basicly a 4690k matched with a decent mobo like the griffin, 750 watt psu from a reputable brand, evga is well regarded and cheap. 16GB's of ram with room up to 32 if you need it, whatever case you would like, A good WD Black HDD and an SSD if you would like and finally a gpu thats within your budget. A 290x vaperx 8GB I would personally recommend though a GTX 970 or 980 is always an option. Should scrape 5 years without few issues. Just a gpu upgrade in 2 - 3 years to keep up with software.
Thanks for the info everyone. I just need to figure out how to pay for it. I keep spending money on crazy things like the mortgage and food.
Lol I know the feeling. Finally got some money saved up and then phone crapped itself again. Ordered new phone but now im negative $400 and theres a 2 week wait on the import of the phone