7 year PC

Hardware Build a PC
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The last base PC I built was in late 2008 when the i7 was released. I tend to buy (mostly) top of the line stuff so my PCs will last this long. I still run that same motherboard / processor to this day but I've cycled through some gpu / ram upgrades.

In the same kind of spirit, here is the beast I'm laying out for the next 7 years of my life, comments and suggestions are welcome:

Fractal Design Define R5 Gaming Case Cases FDCADEFR5BK
$119.48

Gigabyte LGA1151 Intel Z170 ATX DDR4 Motherboards GA-Z170X-UD5
$172.99

Gigabyte GV-R939G1 GAMING-8GD G1 Gaming Graphics Card AMD R9 390 512 Bit GDDR5 8GB 2xDVI/HDMI/3xD​P
$309.99

Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit System Builder OEM | PC Disc
$122.98

EVGA SuperNOVA 750 B2 80+ BRONZE, 750W Semi Modular NVIDIA SLI and Crossfire Ready 5 Year Warranty Power Supply 110-B2-0750-VR
$56.99

WD Blue 1TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD10EZEX
$51.99

Kingston Digital 240GB SSDNow V300 SATA 3 2.5 (7mm height) Solid State Drive (SV300S37A/240​G)
$69.99

Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DIMM 288-Pin Memory BLS2K8G4D240FS​A/BLS2C8G4D240F​SA
$99.99

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan (RR-212E-20PK-​R2)
$28.54

Intel Boxed Core I7-6700K 4.00 GHz 8M Processor Cache 4 LGA 1151 BX80662I76700K
$419.00 (The price just jumped to over $550 while typing this - I'll wait until it comes back down or grab it from a different place)

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I don't have the time to get into this build, but I just want to say that you shouldn't get that SSD. Avoid V300 like the plague. For more info on why consult Google.

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Shitty controller, bad QC, slow NAND.

I think the R9 390 will last you 4 years at most. We're on the cusp of some serious shifts in the graphics processing landscape, and in a year most GPUs of today will look outdated.

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I already have one and really like it.

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That is true with almost any computer component though. I used to think like that and then found myself waiting this long to begin with - but now my rig isn't cutting it anymore.

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If you're going with a WD Hard Drive, get the black edition drives. I wouldn't use a blue for important stuff, at least not anything I would be concerned with losing.

Logan uses HGST NAS drives for Pistol's and his own rig, I would recommend the same if you're looking for longevity/reliability.

1 Like
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The point is it's more true at this very moment than it was say, 8 months ago. We've got:

16nm/14nm
HBM2
GDDR5X
DX12
VR

And some minor background tweaks.

Obviously cards like the R9 390 will, or already do, support a chunk of these features, but in another 8 months we'll have cards that support ALL of these features and more. In stark contrast, you could have purchased something like a Radeon HD 5870 back in 2009 and it would only just this year be losing support and being overshadowed by significantly newer tech.

Don't take this as me telling you not to buy the R9 390, it's a great card. Just expect that by this time next year you'll start seeing it struggle, as it is already a 2 year old design itself. It won't meet your 7-year plan.

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I back up all my stuffs :) but thanks for the suggestion, I'm not familiar with black. I'll look into it.

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Thanks for the input, but see my original post! I don't expect a gpu to last the 7 years, just the MB / CPU / (and if I put enough initial RAM in the thing).

10

go x99 and at least get a 5820k if you want a 7 year pc... the multicore revolution is coming

2 Likes
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The PC I had before my current one was AMD, but truthfully I'm no longer up-to-speed on their products and some of what I read had them a little bit slower due to some unfair practices by intel / other software companies. While I don't necessarily agree with that I was very pleased with my intel system and intended to stick with it because I know and trust it.

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uhm... the 5820k is intel? unless if you replied to my comment on accident?

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nope, I misread and didn't see you were talking about 5820. My mistake.

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I agree with getting a different SSD, if you're looking for longevity I would suggest a M.2 SSD if you're going skylake or x99. The other thing I would suggest is save your money on Win 10. You can easily buy a Win 7 or 8.1 pro key on ebay for about $20 and get a rolling update through windows. Use the extra $100 somewhere else in the build or save the cash.

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if you want a 7 year pc build a server , not a desktop

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jeez, I'm not 100% super serious on the thing being 7 years old. My current build just happens to be that old and served me well. So it is more just a point of pride and I suspect this build would last me that long as well with eventually upgrading the gpu - realizing it will not be top of the line(ish) a couple years in.

I do plan on building a home server in a couple of years though - or I may just take one we are retiring from work.

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The V300 was changed by Kingston and the new ones are prone to dying very quickly and they do not perform nearly as well as the old ones for their limited life time, source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7763/an-update-to-kingston-ssdnow-v300-a-switch-to-slower-micron-nand

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yeah I read up on it. Well thankfully I have an old one.

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Not too much difference in the Blue/Black HDD's. I actually have a RAID0 WD Black and the perform very well. But I have several blues scatted about and they also have been running for a long time

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Build in the op looks pretty sollid to me.
except for the psu, i would change that to the EVGA Supernova 650W GS or G2. 80+ gold
Those units are better quality then the cheaper Bronze units.
650W would basicly more then enough for a skylake 6700K + Single 390.

You could of course also concider to go with Haswell-E X99 and a 5820K.
Like some people allready mentioned above.
But that highly depends on your ussage realy.
If your main goal is just gaming, then just stick with Skylake.
But if you look for a system for gaming and productivity workloads like video rendering and what not, then i would say go with 5820K X99.
Because those 2 extra cores will come handy in productivity workloads.
The 5820K is basicly a better work Horse.