I built my PC back in the Spring of '16. It has been upgraded along the way as I had initially replaced just the Athlon x3 cpu/mobo/ram. Currently I have:
2 x 8 GB of shoddy ddr4 2400 must run at 1866 to be stable.
Hyper 212 Evo cooler
xfx rx480 4gb
CX750M psu
I built a case in my highschool shop class. It is an 100 lb beast that needs to be put out to pasture.
After I bought my laptop (System76 Gazelle gaze14), I use my desktop less often. I also have a “server” I run in my basement. It run vm’s for various services I use. Its was a corporate leased computer I scored a while back for $100. It has a 4th gen i5 and 16gb of ram, its uses maybe 10gb of ram and almost never maxes out the CPU. To simplify things I think I could combine the systems.
I am not in a hurry for an immediate upgrade, or a complete system replacement, but rather I would like to upgrade in a more gradually.
I think my next steps for upgrading will be the case and the cooler, and wait for the next generation to of cpu/mobo/ram to be released.
I am considering grabbing one of those new Pop series cases.
For a cooler upgrade I would like to try a liquid cooler. I have had friends with bad experiences with AIO coolers back in the day (clogging mostly) Are they any better now?
I am not afraid of doing a custom loop, but I would want it to be utilitarian. I don’t need fancy RGB, and the clear acrylic tubes do nothing for me. Is there any reason it couldn’t be done with aluminum or stainless tubing?
I don’t see anything wrong with this, I still use a Core2Quad for my media PC. My “old” gaming desktop built in 2013 with a 3770K and a 770 works just fine and if I ever get the urge to play any games it handles them just fine.
If it still handles the owners load and they are pleased I see no reason to upgrade outside of major security risks.
I’ve used AIO’s since 2013 and custom loops before that not having a single issue with any of them. Sure some of the cooling performance can be matched with an air cooler but they are still functional.
On a side note if you wanted you should be able to go to 32GB RAM, I did on an Optiplex 9020 lol
I built a very similar PC back in '14 just as the X99 came out. Since then I upgraded to a i7 5930 to get access to all 40 PCIe lanes and more RAM (128GB DDR4 3200).
It turns out the AsRock x99 Extreme 4 overclocks very nicely, which has kept it my main desktop until this summer. I use a 360 AIO to keep it cool.
I just converted it into my main storage server with 15x 8TB SAS/SATA HDDs, 4x 1TB Samsung 970 Pro (connected via 16 lane PCIe Highpoint PLX card) , dual port Mellanox ConnectX-3 Pro (56Gbps).
Fully tricked out and running like crazy!
Thinking of picking up another X99 mainboard for my i7-5820k that’s now sitting on the shelf. But for exactly this reason these boards are crazy expensive.
I like your thoughtful approach to upgrading. Just posting to let you know that your system (IMHO) is totally current technically and some alternative ideas about upgrade paths.