Pretty happy with my X470 taichi non ultimate, hardware wise.
Pros:
Debug display, good VRM.
Cons:
Drivers should be on a damn USB stick these days, BIOS is a bit… less than stellar. It’s OK, but ASUS bios is way superior.
I’m going to say it now… Future proofing is (often) bullshit. At least in terms of being efficient with your money.
Buy the sweet spot, unless you have some particular use case today for more.
Buying high end beyond the sweet spot in terms of price:performance just means you spend top dollar today for hardware you might need tomorrow, when it is much cheaper (i.e. mainstream). Also, at that point you’d often get new IO standards, memory standards, etc. on the newer hardware.
So yeah. Be careful with future proofing too much.
If you’re an enthusiast and just want the best, fine. But don’t convince yourself that if you buy higher end today you can put off upgrades to any real significant degree to save money.
Money wise, you’re generally better off getting 80% of the performance in the real world for 50% of the money and upgrading/replacing 30% sooner (e.g., in 2-3 years instead of 4-5). In that instance, by year 3-4 you’re typically 20+ plus faster then the premium option you would have bought earlier. And maybe even have a warranty…
Ill be honest and say Im simply lazy and I dont love doing all this shopping. I try to keep up with the latest hardware news but there is a lot of research you have to do before investing into a machine. So if I can spend a little more now to avoid upgrading for another year or two its worth it to me cause im lazy.
Thing is, with a lot of things spending a lot of money doesn’t really put the upgrade off as long as the money should.
You’re often spending double the money to just be a bit faster for the life of the machine and going EOL in terms of instruction set, memory technology (DDR2 vs. 3 vs. 4, etc.), USB technology level, PCIe slots, etc. at the same time…
Generally “future proofing” is indeed bs, especially with computers. But you can still buy smart are stretch those dollars. It also comes down to what you are after. If you need the latest CPU instruction set, or the latest GPU feature, then “future proofing” is not for you and you are better getting the latest hardware (not necessarily top of the line) every year or so. Some people are happy with their hardware for 5-6 years or more, and only change when they really need to.