How long can a custom build PC last?

[IkeaEraser]

Assuming sufficient cooling, virus/malware free, upgrades to software till it's supported, zero overclock.
How long can a custom build PC of the of today last?

For e.g, i7-6900k, Ga-x99-Designare-EX, Titan X Pascal, 64GB DDR4 build costs me about $10k
That build offers more than what an average person who dabbles occasionally in a while in high computing or demanding graphics. The hope is in that tech 10 years later would be happy with 4 cores or so and the graphic power of the Titan X.

Will I be able to make it last 10 years? Trying to see the ROI of a custom build, as compared to getting a mid-tier PC ($3k) every 3-4 years.

What would break first?

 

[Rogue Leader]

Its unlikely much will break. The only things that fail these days on modern PCs is fans, hard drives, and PSUs (because they wear down) all easily replaceable. Processors, and GPUs and memory, tend to last forever unless you overheat the hell out of them.

Now as for that build lasting longer, Well yes it might, I mean it depends on your requirements. Theres plenty of mid tier PCs from 5 years + ago that you throw a newer GPU in and they still have no problem playing modern games well. A mid tier PC won't fail any faster, and your 10k idea won't game an astronomical amount faster either.

My point is there is no hard and fast rule here. PC tech seems to have slowed a bit, but that doesn't change the fact that eventually there will be breakthroughs. How big they are will dictate how long that 10k build will last.

The reality is for "occasional high computing or demanding graphics" spending $10k is a huge waste of money. Unless you need it you are not going to get $7500k more worth of performance out of it.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Will I be able to make it last 10 years? Trying to see the ROI of a custom build, as compared to getting a mid-tier PC ($3k) every 3-4 years.

What exactly are you intending to do with this PC?

I'm pretty sure most people would consider a $3000 PC to be high end, not mid range.

You can probably build a $2000 PC today that has 90% of the performance of your hypothetical build in most applications, and then get another $2000 PC in 3-5 years that significantly outperforms it. I think spending $10K on a PC to try and build something that will last 10 years is a terrible idea, because by that point you're into hugely diminished returns, and any PC you buy today will be outdated by then anyway, no matter how much you spend on it. Although your proposed build doesn't seem like it should cost anywhere near $10k.

 

[Belphegore]

Longer than a pre-built, that's for sure.

Depends on what you're looking to do with it. Gaming? Over time you'll need to upgrade the CPU and GPU but if you invest in top end parts right now, it'll last a good 5 years before that happens.

Overall longevity? 10 years is stretching it, though most PSUs come with a 10 year warranty now and days anyway. If you keep it well maintained, I'd say a good 7-8 is possible.

 

[IkeaEraser]

Will I be able to make it last 10 years? Trying to see the ROI of a custom build, as compared to getting a mid-tier PC ($3k) every 3-4 years.

What exactly are you intending to do with this PC?

I'm pretty sure most people would consider a $3000 PC to be high end, not mid range.

You can probably build a $2000 PC today that has 90% of the performance of your hypothetical build in most applications, and then get another $2000 PC in 3-5 years that significantly outperforms it. I think spending $10K on a PC to try and build something that will last 10 years is a terrible idea, because by that point you're into hugely diminished returns, and any PC you buy today will be outdated by then anyway, no matter how much you spend on it. Although your proposed build doesn't seem like it should cost anywhere near $10k.

My apologies! It's approximately USD $7k including 4k monitors and so. I run simulations simultaneously across several VMs (Linux/Windows) so having those cores helps. My thoughts were as some mid-tier laptops today still use dual core CPU (which debuted approximately in 2006), could a setup surrounding 8 cores last 10 years.

It would be nice to have everything fast and smooth now and perhaps be patient while computing 7-10 years from now. Getting a mid-tier setup(quad core) now and again in 5 years won't exactly be a struggle, but it helps in developing patience.

Its unlikely much will break. The only things that fail these days on modern PCs is fans, hard drives, and PSUs (because they wear down) all easily replaceable. Processors, and GPUs and memory, tend to last forever unless you overheat the hell out of them.

Now as for that build lasting longer, Well yes it might, I mean it depends on your requirements. Theres plenty of mid tier PCs from 5 years + ago that you throw a newer GPU in and they still have no problem playing modern games well. A mid tier PC won't fail any faster, and your 10k idea won't game an astronomical amount faster either.

My point is there is no hard and fast rule here. PC tech seems to have slowed a bit, but that doesn't change the fact that eventually there will be breakthroughs. How big they are will dictate how long that 10k build will last.

The reality is for "occasional high computing or demanding graphics" spending $10k is a huge waste of money. Unless you need it you are not going to get $7500k more worth of performance out of it.

Would a high-end setup equate to a mid-tier or a low-end in a 10 year time frame? What would slow down over time? Wouldn't a 3.7GHz today still be 3.7GHz 10 years on? Would it degrade drastically?

What are the most common reasons that if I get what I have in mind today, I'd want to get a new setup in 5 years time?

 

[jasonkaler]

Something to consider is that price of a component is not a good indicator of value, only track record is.
I have a PC that's been going strong for 13 years.

The latest and greatest products of today are not designed to last 10 years, or even 5, they're simply designed to be better than the competition and to out last their warranty by a small margin.

Consider how much more accurate manufacturing is today compared to 15 years ago and yet products from 15 years ago outlast today's products. Many companies openly use "planned obsolescence".

In short, if you want it to last, look at its history.

 

[Popa2caps]

Its unlikely much will break. The only things that fail these days on modern PCs is fans, hard drives, and PSUs (because they wear down) all easily replaceable. Processors, and GPUs and memory, tend to last forever unless you overheat the hell out of them.

Now as for that build lasting longer, Well yes it might, I mean it depends on your requirements. Theres plenty of mid tier PCs from 5 years + ago that you throw a newer GPU in and they still have no problem playing modern games well. A mid tier PC won't fail any faster, and your 10k idea won't game an astronomical amount faster either.

My point is there is no hard and fast rule here. PC tech seems to have slowed a bit, but that doesn't change the fact that eventually there will be breakthroughs. How big they are will dictate how long that 10k build will last.

The reality is for "occasional high computing or demanding graphics" spending $10k is a huge waste of money. Unless you need it you are not going to get $7500k more worth of performance out of it.

I'm lucky then, Still have a 500GB WD hdd going from 2007 Plus a Seasonic PSU that should last tell 2030 AD

 

[Popa2caps]

Assuming sufficient cooling, virus/malware free, upgrades to software till it's supported, zero overclock.
How long can a custom build PC of the of today last?

For e.g, i7-6900k, Ga-x99-Designare-EX, Titan X Pascal, 64GB DDR4 build costs me about $10k
That build offers more than what an average person who dabbles occasionally in a while in high computing or demanding graphics. The hope is in that tech 10 years later would be happy with 4 cores or so and the graphic power of the Titan X.

Will I be able to make it last 10 years? Trying to see the ROI of a custom build, as compared to getting a mid-tier PC ($3k) every 3-4 years.

What would break first?

I'm not sure anything would really break, but a guess would be the HDD. In ten years you won't see any HDD in consumer PC"s SSD's will take over that and PSU's are getting common to have 7 year for replacement. Please note the specs over ten years is very long for computer speeds. It's best to keep with upgrading every 3 years.

 

[IkeaEraser]

Just an additional question, would getting RDIMM, ECC capabilities and RAID 1/5/6 configuration help in longevity?

 

[Popa2caps]

Just an additional question, would getting RDIMM, ECC capabilities and RAID 1/5/6 configuration help in longevity?

The RAID would be to have ether a safe guard and or use to give a boost on speeds on reads and writes.

Error Checking and Correction (ECC) memory is mostly considered essential in enterprise environments these days. Single bit error checking and correction within an 8-bit byte allows for single bit errors to be both detected and corrected when they occur. Interestingly enough, the way this single bit ECC works is not all that unlike RAID 4 and RAID 5 where an XOR algorithm is used to generate parity bits. Instead of losing usable memory capacity, memory makers tend to add an additional chip to ECC memory for every eight storage chips. When a single bit error is detected, the parity information is used to reconstruct the data with an error. Again, this is conceptually similar to how RAID 4 and RAID 5 can scrub and fix data errors in storage arrays. Larger errors than multi-bit can be detected but not corrected by the single bit ECC type of parity scheme.

For desktops, this is less important as a lot of figures put single-bit errors in the range of 1 per 1GB or 1 per 2GB of memory each month. To a desktop user, this may cause a program to crash, or at worst require a reboot. In servers, ECC is essential to maintaining both data integrity and uptime. With the current minor cost differential of ECC versus non-ECC unbuffered DIMMs, there is little reason to get non-ECC memory for a server.

To be honest if you buy good parts they will last 10 years, The issue is at 5 years the specs of the CPU RAM M/B HDD will be out of spec with the current hardware on the market at the time. So while the hardware would last that long would you want it to. There is no reason to over pay on current pc parts as more are overpriced for gaming, Color,RGB Led lights etc. You can most times find deals with better parts used then buying new.

For example i was looking for upgrading froma i7 4790K with 16GB RAM for the longest time because i do music work on my computer and it eats RAM plus my CPU was getting to 60% on long projects. So i asked a friend and told me to get a Xeon to bypass the RAM limits on consumer products.

i found out when looking that Facebook updated their servers back in N ov 2015 and the prices of Xeon v1 E5 2670's where flooding the market. The price went from $800 to $55 each,, So i got a deal on a Server motherboard 2 E5 2670's and 64 GB RAM R ECC. The total for the 2 CPU's Motherboard a Xonor U7 sound device 2 heatsinks and RAM was $390
I could have never got this without finding a great deal on ebay but it does happen.

Here is a list of sites to look for deals
Ebay
reddit
SlickDeals
PC Part picker
Searchtempest
Camelcamelcamel

 

[Rogue Leader]

Would a high-end setup equate to a mid-tier or a low-end in a 10 year time frame? What would slow down over time? Wouldn't a 3.7GHz today still be 3.7GHz 10 years on? Would it degrade drastically?

What are the most common reasons that if I get what I have in mind today, I'd want to get a new setup in 5 years time?

No 3.7ghz today isn't the same as 3.7ghz 10 years on. But its not due to degradation, its due to the advancements in processor technology and software that utilizes it. Thats why clock speed is almost meaningless outside of comparing within a product line. It comes down to the IPC (instructions per clock). So for example the Intel i3-6100 is faster than the AMD FX-6300 because while the 6300 runs at a higher clock speed, the i3 does a lot more instructions with each tick of the clock. Now that said these improvements have slowed we have reached almost the end of what silicon can do, so until a big breakthrough is made, processor speed improvements will be slower for a while.

I'm lucky then, Still have a 500GB WD hdd going from 2007 Plus a Seasonic PSU that should last tell 2030 AD

You are, generally if you get 5 years out of a consumer hard drive you got your moneys worth. Doesn't mean they don't last longer, I've seen plenty of drives last 10 years or longer. However in many years of experience (and most here will agree with me) the failure rate on consumer drives increases exponentially over 5 years. PSUs are the only non mechanical component that actually wears down, same deal it can last, but its definitely not putting out the wattage on the label, and if you push it really hard it will likely fail (but being a seasonic, it will fail gracefully).

Just an additional question, would getting RDIMM, ECC capabilities and RAID 1/5/6 configuration help in longevity?

None of those things help in longetivity. RDIMM and ECC memory are needed for certain processor and motherboards, generally in a high end workstation or server environment. Its basically just higher end memory that is designed to completely avoid errors.

RAID for speed is a waste of time, use an SSD, prices have come down quite a bit. The only thing I use RAID 1 for is redundant backups. That doesn't help in longetivity, it just helps prevent against drive failure.

The reality is, as many have said in this thread, predicting the future of pc technology is impossible. Spending $10k on an overbuilt PC now is a waste of money for "future proofing" because its still limited to the fastest available now, and doesn't protect you from some massive performance breakthrough in 5 years or less (or more). Buy the fastest thing you can afford to do what you need it to do and in all likelyhood it will be fine in 5 years, but you will be ready for an upgrade by then.