> not have to worry about upgrading it for 10 years (I think we're pretty close to this point already
I think we're already there. Ivy Bridge machines from 2012 can still get the job done today if paired with a solid complement of RAM and an SSD.
Graphics is really the only area where those older machines are starting to be a limfac, as their inability to drive the latest 4K+ displays is starting to be more of an issue for normal people.
My E6420 C2D from 2007 is still chugging away as a htpc. I had to go from 2 to 6GBs of ram 2 years ago but it's still plenty fast enough for video and web use. I tossed in a HD 6420 few years ago for video hardware acceleration.
Agree 100%. I have an ivy bridge gaming desktop built 2013. I've upgraded the GPU twice and the RAM once. The performance gains on the CPU side just don't seem worth the money.
I upgraded my desktop PC from Sandy Bridge last year, and the only reason I did so was because I was upgrading some other components that required a motherboard update (which meant CPU chipset would no longer be compatible), so I said what the hell.
Otherwise, I was very happy with it in terms of performance.
I only upgraded from my 2009 i7 (I forget the model) to last years i7 because the old motherboard died.
I kept upgrading GPU and seeing only 20-30% CPU use while gaming. It was fine.
Some changes to how we build these things would be nice.
The heavily integrated motherboard model should die. A PCI slot on my old board made the whole system flake.
Discrete components I can stack are more my dream design. If my old CPU had been a sealed unit of some kind with a physical connector to the GPU, power, and such, and I could have simply swapped out the faulty port expansion “module”, that would be slick.
But one PCI port flaking means I have to bail on an otherwise perfectly functional CPU, RAM, PSU, and cooling kit.
It really depends on your workload. I need to compile large code bases often, and upgrading to a Threadripper last year made my life much more pleasant.
I think we're already there. Ivy Bridge machines from 2012 can still get the job done today if paired with a solid complement of RAM and an SSD.
Graphics is really the only area where those older machines are starting to be a limfac, as their inability to drive the latest 4K+ displays is starting to be more of an issue for normal people.