My rule of thumb has always been:

- Graphics card replacement every 1-2 years (150-200$ card)

- CPU replacement when it starts bottle-necking the graphics card, only had to do this once or twice.

- Power/RAM/HDD/SSD as needed.

I could probably get away with upgrading it less, but if something comes out and I can't run it on medium-high with good fps I usually start looking at an upgrade! 
 

Here is the scoop -

• MSI X99 SLI PLUS
• INTEL I7 5820K 3.3GHz 15MB Cache, LGA2011V3 6 Core
• 24GB (6X4GB) DDR4 2400MHz Patriot VIPER EXTREME
• (2X) 240GB Patriot BLAZE SATA III 6GBps SSD (Striped in Raid 0)
• (1X) 1TB WD SATA 7200 RPM 64 MB Buffer
• MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4GB 1279 MHz Boost Clock
• CORSAIR HYDRO H100i Liquid CPU Cooling
• EVGA SUPERNOVA 850W (Bronze)
• ANTEC P-280 Case
• WIN 7 ULTIMATE 64 BIT
• NET NET Under $1800 (okay, $2100 with the 16Gigs of DDR4 I added)

Believe it or not, this was a Bare-Bones build from Fry's.  I did an item by item comparison on everything on NewEgg and it came out to only $40 less even without tax.  As an entry level DDR4 box, the MSI classic proved to be an exceptional value/performance choice for the motherboard.

I run 3-23", monitors so the 970 (I couldn't justify the $550 for the 980) uses an HDMI to DVI adaptor for one of the monitors.

I actually got the P280 case from Fry's as a price match for $64.  I can't believe Antec has discontinued this case.

The EVGA Bronze will get replaced with a 1000W Platinum soon.

Just need 2 more sticks of the Patriot DDR4 to fill up the last of the 8 slots (top picture only shows 2 sticks installed before I got the additional 16GB when it went on sale today).

The Corsair Liquid Cooling fit nicely in the dual fan top area that I configured as an intake, with the original fans I took out from up there placed on the hard drive racks, also as an intake.  This allows the rear fan to create a push-pull flow through.

Not that it matters, but the Windows experience is 7.8 out of possible 7.9 where everything but the CPU calculations per second rating of 7.8 was at 7.9.

I'm happy with auto-turbo OC setting native to the MSI Bios that is estimated at 3.8 GHz, as well as the EXTREME DRAM speeds, and with the SSD's striped, my boot time acts like it is just waking up from sleep

I have the OS on the raid drive, and I'm going to experiment with migrating the steam folder, and other apps to the 1TB WD.  So far though I am quite pleased with the performance.  I will probably get another 970 when prices come down, but I found out this board limits the 2nd Card to 8 channels.  I would need the MSI Gaming board for that, but I suspect I will have plenty of time to strategize getting approval from the wife for that little operation before I actually need it.

So, all is right with the world now.  No more tech envy induced OCD about not having proper equipment.

And, yes, that is my cat asleep in the basket.

That looks like something I'll 'need' sooner or later.  First gen i7-920 doesn't cut it anymore...and I often see the limits of 12gig of ram [VMs]...

Hopefully the next can still use the GPU [it wasn't cheap] .....ASUS GTX 590 3gig ...

The ASUS GTX 590 3gig DDR5 is still a power house (& power hungry), but you should be fine with its dual GPU's.  And, with 3-DVI's, it's perfect for triple monitors!

Prices are only going to drop for the 2011 sockets, as well as DDR4 so I'd say you're on par for a build within the year

Jafo

reply 33

That looks like something I'll 'need' sooner or later.  First gen i7-920 doesn't cut it anymore...and I often see the limits of 12gig of ram [VMs]...

Hopefully the next can still use the GPU [it wasn't cheap] .....ASUS GTX 590 3gig ...

I have that one too...its not great these days for gaming sadly - i mean for the latest, most demanding ones - luckily i dont play those though. I actually think that i7 920 OCed to cca 4GHz does cut it more for gaming that this card.

But if i was in the money, i would replace it with Titan Z at once. 

Anyway, i built my current rig in August 2010 and then added said GPU in May 2011. Just considering to replace one of my Intel 80GB SSD i use for games to replace with a new 240GB one, since they are so cheap today and out of blue games started to require 30-40GB of space to install.....

@Protoplazm - congrats to that rig, its pure sex.

My current desktop is three and a half years old. The previous computer lasted for ~3 years before it stopped working entirely. The computer before that had the infamous "capacitor plague" and had its first hard failure while I was playtesting Twilight of the Arnor, although I think Hellgate: London had more to do with the breakdown.

I hope to get a new machine next year, since recent games are starting to overpower my video card, and I don't have enough ram (6 gb).

My previous system lasted 3-4 years, backed by a 2500k @4GHz and 16GB ram. I upgraded to a GTX 780 Ti in January for a little extra muscle. I sold that system recently and bought a modest gaming laptop and haven't looked back, and likely never will. I have a PS4 for graphically demanding titles and mostly play strategy games and indies on my laptop.

I think my FSX is still about 200gig ....and I pared it down already...removing 'inferior' aircraft...

I just replaced my GTX580 with a 970.

Biggest disappointment is that the room is so cold now

I could sell you some servers to fix that problem.  

My main PC has been neglected a bit as I've gone crazy on my home lab.  48 Cores, 208Gb of RAM, 22TB of Storage.  THAT heats up the room.  LOL.

Gaming PC is a 3770k, 16Gb RAM, R9 290.  It gets the job done.

Kryo send that heat blaster to my house i`m always cold I could use the heat!

Then i am lucky i am not into that kind of shit. But i still skipped on games like Titanfall or Max Payne 3 cause of the lack of space on that SSD - and i have forbidden myself to install games elsewhere (regular HDDs)... not that i regret much, at least i saved some money 

What qualifies as inferior aircraff anyway?

'ports' from FS2004 ....most [not all] are relatively 'basic', particularly with virtual cockpits/details.

'Stick insect' pilot figures tend to be a turn-off in particular...

My Dell xps 8100 is 3.5 years old.  I still have the original equipment - 8 gb, 3.2 ghz i5, (it says multicore 2, hyperthread 4) 1 Tb HD, AMD HD 5700 video.  I still can't see any reason to update it.  It would be nice to have a SS drive but its not necessary.  I don't play "twitch" games like action shooters, so I don't need max frame rates.  My reflexes are such that I just get frustrated with those types anyway.  When I decide it is time to get a new one I will probably get another Dell as I have generally been very happy with them for 15 years or so.   I am just too old to "build my own" any more, sad to say.   30 years ago I did.

i bought mb in 2008 with geforce 8300 integrated,

500w psu,

athlon2 245 2.9 ghz

6 gb ddr2,

some coolers

+radeon hd 7950 to do some opencl things.

i think that 3d in games is a bad thing.

Because devs say: "Let's do fancy graphics, who needs the gameplay? Just do nicy picture and sell it for over 50$".

For example, gta2 had nice gameplay, and cool multiplayer.

And what is new gta? Same planar movement. Aircrafts and etc? I would better play some real aero-sim... Just a polygonal mess.

How Sim City 2013 is heating up my room while it has nothing inside? max 16 regions, 50 buildings each, virtual cars, 2+2 economics.

Overbloated and empty in same time. Just a crap.

So, I play kag2d alpha, FTL, some board games, because they're made right and looking really nice. 3d with ugly textures and too few polygons? Even now they can't draw smooth spheres in realtime, though raytracers working on cpu were made 10 years ago. No way.

And  devs should be using more GPGPU computing in games. It's really cool and can help to get market.