Futureproof?
- Thread starter jakesnake
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Yeah people generally seem to mean 2-3 years, or say spanning a couple of platform changes.
they are only dead coz no new cpus are coming out on them, but u can still get them, and they still do the job properly.
too many ppl worry about getting a platform where you cant upgrade the CPU.
chances are, when you are ready for a new CPU, u will just get a new motherboard with it, so it dont really matter.
its vary rare to buy into a socket then just keep upgrading the CPU on the same socket, usually best just to move to the current socket when you plan to upgrade and not worry what might or might not fit in a year down the line
too many ppl worry about getting a platform where you cant upgrade the CPU.
chances are, when you are ready for a new CPU, u will just get a new motherboard with it, so it dont really matter.
its vary rare to buy into a socket then just keep upgrading the CPU on the same socket, usually best just to move to the current socket when you plan to upgrade and not worry what might or might not fit in a year down the line
"Future-proof" gets thrown around way too much.
In short, NOTHING is future proof, as there will always be new technology break-throughs in terms of hardware capabilities.
The sort of "future-proof" that most people mean generally tends to be a complete system that will still be classed as "high-end" for more than a year, so at the current time you're looking at the newer i7 chips and hexacore AM3 chips.
As Cycrow says, just because something is old certainly does not mean it isn't capable - I'm still running an old Athlon II dual core and it does everything I need it to, and that's on the "dead" AM2 chip.
Easiest way to think about it is that future-proof will mean one of two things; either it is top-end hardware at the current moment in time and will still be regarded as 'high-end' for at least a year, OR it could mean it has upgrade paths available to it - in which case the i7 x58 chipset is nearing on EOL (end-of-life) yet the AM3 chip will still be used for at least another year with brand new chips being manufactured for it, whereas the Intel counterpart will likely be on a brand new chipset.
/thread? Haven't typed so much in aaaaages
In short, NOTHING is future proof, as there will always be new technology break-throughs in terms of hardware capabilities.
The sort of "future-proof" that most people mean generally tends to be a complete system that will still be classed as "high-end" for more than a year, so at the current time you're looking at the newer i7 chips and hexacore AM3 chips.
As Cycrow says, just because something is old certainly does not mean it isn't capable - I'm still running an old Athlon II dual core and it does everything I need it to, and that's on the "dead" AM2 chip.
Easiest way to think about it is that future-proof will mean one of two things; either it is top-end hardware at the current moment in time and will still be regarded as 'high-end' for at least a year, OR it could mean it has upgrade paths available to it - in which case the i7 x58 chipset is nearing on EOL (end-of-life) yet the AM3 chip will still be used for at least another year with brand new chips being manufactured for it, whereas the Intel counterpart will likely be on a brand new chipset.
/thread? Haven't typed so much in aaaaages
Personally I consider something future proof when it's good enough for it's purpose for 3+ years. Considering when i7 was first released (or some Core 2 chips) I'd say they did pretty well in terms of future proofing for gaming machines.
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"Future-proof" gets thrown around way too much.
In short, NOTHING is future proof, as there will always be new technology break-throughs in terms of hardware capabilities.
The sort of "future-proof" that most people mean generally tends to be a complete system that will still be classed as "high-end" for more than a year, so at the current time you're looking at the newer i7 chips and hexacore AM3 chips.
As Cycrow says, just because something is old certainly does not mean it isn't capable - I'm still running an old Athlon II dual core and it does everything I need it to, and that's on the "dead" AM2 chip.
Easiest way to think about it is that future-proof will mean one of two things; either it is top-end hardware at the current moment in time and will still be regarded as 'high-end' for at least a year, OR it could mean it has upgrade paths available to it - in which case the i7 x58 chipset is nearing on EOL (end-of-life) yet the AM3 chip will still be used for at least another year with brand new chips being manufactured for it, whereas the Intel counterpart will likely be on a brand new chipset.
/thread? Haven't typed so much in aaaaages
very well said
Personally I class it very close to the same, but a little more long term, by "futureproof" I class as being usable for the same purpose (although with possibly new software/games) for 2-3 years (or more). I expect all builds to be suitable for similar use for 1-2 years.
In my main PC I am currently using an OCed Pentium dual core build from 2 years ago (minus a month or 2), and my other PC is an ancient (ok, not quite) Pentium4 from 6-7 years ago, although I'm going to be upgrading my main PC in the next couple of months (current system was CPU, mobo, RAM, gfx card, all the rest of the system was cannibalised from old PCs/what was lying around, and cost me about £250) and my new system is going to be completely new (except for keyboard, mouse, monitors & speakers) and it going to cost about £2k, which I expect to still be very high end in a year, still high end for a couple of years after that, and still reasonable for a little while after that (although I might end up upgrading by then)
This. If Intel & AMD made these sort of CPU's, there wouldn't be much of a market for 3rd party PC bits, We'd still be on AGP for Graphics, IDE for hard drives & optical drives, there'd still be floppy drives about!
It's basically how they make their money (& lots of it in Intel's case)
In my case, I bought my last motherboards when 65nm Intel CPU's were out & 45nm were not out yet, the motherboards could take the 45nm CPU's with a bios update. That's the sort of future proofing you get these days.
I'd say if I went out tomorrow bought the best in the world someone somewhere would create something that while better is incompatible with my current hardware within about 6 months maybe less it really depends, I'm happy with something that will run the OS/Software/Games well which even a dual core can do if paired up with a decent card <= £100 and after 12 months I might see a newer game that requires a newer socket or "Quad CPU" so your stuck in this cycle of refreshing your hardware when and for how much is up to you to decide...
We'd still be on AGP for Graphics, IDE for hard drives & optical drives, there'd still be floppy drives about!
my 5 year old pc still uses IDE hdd and optical drive but it wont turn on thats why im thinking of upgrading it to am3 but had to ask if there was any point of buying it since am3+ were coming out.
but i think ill just buy a new hdd,psu and case for now and when the am3+ boards come out go to MM when i get access and im sure people will be selling their am3 boards and chips
For me future proofing is how long will something be of use to me. In terms of computers - how long until programs and games stop being usable on my machine. My last machine lasted me ~6 years and this one, in my sig, I don't know. It is a bit overpowered for what I need now in honesty, but it is 'future proof' because I know the current unused overhead will get used in the future.
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if you don't get something that's overpowered to begin with, it'll soon be underpowered for what you need...