[Advice] - 10yr computer build for Wife, help?

Budget:
[4000-5000]

Expectations:
[Last ~10yrs without dying, future proofing, we have NO DESIRE to upgrade, so this is a buy it and forget it for 10yrs build, Able to flex/play any game with highest quality]

Usage:
[It's actually a LOW bar ....all she does is Gaming + websurfing, work from home via remote in + excel ...
.MONITOR - she has running 2x DELL S2417DG, she will NOT be changing monitors since we got them relatively recent..so that should help narrow graphics a bit... ]

Special Needs:
[Want to play Biomutant , dota 2, last 10yrs, flex whenever need be]

Saved Ticket #: [3904785]

Specifications:
Hi guys - I'm back I guess. Bought wife's computer from DS back in 2012. It has a GTX670 + i5-3570k + Intel 520 series SSD. We are VERY pleasantly surprised that it's still going strong.

We usually only play DOTA 2 and after 9yrs of updates, she can no longer afford to play the game at highest quality and large fights seem to "lag" a little, not that bad if we turn down the quality. Then reality further sink in when she plans to play the new game "BioMutant", which recommends GTX960...so this brings me here.

I've been completely out of the chipset world so bear with me with my questionable choices, some of my concerns are:

1. CPU - AMD or Intel? I heard AMD's been kicking butt for the last 18 months but is this still the case? Are AMD chips more "stable/reliable" than Intel that it'll last her another 10yrs? Is Ryzen 9 5950X overkill? The reason I'm "overkilling" is so we can last that 10yrs.

2. Motherboard - is 2 PCI-E devices enough? typically what do i need it for?

3. RAM - i chose the 32gb not because its 32gb but because it's a brand name, thoughts? I remember generic names are a big nono back in 2012...

4. Power supply - same, i know i don't need 1200w, but i'm going for the brand name...

5. Hard Drives- I thought the M.2 SSD are better than non M.2? If yes, why is the M.2 2-TB 970EVO LESS expensive than the 860 PRO? Also, any thoughts of me getting 2 of the M.2 970s? Should i just go for 1 4tb drive and forget about it? Again, this needs to last ~9yrs..

6. Is the H20 Stage 2 cooling enough?

7. Is NVDIA graphics card still the better pick or is it AMD's court these days?


WHEW - ok thank you please let me know your thoughts!!!



Edited by darbebo - 15 May 2021 at 12:38am

I'm not gonna modify much because you have the whole 10 year thing as though that happens all the time. Here perhaps more than other places, but you do know electronic parts can fail, yes?

    3904982    $4372

The latest Intel chips are finally here, but I think AMD is still best for you. The 5950X is a waste, but on the off chance games someday can use more than 8 cores, the 12 core 5900X is for you.

I upgraded the motherboard for longevity. The more money, the more feature rich, but also the better thermal handling to last longer.

32 GB of RAM will be enough for 10 years. The name brand gets you slightly slower RAM and a light bar, nothing else. RAM is strictly a commodity. DS branded RAM has been totally reliable as long as I've been around, and that's before 2012. For the record, it's known to be Adata, one of the largest manufacturers in the world.

The name brand on the PSU doesn't mean much either, but the overkill won't hurt you there for longevity and you'll have a better warranty.

M.2 NVMe drives run off the PCIe bus, and are faster than SATA SSDs. They plug directly into the motherboard, leaving room for lots of storage upgrades if needed. I have recommended a 980 PRO paired with a 2TB 970 EVO. The 980 is a PCIe Gen 4 part, and happens to be about the fastest NVMe around. If you care, there it is. If not, and you prefer the 4 TB set-up, know that the 970 EVOs are PCIe Gen 3 parts, and half the speed of the 980 PRO. Not saying they're not fast, it's up to 5x faster than a SATA drive you're used to, but the 980 PRO is a whole different animal. Whichever way you decide, do yourself a big favor and isolate your C drive on about a 150-200 GB partition on the large drive. Windows, apps, maintenance software on a compact drive protects from having to wipe one or two TB for a fresh Win install, and makes scanning on one of these NVMe speedsters a matter of seconds, not minutes.

DS may be trying to reduce inventory on the PCIe 3 SSDs they have as PCIe 4 will rule now that Intel has evolved to that platform. It's a killer bargain IMO for secondary storage.

H20 Stage two is all you need. They come from the same factory that makes Corsair branded all-in-ones.

Nvdia's RTX3070 is the best pick for 1440p gaming IMHO.

Hope it helps.

Just FYI, all this talk about backing up a smaller drive, etc. got me thinking it had been awhile since I cloned my C drive. I have a 6 core 8700K CPU. and a 500Gb 860 EVO NVMe drive (M.2). 2 generations prior to the 980 and a good deal slower, but faster than any SATA SSD. I have 464GB available n the drive (SSDs must sequester a good bit of capacity for what's know as "garbage collection") and 227 are used. I have Windows, a very few apps, maintenance software, and 78GB of games from Epic and Origin I wanted to keep separate from my Steam library.

The cloning was complete in 35 minutes. Note that had I been cloning a C drive with, say, 900GB, it would have taken 4 times that long. I'd guess cloning 200 GB on the system you will have might go 20 minutes. Without any games at all on mine, I would have a bit over 150GB total on my C drive after 3.4 years, which is why I thinK a 200GB partition would be plenty. You can easily re-size an SSD whenever you need to as long as there's room. There's no issue with where the data gets located like with an HDD.

When it's not a lengthy chore, I think folks will opt to back up or clone for safety more often, and that's a good thing. The same goes for scanning, which is a VERY good thing. My Malwarebytes scan took 2 minutes and 37 seconds. Remember, I'm a bit larger than ideal, and quite a bit slower than you will be.