What to look for in a new future-proof build?

geekahedron

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Jan 22, 2010
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My current home/gaming rig was built (...checking order history) in 2009, designed to be future-proof and, eight years later, it has certainly held up to that pretty well. At the time, I waited to include the first generation of i7 processors that was fully compatible with DDR3, and built myself a computer for under a grand that has lasted nearly a decade. It was too early for onboard USB 3.0, and I've upgraded to an SSD and crossfired in a second GPU, but otherwise haven't had many additional expenses or problems with the rig in that time.

But ... it's probably time to move on.

I've been browsing the forum for a while and looking over other people's builds and ideas, and want to plan a new computer with the same kind of future-proofing in mind as my current system. Looking at the landscape of computer building and components, what should I be looking for? What's currently available, and what will be coming out in the next year or so that's worth waiting on?

Do I go with a SATA III SSD, or one for a PCIe slot, or is M.2 going to be the next big thing?

From what I know, DDR4 is a given, a mobo with USB 3.1, PCIe 3.0, and a few M.2 slots seems to be a safe bet. Kaby Lake and LGA 1151 seem to be standard. Anything else I'm missing?
 

geekahedron

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Jan 22, 2010
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18,510


I'm not in any particular hurry, so that's interesting to hear. I didn't realize DDR5 was going to be a real thing (for desktop RAM and not just GPUs).