I could not find a similar thread and was curious (going to put two topics together) to see the communities preferences/build specs :D
Do you have specific "brand names" you prefer for your hardware? Personally I will pay a bit more for a brand I've used a lot and have great experiences with in the past.
I prefer to use Asus (for MB/GPU), Corsair (PSU/RAM), and Logitec (peripherals).
For CPU I root for AMD over Intel (but I will hold my prejudice for the next release of architectures (taking price/performance into account)) and for GPU AMD over Nvidia (though I currently use Nvidia I'm hoping for better competition between the two!)
My specs (built in 2012) (going to upgrade next year (maybe next next year) I think);
CPU: AMD FX-8150 black edition 8 core (cooled with a Cooler Master V8) (Used Arctic Silver 5 Thermal paste)
MB: ASUS Crosshair V Formula
GPU: Asus GTX 760 (2GB) (Originally Asus GTX 560TI (This was going to go on display but it was confiscated for my Fathers computer xS lol))
Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (went lower end to save a bit of money :P)
PSU: Corsair TX750 (I'd like to go modular for my next build xD)
Case: Sentey GS-6400W (cheapest ATX full tower I could get at the time with decent cooling/air exchange)
HDD: Samsung HD 850 EVO 500GB SSD, WD greed 320GB (original drive), WD 2TB My Passport Ultra (Portable drive)
Peripherals:
Speakers: Logitech z960 5.1 (Originally (from my very first custom PC) Z640 5.1 (but they eventually wore out from way to many moves (LAN parties)))
Headset: Logitech G933 (TBH got this in part to complete the latest Logitech G series :P I know there are probably better (they work great for watching videos, without a cord, on my phone while I work!))
Mouse: Logitech G502 (Originally Logitech G500 (broke over the years))
Keyboard: Logitech G910 (Originally Logitech G510 (broke over the years))
Monitor: Asus VH242H (I want to upgrade to a 4k on my next build but they are still quite expensive, hopefully they come down when I do upgrade)
I currently do not have a "wish list" for my next build because I'm waiting for newer tech to come out before pantheon. Very excited to learn more about Polaris/Pascal GPU's and the new Zen/Skymont?(cannonlake??) CPU's. (correct codenames if I'm wrong please!)
Again, I've just been curious to hear about fellow community members preferences/built specs. I know some of you have some ridiculous 4k SLI GTX980ti type builds, and I dream to join your ranks hopefully next generation! (Hopefully I can save for it and not spend my money unnecessarily!). I will say I love talking/learning about tech!'
Rachael
Ah hell I built my last rig so long ago I can't remember all the brands, I might get some wrong. I do know the specs. There's not much more I love doing than building boxes, tearing #%^$ up and fixing it.
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 (perpetually overclocked at 3.45GHz from a stock 2.7GHz) UNDERVOLTED too, BTW. Idles at LESS than 1.2v. <3 Thuban core Phenom's.
CPU Cooler: Hyper 212, A.S. 5 paste (A.S. '4-EVA')
MB: ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 Socket AM3 (supports AM3+)
RAM: Samsung 8GB DDR3 @ 1700
Drives: 1x 256GB SSD, 2x Samsung Spinpoint 500GB SATA3, 1x 80GB WD EIDE, 1TB Hitachi USB3, 4TB Hitachi USB3.
Video: EVGA nVidia 960 GTX 4GB FTW Edition
Case: Antec 900 that Antec kindly sent me to review ;-)
PS: Antec Earthwatts 650.
KB/Mouse: If it works, I'll use it.
Monitor: BenQ 24" 1ms pro gaming monitor. Has different modes, one I like is when a scene is normally super dark show it'll show you what's there! Good for gaming in dark areas so you don't get caught with your pants down. Used that feature in Witcher 3 a lot, works great. Gotta turn that off after a while though or you'll hurt your eyes, lol.
This old box has served me so well and kicked so much ass along the way that I'm totally bypassing AMD's Bulldozer-based processors and heading straight for Zen where I will upgrade again.
I built a Haswell rig for one of my kids this past Christmas and I felt a bit dirty doing it but whatever. I choose AMD wherever possible, usually, but I have owned plenty of Intel gear over the years.
My house is networked with Wireless-N and I also have 100+ Mbps powerline adapters on all floors for ethernet connections because I will always go ethernet over wireless when I can.
My ORIGINAL EverQuest box was an AMD system using a FIC VA-503+ motherboard, later with a BETA BIOS file, it used an AMD K6-2 266@300 CPU and later a K6-3+ 450@550 CPU.
It finally took a AMD 1GHz @ 1.4GHz (GRAPHITE PENCIL TRICK UNLOCK, YO!) Thunderbird K7 CPU to get those @#%@ing trees in Kunark to quit killing my framerate. =) EQ1 was massively CPU-bound.
BTW I had a Globalwin FOP38 heatsink + Black Label Delta fan on that mfer (K7 box) ... box was in the basement, you could hear the fan on the second floor. It sounded like a jet fighter spooling up but never left the launch pad. It was insane. The good old days.
Vade said:...
I'm with you, I will always choose AMD over Intel (maybe Nvidia too) (if the price/performance is worth it). I also HATE wireless, and have run ethernet cables all over my house! :D
I honestly can't talk much about early EQ days because my father usually predominantly took control of my "new" PC xD (can't blame him I was like 10/11 years old and he was paying for it!). The first build I had 100% control over was in 2012 with most of the specs listed (using the "original" specs in bractets). I did make a computer around 2005 (that he made me get assembled at a cumputer supply store for a "nominal fee"! (waste of money!)) but all I really remember about if was my XFX 7800GTX :D
I also do not overclock (even though I buy OC'ing components (like my mobo)) because a friend of mine burn't out a GPU doing that and I've been afraid ever since! Dx. I very much want too, but it genuinly scares me (cause I don't have the money to replace components lol!)
Rachael
Rachael said:stuff
I find the outcome with overclocking CPU's to be safer than GPU's.
I mean, you can try to hit 10GHz with whatever provided your setup allows multipler overclocking. It won't boot, but nothing will be damaged. So, it's safe in that way.
What fries your CPU is voltage and heat. Each series of CPU's have different thermal tolerances. Where does the heat come from? Voltage. You CAN increase voltage, and in most cases need to, to hit a high OC. But if you poke around and look for what the 'safe' thermal range is, you'll be OK. You can look in your BIOS and find the idle temp. In Windows you can use a freeware program called Core Temp to monitor individual core temps to get an idea of what the load temp is.
But it's also entirely possible to overclock a little bit without touching your voltage at all. Might not be a lot, but it'll be higher nonetheless.
If your CPU has its multiplier locked, or the chipset simply won't allow it (usually an Intel motherboard with a cheap chipset), you can usually overclock by riding overclocking your RAM + CPU speed simultaneously. This is called BUS overclocking, among other things.
However your setup has zero restrictions on overclocking and your CPU would overclock high as the sky without worrying about overclocking your RAM along with the CPU. I would jump on that ASAP. You can do it without messing with voltage to begin with until you become comfortable.
However there is always the case where your system might bug out while 'tweaking,' and sometimes you need to press a button on the motherboard to reset the BIOS to stock defaults. This is why my side door to my case isn't ever fully screwed in. ;-)
Be glad I'm not around, I'd pester you until you got it done. Haha. I would, too.
EDIT: Should you feel up to it sometime, you can do a load test with Prime95 and use the stress test feature of the program. If your computer instantly reboots, or you start seeing cores fail in processing the program (you'll see errors in the program output), change something to make it work -- more voltage, or lower the processor speed, or in the case of RAM, lower MHz or bump timings up.
EDIT 2: If you want an idiot-proof failsafe, undervolt and see how little voltage you can give your CPU while you can still run Prime95's torture test without the PC rebooting. That would get you acclimated. Then you could start gunning for overclocks once you see how everything works. I undervolt my CPU because it lowers my electric bill, and it's spring, it's gonna get hotter outside, I was crunching cryptocoins + BOINC all winter for fun + extra heat. But I turn that crap off when it gets hotter and try to save electricity.
I've always built my own custom computers and been pretty much a "fanboy" of ASUS products, never let me down so far, over the past 15 years I have not needed to RMA a single piece of hw. But maybe I'm just lucky? Just like Rachael I prefer to pay a little bit extra for quality. I used AMD in my early days and that really burnt all bridges as far as AMD goes due to all kind of weird issues, so the last 15-20 years it's been 100% intel and NVIDIA.
I just recently upgraded to prepare for Oculus Rift and Elite: Dangerous. Hopefully Oculus will be supported in Pantheon as well (since the engine have support for it).
Computer spec:
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700k (OC to 4.5GHz) + X61 Kraken water cooling (replaced stock fans with 2 x Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-2000 PWM)
MB: ASUS Maximus VIII Hero
MEM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Red 32GB / 2400MHz / CL14
GPU: Asus Strix GeForce GTX 980 TI Gaming 6GB OC
PSU: Corsair RM750i (750W)
CASE: Fractal Design Define S
HDD: 2 x Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB, 1 x WD Red Pro 3TB SATA3
Peripherals:
Speakers/headphones: Logitech Z623 (2.1) / HyperX Cloud Gaming Headset
Keyboard: Filco Ninja Majestouch-2 TKL (brown cherry MX + red o-rings)
Mouse: Roccat Kone XTD Max Customization Gaming
Joystick: Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog
Monitors: 3 x EIZO FlexScan EV2736W
I rarely use all three monitors when gaming, I use them mostly when I'm doing development work. So I guess that's pretty much it.
Computer Specs
Intel i7 3930k at 4.4Ghz
16GB DDR3 1666Mhz RAM
Nvidia 980Ti 6GB GPU
256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD
2TB Seagate HDD
X79 Asus Sabertooth Motherboard
Blu-ray Reader / DVD and CD writer
1200W PSU of unknown type (was good quality one though I just forget which one it was)
Peripherals
Kingston HyperX Cloud II Headset
Logitech G502 Spectrum Mouse
Filco Majestouch Mechanical Keyboard with Cherry MX Blue switches
Dell U2711 2560 x 1440 Monitor
Dell U2412M 1920 x 1200 Monitor
I'll probably upgrade my computer next year when Skylake-E is released and Nvidias new graphics cards are released. If a computer lasts me 5 years I'm happy (which this one has apart from a GPU upgrade).
This is my current build from 2014. I might upgrade again at some point but not because this doesn't do something that I want flawlessly but because I actually enjoying putting this stuff together and tweaking it. I really like the MSI setup for this reason. You could say I prefer the brands I choose here and I will choose the same brands again. I have had great performance from everything I have used here. I have 2 other similar PC's in my house (wife and son) as well as another MSI based PC I built and maintain for my brother.
IMO its not worth saving a few bucks after you have invested hundreds of dollars on a single piece of equipment to get a cheaper brand. I tried AMD CPU's and GPU's over the years and in my experience they have been a complete fail. Not only on performance but on reliability as well. Also, I do play and stream wireless.
Computer;
CPU: Intel Core i7-5820k Haswell-E 6 Core
COOLER: Corsair Hydro Series H100i Extreme water cooler
MB: MSI Gaming X99S Gaming 9 ACK
MEM: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series (32GB)
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming (4GB)
PSU: Corsair AX860i Platinum 4th GEN (860W)
CASE: Antec P280
SSD: Samsung SSD 850 PRO 512GB SATA3
HDD: Toshiba HDD 3TB SATA6
DVD: LG Blueray Burner BDXL 16X (4MB)
Peripherals;
External HDD: Seagate Backup Slim 2TB USB 3.0
Modem: Arris (Motorola) Surfboard 8x4 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable
Router: Netgear R8000-100NAS Nighthawk x6 AC3200 Tri-Band Gigabit Wireless
Headphones: Logitech Wireless Gaming Headset G930 (7.1 Surround)
Keyboard: Razor Blackwidow Ultimate Stealth Edition Gaming Elite Mechanical Keyboard
Mouse: Razor Naga MMO Gaming Mouse (8200 dpi 4G laser)
Monitors: VIZIO 65" (240HZ) Smart TV or 2 x ASUS 23.6" (2MS) LCD Monitors
Maybe in as far as graphic chipsets.. i always go with an Nvidia one, regardless of brand, budget, CPU, etc. Ever since AMD purchased the old Radeon there is absolutely no reason to even consider which chipset to go for. Sadly, mind :)
Far as everything else is concerned? Broken and .. shady as this industry is, there is still enough competition for brands to eventually surpass their betters or vice versa. I'm as such only particular to what my extensive research directs me to ^^
(and my wallet allows for, lol)
Currently (and i do mean currently), if i had the luxury (i wish) of choice i'd go for:
- Intel for CPU, anything sitting on a 2011-3
- MSI for Motherboard, no questions asked.
- Gigabyte for Graphic cards as their latest models, eg the 980ti (the water cooled new model), surpass everyone else's; again
- Corsair for RAM, because they are the only ones i have made suffer and suffer and seen them live to tell the tale. Multiple others did not and that says something
- Corsair for ready-made CPU water cooling kits, for the same reason as with their RAMs
- BeQuiet for PSUs, because i have seen a lot of brand units opened and with people that had the tech know-how to tell me which is better and why. Das ist Deutch ja?
- Sound Blaster for sound cards, because they still make that.. proper sound cards. The "gaming" brands make trash adequate only for the hearing impaired. If you find me exaggerating, google the word emulation and get back to me
- Corsair for KBs and Mice. They absolutely suck in terms of functionality vs cost (there are other brands where you get more for your buck), but they are durable. THE, the most durable. And they have enough buttons and options to satisfy in any gaming environment, so i excuse their other lacks. If pew pewing, material quality and durability come first
edit: For SSDs, despite what you may think, it doesn't actually matter, the differences are literally minimal. My sole factor of determination (surprising as it may seem to you) is whether their software allows for a manual, non-scheduled Trim initiation. Thus far, i've only seen the Corsair software allow for it, from the bigger brands, but there may be others
Box i make on my own usually..tedious but essential, since even the most expensive ones have horrid air flow architecture as they are meant to fit everything. Mine are meant to fit.. mine.
Screen i would not change. Am happy with my 1920x1080 Samsung. I never needed larger. I know it's hip to have larger, but i am not hip. I like my eyes a lot, both of them. Above a resolution, said eyes begin to have issues. And i do like my eyes :)
I am building a new rig right now. Just waiting on new egg to get the stuff to my door. Its the most money I have ever spend on a single build.
NEWEGG:
AMD 9590 4.7GHz
ASUS ROG Crosshair V (MB)
EVGA 220-P2-1200-X1 80 PLUS Platinum 1200
HYDRO h100i cooler
32g G=skill Ares (2133)
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4gb
intel 750 AIC 800gb PCI express 3.0 SSD
Cooler Master HAF 932
G710+
Corsair Headset
AMAZON:
Philips 4065UC 40 Inch UHD Computer Monitor 3840x2160 Truevision MHL 4K UHD VA panel
I am just hoping to have my CC paid off by Christmas.
~Chaam
Chaam said:AMD 9590 4.7GHz
ASUS ROG Crosshair V (MB)
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4gb
Bit of advice, as i happen to own the exact same CPU and MB. Be very, very careful with the cycles and voltages. The 'default' MB settings for this CPU are incorrect and do not drive the cores correctly, resulting in spikes and occasional hang ups. There have been customers who burnt their CPUs, not knowing. You will need to go manual mode and add them one by one. If you do not know how, there is a full guide on asus rog's site for this exact same combo.
Assuming you gave a damn about my opinion? A shame. You are wasting a fortune.. 980s SLI paired, huge screen, etc.. to be driven by what? A motherboard that cannot accurately drive nVidia chipsets, not of your slot type (google this if you don't believe me). And with what doing the algorythm processing? A prehistoric 8years old CPU (you do know this, yes? You are buying an OCed 8300, which is in turn an OCing of its previous version. AMD has not produced a new high-end CPU in eight years).. why? Even an i3 Extreme version is faster* (and by now cheaper). And with said CPU, you'd also get an MB that can utilise PCIe cards to their full potential. Unlike AMD-oriented MBs, that have yet to manage to do so. I'd urge you to reconsider. It is honestly a shame.
(if you're wondering 'then why do you have it'? 'Cause i bought it when it first came out, all those years back. And back then, the i3s cost a fortune. Not now though)
*in the off chance you compared the GHz directly between Intel and AMD.. don't. Different logic, Intel does not use Boolean. It's like comparing apples to oranges. Plus, the apples (AMD) are single threaded, unlike Intel's ^^
I used to love AMD but when I built this rig Intel was just better even with being more expensive so I went with Intel.
Asus Mobo can't remember the specifics but I believe it to be one of the 990x's are along the lines of that. It's too late to check it.
Intel CPU 4.0Ghz 4790k
Alpine CPU cooling fan
8G 1600 (I think) Hyper X RAM (want to go to 16 but just haven't yet)
2x EVGA Nvidia 4Gb GTX 970 SLI'd
256Gb Samsung SSD (definitely want a bigger drive)1TB Barracuda HDD
I use my 60S Panasonic Plasma as my screen and my samsung 5.1 surround sound blu ray home theater player.
I'm happy with my rig for now besides the memory and SSD but I definitely want to upgrade my TV to OLED 4k within the year.
I went through a phase where I love Alienware, even though it was overpriced, back when it was not owned by Dell it had a prestige about it, and I splurged more than I care to admit on an Alienware Aurora R4 :)
I have had it completely replaced twice for unrecoverable issues (mainly BIOS/GPUs) and have had it with me for the last 7 years.
The current version:
i7 3970X 6 Core extreme OC 4.2 (liquid cooled)
32GB RAM
Gigabyte G1 Gaming Nvidia GTX 980 ti (just got it today and am like a kid at christmas, I upgraded from a GTX 690!)
Corsair K95 RGB with Cherry MX Brown switches
Logitec G502 mouse
Samsung 840 pro 256 SSD
Astro A40 gaming Headset/Tuner
Dual Dell 24" 1920x1080 HD monitors (waiting to get a 27" ASUS ROG Swift (G-Sync 144Hz) WQHD 1mn gaming monitor to have as my new main and use the 24's for a 3 monitor setup)
Currently starting a new Witcher 3 playthrough on Ultra with a ton of Mods and man...so awesome! will be time for another Skyrim playthrough after this (in between Pantheon of course ;))
Back in my hardcore EQ playing days, I was a brand loyalist. I'm an engineer and even ran a side PC surplus business (back in the day when that was profitable) so I know PC's well, but I have stayed out of it so long that my info is not relevant anymore. The last rig I built was my son's gaming PC and I went with Asus/AMD.
But, generally speaking, I greatly prefer nVidia gpus/cards.
I travelled a lot on business (running a 3D CAD sw business) so always brought a gaming capable laptop with me so for most of my hardcore years I played on a laptop. I always bought Dell laptop because they came with discrete nVidia cards.
Kilsin said:I went through a phase where I love Alienware, even though it was overpriced, back when it was not owned by Dell it had a prestige about it, and I splurged more than I care to admit on an Alienware Aurora R4 :)
I have had it completely replaced twice for unrecoverable issues (mainly BIOS/GPUs) and have had it with me for the last 7 years.
The current version:i7 3970X 6 Core extreme OC 4.2 (liquid cooled)
32GB RAM
Gigabyte G1 Gaming Nvidia GTX 980 ti (just got it today and am like a kid at christmas, I upgraded from a GTX 690!)
Corsair K95 RGB with Cherry MX Brown switches
Logitec G502 mouse
Samsung 840 pro 256 SSD
Astro A40 gaming Headset/Tuner
Dual Dell 24" 1920x1080 HD monitors (waiting to get a 27" ASUS ROG Swift (G-Sync 144Hz) WQHD 1mn gaming monitor to have as my new main and use the 24's for a 3 monitor setup)
Currently starting a new Witcher 3 playthrough on Ultra with a ton of Mods and man...so awesome! will be time for another Skyrim playthrough after this (in between Pantheon of course ;))
NoobieDoo said:Kilsin said:I went through a phase where I love Alienware, even though it was overpriced, back when it was not owned by Dell it had a prestige about it, and I splurged more than I care to admit on an Alienware Aurora R4 :)
I have had it completely replaced twice for unrecoverable issues (mainly BIOS/GPUs) and have had it with me for the last 7 years.
The current version:i7 3970X 6 Core extreme OC 4.2 (liquid cooled)
32GB RAM
Gigabyte G1 Gaming Nvidia GTX 980 ti (just got it today and am like a kid at christmas, I upgraded from a GTX 690!)
Corsair K95 RGB with Cherry MX Brown switches
Logitec G502 mouse
Samsung 840 pro 256 SSD
Astro A40 gaming Headset/Tuner
Dual Dell 24" 1920x1080 HD monitors (waiting to get a 27" ASUS ROG Swift (G-Sync 144Hz) WQHD 1mn gaming monitor to have as my new main and use the 24's for a 3 monitor setup)
Currently starting a new Witcher 3 playthrough on Ultra with a ton of Mods and man...so awesome! will be time for another Skyrim playthrough after this (in between Pantheon of course ;))
I believe I use the same SSD. And I know what you mean about feeling like a kid at christmas. I've put together a LOT of pcs for myself and most of my friends. And even when it's just for one of my friends I love seeing that newegg box come in the mail and I love opening it up and tearing through its insides to open all of the parts.
One of my most FAVORITE parts in a PC are the mother boards. There are some BEAUTIFUL mobos out there and right now mine is a very sleek black on black board. Stark contrast from my last board which was a metallic navy blue board (not sure what to call it but it was a shiny blue) with a spectrum of colors for the rails and connectors.
I'm sure that 980 will make you feel warm and fuzzy inside especially going back to Skyrim and modding it out. If I'm correct you prolly weren't able to max out settings in Skyrim before with the 690 correct?
Yeah, i hear you man and yes I could max out the 690 with 200+ Skyrim mods but it wasn't great FPS or smooth, there was hitching and memory issues as it was a dual card, 2GB split to make 4GB so for some reason Skyrim didn't like that as it is very memory intensive when you mod it out a ton. I have around 20+ mods for Witcher 3 and have not seen so much as a stutter so far, it is insane how good and smooth it looks :)
Zathris said:Kilsin said:Gigabyte G1 Gaming Nvidia GTX 980 ti (just got it today and am like a kid at christmas, I upgraded from a GTX 690!)
Enjoy the new toy! I went from 690s to 980s before the ti model came out and was very happy. Still am.
Will do my friend and nice! 980s in SLI would be beast too! :)
Here is my little fire breating beast:
o Processor: Intel Core-i7 Skylake 8M Quad Core 4.0
o Mobo: ASUS Z170 Maximus VIII Hero
o GPU: ASUS DirectoCU II GTX 770 4GB x 2 SLI
o Ram: Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2666 32GB
o HDD: Samsung M.2 512gb
o PSU: Corsair AXI 1200i
o Case: Corsair Graphite Series 780T
o Cooling: Corsair H110i
I have a ton of storage hooked up for ingame images and capture so Iam sitting at 10TB internall and 18 externally. I will upgrade my video cards as soon as my CFO lets me....8)
Its pretty solid.
Ox
My current DIY system is my third build and is 3 years old and still works great. *Knocks on Wood* I got a lot satisfaction from building my own PCs, doing my online research making sure to spec parts that are compatable with each other etc. This past Christmas I helped our son build his first DIY system and it was a great time for both of us. Here is my relic which scores a 7.6 on the Windows Experience Index.
Intel I5-3570K 3.4
Mobo Gigabyte Z77X-D3H
RAM GSkill 16 Gb
GPU EVGA GTX660 2GB
SSD Samsung 840 Pro 250 x2
PS CoolerMaster RS700 Silent Pro 700W
Windows 7-64
Prefer AMD cores myself and MSI Mb's(always had issues with Asus boards) and i tend to buy MSI vid cards to go with the mobo's.
AMD FX-8370 Eight-core 4 ghz
MSI Gaming 990FXA-GAMING mobo
G.SKILL Sniper Series 32GB DDR3 Sdram
MSI GeForce GTX 960 GAMING 4GB 128-Bit GDDR5 vid card
Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 2.5" 480GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive
Win10 Home 64 bit
Built this rig..... Hahaha, can't even remember, maybe six years ago, but have made a few upgrades over the years so its still runs like a beast.
Thermaltake Armor series case.
1200 watt ps.
x58 ftw3 mobo.
intel 980x 6 core processor.
Upgraded to an Nvidia 970gtx card last year.
upgraded to 24 gigs of ram this year.
Got 3 or 4, 1T HD's stuffed in there.
Got a water cooler (cooler master) for the processor, and like a dozen fans moving air.
Still runs every game I've played recently on high with no issues.
I think it'll keep going strong for a few more years.