Future proofing CAN be silly if you're overdoing it. But you need to get something that's GOOD ENOUGH, that it doesn't need to be replaced

The problem is that it's impossible to know what direction PC tech will go in.

I have a 10 year old 850W EVGA 80+ Gold PSU. That thing has been through 3 total system changeouts. Still running great.

I've had so many folks I know tell me that they're doing some upgrade or another for "future proofing" that I just roll my eyes now. Mostly, from what I've seen, people just use that term so they have an excuse to upgrade something because they have money that's burning a hole in their pocket

Why was this video private for a few minutes???

"Lastbast asked" Eminem been real quiet since this banger dropped

I used the same Corsair 850w PSU with my Phenom II X3 720 in 2009, to the X4 960T that I bought in 2012, the i5-4790K I bought in 2015, i7-6700K that I bought in 2017, all the way through to the 3950X that I bought in 2019. I used the same Cooler Master Storm Sniper Black Edition case and NH-D14 CPU cooler, the whole time as well! It was only when I decided to turn that rig into a NAS that I bought all new parts for a 5800X3D gaming PC - case, 360 AIO, CPU, RAM, GPU, and PSU. The old case, cooler and PSU still works fine as, so if you buy quality parts they can last over 15 years.

I've been rocking my i7 2600k (cost: 15€) with a slight overclock to 3.8ghz (could go to 4.5ghz) with air cooling for 12 years and I've only once upgraded my GPU from 750ti to 2060 (cost: 80€). All the games I play (even RDR2) run great at 40-60 fps after some graphic setting optimizations. I occasionally run Minecraft-servers, do light video editing and produce music too. I think my PC is VERY bang for the buck as the total cost is around 750€

Till a new chipset socket totally rails all of your plans

Future proofing is okay if you are worried about specific components. All the smaller things though that usually won't suffer any problems is a bit much.

I just upgrade the weakest link. My mommy board and CPU endured two GPUs before it became problematic enough for it to need an upgrade.

I just upgraded my PC that previously only had a GPU that was integrated in the CPU with a 3060 12gb and a new PSU and it makes such a big difference! I now have > 60 FPS where before I had 10 FPS!!

Upgrading = Change = Scary = Future = Growth

Future Proofing is a rather smart move. If anything it just means later on you have more options. I know when SATA first came out I made sure my next upgrade had it, even though I had no plans on buying a SATA drive. But it was nice to know it was there just in case. Same happened with M.2. When it came out I made sure I hade one. But It was not till 3 upgrades later that I made the move over from SATA. I still have those systems and today all 3 are running NVME drives. While you can't predict where tech is going to go, you can at least make sure you have the latest tech at the time you buy even if you don't need it then.

Future proofing make sense with PSU and case

But you know what DOES need an upgrade? Today's sponsor Nexigo!!!

With laptops, it's much more important to buy a set of components that will go obsolete for your needs about the same time. I had an HP laptop that had a first Gen i7 (good) and a 230m graphics card (bad). That performance mismatch meant I replaced it after only about 3 years.

Yeah, no, pc components don't wear out like that. Mechanical parts like fans do, but you'll notice it, and some passive components like liquid electrolytic capacitors will fail at some point, as will heavily stressed VRMs - but with a strong emphasis on *heavily stressed*. In general, a mobo/cpu combo (unless very low end) can last through at least one, likely two gpu upgrades without failing or being a massive bottleneck.

My first PC I built was very budget it had a rx 570 to get me started and a ryzen 5 CPU it worked really well and was my first build and my first upgrade was changing the GPU into a 5700 x it lasted me many years playing many games even halo infinite and Cyber punk with no issues. I eventually had my girlfriend want to get into PC gaming so I rebuilt a PC using those parts for her to get started with my 5700 x stuff and built a brand new PC from scratch that was a complete monster in comparison as I am very into using my PC in comparison. So ye upgrades do work but make sure if you upgrade the GPU it will only improve the quality if it's gpu intensive. Also my biggest tip is spend the little bit of extra buck on Nvidia GPU I love Radeon but I can't even begin to explain how amazing Nvidia DLSS is. A less powerful system can play at much higher settings using it it's an incredible bit of tech that is well worth the money.

You should also look into the type of future proofing where maybe someone may install 128 GB of RAM because they expect future games to use that much...

I have used my Case, CPU fan, Mobo, PSU, and SSD through multiple upgrades. The ram doesn't need upgraded if I swap out CPU or GPU. I did add more 8 TB of HDD storage recently

There are few components that can outlive multiple builds; case, psu, fans and cpu cooler My old Noctua cpu cooler still going strong after 14 years

still using my i5 2500k, rog maximus iv gene z and 16gb ddr3 that i bought used in 2015. all still performing just fine.

I upgrade my pc with parts that I got from PC that I will flip, take out the good ones and put the lower end ones from the system into the flip PC. For example, R5 5600x to R7 5700x. 16gb ram to 32 gb ram, then to RGB 32gb ram, etc...

I futureproofed my PSU by getting a 1000w Corsair RM1000 way back in 2014. It was way overall for the 4790K and GTX980 at the time, but now, I still use it 10 years later with a 13900k and 4090. Best part is that it was only 15000yen back then. But if I wanted to buy a 1000w PSU now, it would cost well over 25000yen at minimum. So futureproofing is def possible.

For my gaming needs and financial limitations I went from X5680 and HD 3870 -> 760 -> 960 4GB, then 3930k with a 960 4GB -> Vega 56 -> 6900xt before upgrading the CPU again

i keep all my older computers and just use them for a server or add it to the cluster. the only thing is the gpu tasks like gaming clusters not too good for that. each program needs to be built for that... someone needs to rebuild virtualbox to run in a cluster

I had a 3930k (x79)... That thing lasted for a long time. All i did until building a new PC a couple years ago was upgrade the GPU and increase ram from 16GB i originally had to 32GB. That and some SSD SATA storage and that thing gamed pretty well. Handled the GTX1080 pretty well too.

My rule of thumb is pretty simple for gaming and future proofing. Look up the specs for current generation consoles. Then pick parts that perform at 150% or more of the comparable console parts. And gaming wise, at least, at 1080p you should be good until one or two years after the next generation console is released. So at the moment, I'd argue that a basic i5 or R5 with 32GB of RAM and a 4070/7900GRE will outlast a PS5 by at least a couple of years. And by that time both AMD and Intel are liable to have changed sockets or chipsets to the extent where your current board won't support new CPUs any more. So future proofing in that regard is pointless.

I used to play on a i7 3rd gen with a GTX 1070 FE and when the CPU finally died I upgraded everything except the GPU because I do not play the latest AAA games. Yes I'm getting a bit worse performance still but I can still manage to hit the 100 fps that I want in games for them to feel smooth.

I buy in cycles of 2 #1, Everything besides gpu first. #2, Then when a new intense game release, a new gpu, i aim for cpu to be the bottleneck (mid to high tier gpu) Right now i run a 3900x with a 4070 ti, gpu were on sale a year ago

That’s a good thing about amd CPUs as well, just throw in a new cpu from the same socket

Ok I am not even old but I truly missed the after edit of 'a lady' when Linus did his 'one, twice, three times' part....

The 2 things that are worth future proofing is your PSU and your Motherboard.

Still rocking z77 with 3770k, the best $1.5k invested backed on 2011 or so.

Im still running my I9 9960X with 64GB of DDR4 3200, 1200w PSU, had a GTX 1080TI Upgraded to Radeon VII (i mostly do auto CAD and the memory bandwith helps a lot) This machine is still a beast, not looking to upgrade for the forseeable future!

Agreed, had the same motherboard, cpu and ram for 10 years by just getting new gpu before I needed a cpu upgrade. Just to find out i needed new motherboard, and ram to be compatible.

Well worded. Gotta clearly understand the goals you have in mind, then understand the hardest changes needed to accomplish, then consult the budget.

I've long learned that if I want to 'future proof' my setups, I basically need to follow a rule of 3. 3x as much as anyone says is 'enough' for that time frame the setup exists in. So if they say 8GB is good enough, then 24GB is my minimum. If they say 1TB is enough. Then 3TB is my minimum. Etc and so forth. Yes, it costs more. Especially if you are going for specialty parts with special specifications that help a lot with certain work loads, etc. Optane 905P drives, are cheaper than some of their p4000 variants, etc. But still quite expensive for SSD's. But they last, basically, almost, forever. Comparatively to other ssd's at least, and even HDD's. And have super low access latencies. Which is a nice to have for certain work loads. Having 3TB of that, takes about... 1000$ canadian. So yeah, price can get up there. But. Here's the catch. ALL of those people, even linus, who say "X is enough", are always wrong somehow down the road. And while sure, there is a reasonable limit for most users, it's because we limit ourselves that we end up needing to buy the next big new thing, with the extra ram we need cause we didn't buy it before, etc and so forth. The upgrade cycle, as it were, gets put silently to bed for a good 5-7 years, or more. Depending on your use case. Do it right, and you won't really see a real need to upgrade again for almost a decade. By which time everything will be that much more powerful, better in every way, etc and so forth. Speaking from experience. Already done this a couple times now. Next one is going to be an upgrade into the Threadripper/Xeon/Epyc territory. Once again, 3x everything. Maybe even 4x this time, just because. Do I need it right away? No. But that's kind of the point. It's for later. Case and point. Those optane drives will probably end up in the next upgrade. As will the PSU likely, since it will have a 12 year warranty, leaving anywhere from 2-5 years on it still for usable life depending on how hard it was used. Seasonic too, which tends to be pretty reliable. The ram? Well, that's a pass. But resale or reusing old rigs for other purposes puts new life into those parts anyways. Perhaps with profit. And best of all, since I bought 3x as much as anyone thinks is 'necessary', i can split things up into multiple rigs... and sell them all that way. Anyways. You all enjoy your upgrade cycle. P.S. I'm not rich either btw. I just know how to budget and juggle my money effectively to get ... maybe not everything I want. But a lot.

it def can be silly but i’m still running a ryzen 3 1300x and a gtx 1060 3gb and only now in the past year or two have i been hurting about needing an upgrade. i can’t run Elden right or halo infinite barely runs decently. but future proofing for things like wifi 7 or something that might not actually be consumer available or at least needed right now can def be silly but there is def some merit to saving money by “future proofing”

Futureproofing does make sense depending on the specific part and situation. Buying a good PSU with just a bit more wattage than you need is reasonable, especially if you are buying new from a good brand. Same with buying higher storage SSDs. I would be more cautious with GPUs and CPUs currently, but judging by the now known roadmaps everything will still be good enough for at least 2-3 genereations or so. Ryzen specifically showed us how long atleast a Motherboard can be reasonably supported

Bought a Cooler Master V1000 7 years ago during my first build which had an 8700k and 1050 ti (don't ask me why). Upgraded to a 3060 12 gig 2 years ago and just now upgraded to a 7700x. I'll upgrade to a mid range gpu in 2-3 years and I think my psu would still run like a champ

Imo... a solid mother board capable of possibly lasting the life time of a cpu/socket gen.. that way you should able upgrade the cpu multiple times..

I upgraded my current system (initially built in 2019) from this: Ryzen 5 2600 Gtx 1660 2666 ram To this, in this order: 3060 ti Ryzen 7 5700x 3200 ram And recently Rtx 4080 super And only threw in a new 750w rmx shift power supply because I got it on discount and the old one was only 520w and a 1tb nvme And I still got the option to upgrade to a 5800x3d in case the CPU is getting too slow for my usage (I don't see that happening in the next year or two) without having to buy a new mb and ram. Also upgraded to a nicer case because the old one was a cheap cooltek case

I like to think my computer is pretty future proof. i5-12600K can easily be upgraded to something newer and faster, and the NH-D15 is going to be able to handle a bigger chip. 32GB RAM is enough for now, but the motherboard can handle more. I didn't even start out with an m.2 drive but had the slots for it, and one of them is populated now. And my 1660 Super has already been replaced with an Arc A750, and I might upgrade again when Battlemage hits. By the time my CPU becomes a problem, a 12th gen i7 or i9 should be

For future proofing, I: -Buy at least a B chipset motherboard (to handle CPU upgrade to i9/R9) -Leave 2 of 4 ram slots unpopulated for extra sticks later -Get extra wattage on my PSU, I go with 700W for a system that would do fine with 400W -Buy a lower end CPU from a newer generation for more CPU upgrade options later (have to stick to same socket).

The other big issue is you never know how the rest of the industry will change in the future. If you’re a gamer and you’re trying to future proof, you can get the best stuff in the world and it might not make a difference. Game studios have gotten really lazy with PC optimization in recent years and there are a lot of people who had every right to expect their system would be good for 7-10 years with the occasional gpu swap based on past experience and anecdotes who were sorely mistaken. Modern PC enthusiast culture absolutely plays a part in this, becoming more and more focused on having the newest best thing at all times, and everyone being so obsessed with influencers who’s entire occupation revolves around essentially being an underpaid salesman unless they hit big and start making good money from merch and sponsors. Anyone who was around even like 7 years ago would agree that overclocking is practically dead in the mainstream PC enthusiast space compared to where it was, SLI and Crossfire are dead so you can’t buy a cheap used 2nd card to throw in your system when it starts to show its age, and driver updates give you way less of a performance boost over the lifespan of the component compared to how it used to be (maybe that’s just because they’ve gotten way better at launch drivers, idk). We as a community can’t expect future proofing to ever be an option when we create a culture centered around using the things we buy for as short of a timespan as possible, companies will take as much money from us as we give them and the people wrapped up in this rat race throw away plenty enough money to make up for the people that can’t afford it anymore and get out of it.

The only future proofing I've done 7 years ago when building my system was getting a large, sound dampened case. It was a slightly below mid tier system then, and it still does alright for my needs. Since building it, I've only upgraded the psu, fans and cpu cooler to some slightly overkill options (also went back to 100% air in the process) so I don't have to worry about these failing basically forever 😂 I do keep it pretty clean inside 😉

I buy-in mid\late cycle at around $4000CAD. Had my last system for 6 years no upgrades. I upgraded to get back up over 100fps in AAA titles in widescreen. I built my PC in 2021; 5800x3d\6900xtx both WC'd with an alphacool loop(2x140+3x120 rad) and a modestly OC'd GPU. As a casual gamer, but enthusiast builder, I see no reason to dump it all for a 7800x3d\ddr5 platform. I have no motherboard side bottlenecks. I MAY upgrade the GPU to top spec again in a year or 2. Everything I play(Rust\CODMW\BF\etc) runs at 100-140fps on my 49" samsung curved ultra-wide(5120x1440, 89% 4k).

My old pc was: gtx 1650 with r5 3600 and 16gb ddr4 now i have bought Rx 7900xt with Ryzen 7 7800x3d and ddr5 ram 64gb so to say i had a huge upgrade is a understatement

I've upgraded systems before, but I've also been handed systems people attempted to upgrade and failed badly. Also, having the Geek Squad do these upgrades makes it a lot more expensive. I'd say, unless you're an experienced PC builder or want to learn how to build PCs, then you're better off selling your old PC or handing it it to your kids or relatives.

I bought gtx 1080 like 5 years ago for $150, it still demolishes my every day tasks, like gaming, video editing, music making and lots of other stuff

Id say if it's gaming, look at the current generation of consoles and go with the mid teir or mid teir 50xt/super/ti variant for the gpu. The higher teirs are really for work, and with that comes the insane pricing, which I'd only recommend if you were heavily into 3d graphic design, film industry grade 4k/8k editing, gaming coming as a side option. Even as a gamer, you could still be on a rtx3060 and be just fine for at least 4 more years. Feeling the need to upgrade every or every other generation is senseless if we're talking about gaming primarily..

Been running my current build for so long with just upgrading the gpu. 5900x cpu been doing quite nicely

I'm not a pc gamer. My phenom 1605T lasted 12 years. Motherboard capacitors started going

Future proofing is generally a good idea unless it costs a dramatically larger sum. For example, picking AM5 over AM4 is generally a good idea because it should serve through at last another 1 or 2 CPU upgrade cycles.

Future proof means a lot of things. For example, If you build an Intel-based system now, forget about the future, because the socket will change this year. For me it makes sense to take this in consideration.

Are Vega gpus still good if I can get the Vega 64 for $90

My #1 Rule for new builds is to never scrimp on the motherboard - the best deals are usually in the $200-$250 price range. (The *only* time I ever 'regretted' it was when I built an i7-5820K system on an LGA2011v3 mobo - lasted 12 years through numerous upgrades, but I hadn't anticipated it being superseded by the LGA2066 so quickly.) While I did use it for gaming, I opted for a server-grade mobo because I was doing a lot of 3D animation, video editing, and other peak-load applications. Never did get around to swapping the CPU, but the setup would have handled a monster i7-6950X without breaking a sweat. The majority of the time, your motherboard will be your limiting factor. Sure that RTX 4090 might be a scorcher, but it's a waste of money if your mobo and CPU don't have enough PCI lanes. SLI/CrossFire aren't really a thing anymore, but you'll never really know what new toys you might want to squeeze into your PC.

Powersupply is absolutely the best for "future proofing" Mine is at least 15 years old. I had to take it apart and fit a new fan in a few years ago. but I had an old case I didn't use anymore where I could the casefan fit.

I still have a PC from 2007 that I've upgraded as parts fail. While I wouldn't say it was future-proofing, I think there is still a lot of value to be had without focusing on the worst case scenario.

I just upgraded my PC, it was with an Intel 4790, I used the 1060 6gb, 1080 and finally the 6700xt, that build lasted me at least 10 years, now I'm on am4 with a 5700x3d and I plan to follow the same rule I don't care

I would probobly put it this way. Lifspan Case - Unknown PSU - About 10 years (mine current one is 15) HD - About 3-4 years, with a swich around (so ever drive is used for twice that time) MB,. CPU, RAM, About 5 years GPU. 2-3 years Also how long does standard live. The 24 pin power connector is like 20 years old. The PCI-E connector is over 20 years old. But the version upgrade ever 3-5 years or so. Still running one generation back is not a really big issue. The AM4 slot is 7 years old. So you could at least i theory upgrade the CPU at least once with decent result. (AM5 is of cause available now) The main issue here is memory speed. DDR4 is getting old and you kind of really need DDR5 for a new CPU

I future proofed my pc in 2014 and just got around to building a new one.

It should also be noted that future proofing doesn't mean it will last forever, just that it should last a long time.... Verse buying something that is already outdated and troublesome. Like making all of your stuff USB-C. Will USB-C last forever? No, but will it last for a long while??? Yes. And even when it starts to be dated, the new standard will still take a few years to remove USB-C and we could use adapters for the first while....

Also it depends on the platform. Intel is going to a new platform and amd is supporting am4 for 7 years. You'll have a clear, wise upgrade path for the next 5 years, probably around the time you'll want to upgrade your cpu/gpu unless you spend a little more in the cpu department.

I was really tempted to spend a boatload future proofing my next PC, but I was deterred by both the huge expense, and also the idle thought that what if Microsoft repeats its forced obsolesce hardware requirements especially with AIs and NPUs in the works. Will windows 12 or 13 need dedicated AI hardware to run? My 10 year old system has 16 GB of RAM and still runs all my games pretty decently, but is going to be rendered obsolete because the cpu is too old and doesn't have TPM 2.0. So I just bought a cheaper Mini PC that's slightly better than my current needs and runs 11 so when 10's EOL happens I'll still have a system that runs newer Windows. I won't be able to upgrade much at all, but I'm not obsessed with crazy high graphics and fps in games. If I can manage 30-60 fps or even perhaps a little lower depending on the game I'm good. I don't tend to play high reaction speed games.

Agreed! If you future proof your PC parts aka buy the best of its class you wont have to upgrade that part often like PSU, CPU, Ram, Storage. But in GPU the era of long lasting (ex the GTX10/RX580 series) are long gone so we are better off buying the cheapest that suffice our need and upgrade later. Those that bought into i7's/R7's are still happy today so many years of good service

I don't like messing around with hardware, so i future proof it so it will last a long time. And once i start wanting to get a new system, its been 5+ years and i can invest in new everything

My version of future proofing is best motherboard on the market at the time of purchase of system for CPU. That motherboard should last through the entire lifecycle of CPU through the next generation or two. It is a tangible enough future proof to where you aren't trying to be super far out into the future, just the next 4 to 6 years.

The number of times you can upgrade your GPU on the same CPU really depends a a lot on how often you can afford to upgrade it and what else is going on in the industry. Like if you got a second gen core i5 way back in the day, you probably could've kept that same CPU for 8 years and it would've handled games just fine (but you'd probably have to upgrade your RAM from 4GB to 16GB at some point). And if you kept your GPU that entire time, let's say the at-the-time mid-range GTX970 you would've gone from crushing every game to struggling to run things above 30fps. But what GPU would you be upgrading to until the 3000 series?

Future proofing is a financial matter. How good is your hardware now. Can you save up enough by the time a replacement part is required while in the meantime not suffering a performance hit that would force a early purchase. When you earn enough to smack a new top grade hardware part in your PC every other month there is no need to future proof since you then have the financial recources to move along as technology develops if you so choose.

I'm on a B450 mainboard, originally with a Ryzen 5 1600, upgraded last year to a Ryzen 5 5600X on that board. It's a five or six year old board and it still got a new compatible chip released earlier this year! This board will easily last ke a decade without missing out on features or significant CPU performance, especially since I'm still comfortably in the mid-range, so I could also upgrade within my current CPU generation. I'm also on the third GPU with that board, went from an RX480 to an RYX2080 Super to an RX 6950 XT and no signs of CPU bottleneck (I do game at 5120 x 1440p though) anywhere. Maybe I need to upgrade my CPU the next time I upgrade the GPU (the 1600 was a clear bottleneck to the 2080), but that's not gonna be an issue for the mainboard at all! So yeah, I agree: futureproofing is a stupid and pointless exercise! 😂👍

I am still using the same PSU for the last 15 years and it’s gone through four or five upgrades ❤

Not sure if this made sense to do but for me I had to get some of the latest and greatest just because I was concerned for DDR5. I ended up spending $1400 and let's just say that really isn't pocket change for me, but I'm decent at saving. But yeah, I figure I should only need to replace the GPU in about what, 3-5 years? I'm seriously hoping to get 10+ years out of my PC

Me omw to build a PC with a 1200 watt PSU and a 7950x3d with a used 1060 6Gb for future proofing

I used to always standby PSU being the only future proof part of a PC, but after Nvidia forced the 12vhpwr onto everyone, you are practically forced to keep swapping PSUs because they have to consistently redesign the rails to support the new format. Seasonic's 3.0 ready PSU turned out to not be ready for 3.1 is one example.

Yeah, "Future proofing" is a difficult topic. I had the same case, mobo, cpu, PSU and ram for like 7 years, but changed the GPU and disks multiple times.

i could have built my pc for like 1.2K. instead i built it for 1.4K. now like 5 years later im changing the gpu to play everything on max settings again with my new monitor. if i took the 1.2K route i would have to buy half of my components new now. which would set me back almost the same as the original 1.4K i payd. so future proofing definitely can safe you tons of money in the long run. sure i paid like 200 more at the time. but i also saved like 500 now, which is nice, cause i could no aford a new pc + gpu rn

I use an old office pc as my NAS. It has an i5 4000 processor and the only thing I would upgrade is the power supply to be more efficient and an additional 1gig network card.

My 750 watt power supply is from my first build which was just a 200 dollar trash build, now it’s a full on 1200 dollar gaming monster.

I wait, and buy three year old, high-end-for-the-time tech. I still run stuff from 2013. If you're running Linux, this stuff lasts, and you don't need to fight to stay on current software. It just works with supported hardware.

Would you prefer a 1700 or a 5700x?

Iam making two gpu upgrades, then mb/cpu/ram and so on. But now, with am5 i think iam good for 3gpu upgrades.

I'm still running a 1080Ti with my 10th gen and quintuple monitors (and a spare 750Ti for an extra output)

In my last system I had 2 GPU's a 1080ti followed by a 2070 super. The CPU started to become a bottleneck because it was like 7 years old and my 2070 super died, so I finally took the jump and built a new system. But the majority of the system lasted me the 7 years, so I think that was good bang for the buck.

I would say if you spent 2x the amount you wanted to spend your going to end up with a system that is 50-80% faster. It’s going to last about twice as long and you’re going to have the better performance NOW. I am still on an 11700K (overclocked to 5ghz)and 3080TI overclocked to 2ghz and playing most games on very high settings with around 100FPS or more.

I'm running my 3080 with a Ryzen 5 3500 and it's still going strong. The only time I struggle is when I have a ton of shadows to deal with.

I upgrade every 5-6 years, that's more than enough time for virtually everything to become obsolete besides the case and the PSU.

I ran my computer with a 2600K for YEARS before I inevitably had to upgrade my cpu/mobo/ram. Now on a 9900K and could see me going another 3-4 years.

I have an rtx 3090ti with 750w gold psu from evga... Never thought it would work out, but here i am. I still using it undervolted because this summer is especially hot, but oh man it can keep up even when it's pulling up to 500w

I "future proofed" my pc when I made it by going high end 2080ti, 32gb ram etc it was a stupid build when I done it and it will last another couple of generations to come. When I built it I was planning to build another come the 60 series but it still does everything perfect so there I doubt I will need to do it.

The key is balance. Future proofing can be silly in the aspect that if you overspend, within a year or two miss range components likely arrive that are close to the level of the current high end. If you’ve got money to burn that’s one thing. But really buy the best you can comfortably afford and upgrade. I’d be tempted to say within reason get the best cpu you can reasonably afford as likely you’ll keep the platform a few years and can more easily upgrade the gpu later. But when I say balance, don’t put a 14900k with an rx 6500xt for example. But something like an i5 13400 and say a 6750xt or similar is much more balanced.

Future proofing is great! My 10 year old system rocks Windows 11.

Could your cpu throttle until it's TOO slow?

it's simple - every time you max out in one scenario you make a compromise in another because different workloads and games included benefit from different hardware. You will always be bottlenecked in some way.

Ok hear me out: Get a good Case, good storage, a good psu, and a good cooler. Get the best CPU you can buy, and the best gpu you can afford after that, then the next year get the top possible gpu, wait 3 years, buy another top gpu.

Unless the technology and gaming take a radical shift in complexity soon, I expect the PC I recently built to work fine for the next 6+ years.

Grateful for the advice towards the idea of future proofing.

I future-proofed a build so hard that by the time I got around to upgrading the GPU, the new GPUs wouldn't even talk to that old CPU that was new when I built it.