Will this support upcoming DCS products for 5 years at least?

Alienware M14X:

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-m14x/pd

Specs:

Intel® CoreTM i7-2760QM

Processor (6M Cache, 2.40 GHz)

Genuine Windows 7

Home Premium

DVD-R

750 GB

Hard Disk

8GB

DDR3 RAM

14.0”

Nvidia GT555M

3 GB Dedicated DDR3 VRAM

Or should I go for a DIY desktop?

Do you recommend the core i7 2600 K / 2600 ()/ or the new sandy bridge (or was it ivy) i7 3570K/3770K??

I'm looking for a one-time purchase, with flexibility to upgrade after 4 years. I know its a hard request, but your opinion matters, specially Atalia, and other tech-savvy people.

GroB respect!

If you mean at medium to high graphic settings, I certainly hope not.

EDIT: You are looking to future proof for 5 years and you aren't even looking at current top of the line. If you want to be able to have upgrade flexibility...step 1 -Don't get a laptop.

I very much doubt it.

Or should I go for a DIY desktop?

 

Do you recommend the core i7 2600 K / 2600 ()/ or the new sandy bridge (or was it ivy) i7 3570K/3770K??

 

I'm looking for a one-time purchase, with flexibility to upgrade after 4 years. I know its a hard request, but your opinion matters, specially Atalia, and other tech-savvy people.!

Build your own desktop, much cheaper, much more powerful, upgradable, flexible, far more bang for your buck.

In my opinion i'd build a system around a i5-2500k and overclock it to over 4Ghz. With a view to upgrading in 3/4 years.

If you want portability, get a cheap notebook or tablet, let the desktop do the gaming. :)

Bill, really depends on how much you think you want to upgrade.

Pretty much every upgrade cycle is going to involve at the minimum a cpu/ram/mobo combo. Four years on you will be wishing for a GPU as well and probably decide to get an SSD.

A reasonable power supply and case + dvd writer (maybe hdd) are about the only things you will probably consider keeping that far down the track.

I too would go for a desktop. I have bought a few i5 2500k's and they have all gone to 4.5ghz on a corsair H80.

I would never try and future proof myself with a laptop for games.

For the price of that laptop you can get a beast PC. If you are getting a new computer for flight simulations, a laptop is a waste of money. Let's face it - you still need to place the HOTAS, pedal, TrackIR somewhere, so the latpop's main perk - mobility goes out the window.

ok, about the processors above, which do you recommend for longevity? again the choices are:

core i7 2600 K / 2600 ()/ or the new sandy bridge (or was it ivy) i7 3570K/3770K??

Could you nominate a motherboard with a sh1tload of USB ports, or at least, PCI express ports for adding like 10 cards? min 8- 16GB RAM is preferred for slots.

ok, about the processors above, which do you recommend for longevity? again the choices are:

 

core i7 2600 K / 2600 ()/ or the new sandy bridge (or was it ivy) i7 3570K/3770K??

 

Could you nominate a motherboard with a sh1tload of USB ports, or at least, PCI express ports for adding like 10 cards? min 8- 16GB RAM is preferred for slots.

In my opinion and many others, there is no benefit to use the i7 2600k over the i5 2500k. Here is one of many threads comparing them.

I think you should be choosing between the i5 2500k and the i7 3570k. Between these there is so little difference... on a default stock setup the i7 3570k is a tiny bit faster, but the i5 2500k overclockers to a higher speed. So.. there is little in it.

View this..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1bet2FGKRE&hd=1

I'm about to buy a 2500k rather than the new ivy bridge, newer is not always better.

My motherboard of choice is the Gigabyte SKT-1155 Z68XP-UD3P...

Could you nominate a motherboard with a sh1tload of USB ports, or at least, PCI express ports for adding like 10 cards? min 8- 16GB RAM is preferred for slots.

I'm not sure I've seen a motherboard capable of supporting 10 PCIe cards... ever. There's been some amazing semi-custom solutions in the enterprise market, but this is mostly specialized computation solutions and they cost more than all computers I've ever owned combined. ;)

Pretty much all motherboards intended for Sandy and Ivy allow those memory budgets.

I'd recommend that you select an Ivy Bridge processor, not the Sandy Bridge, given the extraordinarily long timeframe you are intending to have this machine be future-proofed for - specifically because the Ivy chips give you a PCIe 3-controller (16 lanes) onboard the CPU itself, while Sandy Bridge (like the i5-2500K that would be your choice otherwise) "only" offers PCIe2.1. I don't expect this to be a big deal in any way within the next two-three years or so, but it might become relevant after that. (The reason why most people stick with the Sandies is specifically that PCIe 3 is a bit longterm before it becomes massively relevant, and the Sandies are more temperature-efficient when overclocking.)

As for 5 years "at least", I seriously think that 5 years is the absolute top. At that time the top-line computers will be something like 9 times stronger than what you can buy today...

Personally, I pretty much purchase my computers on a 2-year schedule - I am usually surprised if I don't replace them at roughly that timeframe (as is the case with this one, the gains with Ivy are small enough that I can "afford" to wait slightly overtime for Haswell instead of upgrading this winter - though I might be getting a new graphics card in the meantime since the GTX-670 is mighty tempting).

10 Cards? 10? Really?

Go for a desktop configuration unless you absolutely need a notebook as it will be better for gaming then a notebook for the same cost.

Sandy is tried and true but I agree you should go for Ivy if you are looking for some forward compatibility that may mean much more later than it does right now.

Best of luck and happy hunting.

Out

And to add: make absolute sure that the processor you do select is unlocked - that is, has a "K" suffix on it's model number. This is essential for future proofing; even if the Ivy Bridge doesn't overclock as well as the Sandies, they are still very nice overclockers. Which adds two other aspects I completely forgot:

1) Get a good cooling system for the CPU. Even if you don't intend to overclock now, might as well get one now so that you have that option a couple years down the line when the system will start feeling old. Overclocking can easily afford you to delay an upgrade/replacement with a year or two.

2) Get a really good PSU with long warranties and a modular design. (My Corsair AX850 has 7 years, for example - and I'll probably end up re-using it when I replace this system.) Given that the system is intended to be in service for quite a few years you don't want to end up with a PSU that might malfunction in two years or otherwise degrade to the point of causing system instability. Better to purchase quality once than have to replace cheap components after months of weird hardware-induced BSOD's.

2) Get a really good PSU with long warranties and a modular design. (My Corsair AX850 has 7 years, for example - and I'll probably end up re-using it when I replace this system.) Given that the system is intended to be in service for quite a few years you don't want to end up with a PSU that might malfunction in two years or otherwise degrade to the point of causing system instability. Better to purchase quality once than have to replace cheap components after months of weird hardware-induced BSOD's.

Totally agree. PSU´s are often underrated, but it´s an important Part of the System. In the Case of Malfunction or dying, a cheap PSU can damage or destroy all the other Hardware inside the Comp too. ;)

Not only that - a degrading PSU can introduce "mysterious" stability problems to the system. I know of several cases where people have thought a given game was crashing their system, when it actually was the case that this happened to be the one application that taxed given components enough to load specific rails such that the PSU couldn't supply "clean" power, which then caused hardware malfunction and BSOD.

And yes, I've actually detonated a PSU myself once. I can tell you my pulse was high after that one, and I wasn't chill until I managed to get a replacement unit installed two days later and could verify what (if anything) it had brought down with it.