depends on price difference :)

Expect a GOOD motherboard/CPU to last no more than 5 years if yer lucky, 3 years for  a "not so good" system.
they can last longer, but most have problems before they hit 5 or 3 years old.
So, why spend $$$ now when you WILL replace it in the future anyway? See what I mean?

On the other hand if the CPU type (socket etc) is rare and iwll not be made....it coudl be hard upgrading in future if just the CPU dies

A good quality motherboard is always the best investment you can make along with a good PC case and PSU. Those are vital

I never see the point on spending on the higher end CPUs are the % improvement is NOT wortht he vast price difference
however, the new, very different CPus nowadays make repalcements/upgrades etc far more ocmplex

Um, you are worried about 16 gig not being enough?! I have NEVER, bar for bugs with dispalcement, gone above about 2 to 3 gigs on my 8 gig system with my usual scenes!
IRIC, my "Rock of Bral" scene,w hich was incredibly complex with dozens of poser folk etc took about 4 gigs of RAM use
So, lol, 16 gigs is NOT an issue ;)
what maybe an issu eis type of RAM, again, like CPUs it has changed so much, new systems use DDR3 RAM and even it there's oddities, some manufactuers warn about not using some poor quality RAM chips that drian too much current as there's soem issues with a few chipsets, from what I've heard shrug

Usually I use ASUS motherboards and have found them extremely good and long lasting, however ASUS has had many complaints about customer service/bad website etc.
Other folk preffer GIGABYTE or ASROCK.
perosnally I like the P6 ASUS series at the moment (if I could afford 'em, lol, still using my first generation Quad core system and hope it lasts many years ot come)

Sorry I cna't be more specific :) need osmeone with more real hard knowledge of the current VERY complex CPU/chipset situation

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