[phyrrus9]

The CPU and GPU have performed a lot better than what I expected. Your said failing components are replaceable/upgradeable, so there's no concern there.

I must say (In my case), ample ram @ 32GB 2400MHz particularly for simultaneous VM usage, SSD, 7th gen Quad Core CPU and a power house card (GTX 1070), Is a "huge" difference In overall performance, stability and functionality. I've replaced all my systems with the aforementioned specs and looking back, I don't know how/why I put up with such sluggish performance prior.

I know exactly what you mean. I'll never go back to SATA drives, and I can't live with less than 24GB or RAM (I commonly use at least 26GB)

Is this in contrast to PCIe, which I'm assuming is to eventually replace SATA? And what kind of programs are you running? My god, I don't think I've even come close to using even 8GB of ram at one time.

I'm using NVMe hard disks. NVMe right now iirc only supports PCIe interface via a 4-bit full duplex serial bus. In comparison to SATA's 1-bit serial half duplex bus.
Programs:
VMRC
Chrome (many, many tabs)
VS
SSMS
Discord