Help upgrade or £1k new spec?

sems · 19 Oct 2009 at 13:06

I have been out of the loop for a while on gear, windows 7 turned up this morning and was going to upgrade my current computer but now I have an itch to build a new set up that will last a few years but not sure if its worth up grading atm.

Current set up is

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600
Asus P5KC Combo Intel P35
Kingston HyperX 8GB (4 X 2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz
Corsair HX 520W
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Samsung SpinPoint T 400GB x2
8800 GS
LG BlueRay burner
Dell Ultrasharp 2209WA x2

I have been looking at the “titan goliath” with the idea of sticking my old BlueRay burner in and another 6gig of ram and a 64gb SSD or building something round the i7 overclocked bundle budget of about £1k.
If I go for the new build any spec ideas? is the i7 920 the way to go for the next few years or go with i5. I want something quiet and plenty of RAM main use will be for PSCS4 not really a big gamer and maybe a way to add a 3rd screen?

Cheers
Shaun

HazardO · 19 Oct 2009 at 13:09

That Q6600 is a very capable chip overclocked, you could save a lot by getting a top end cooler and squeezing 3.4GHz+ out of it.
If you are into games, you might want to upgrade that GPU. A HD5850 would be a decent fit and work well with windows 7.

Plec · 19 Oct 2009 at 13:22

That's still a mighty spec you have with a legendary CPU. I would do as suggested above and clock the CPU and add a 5850/70 to give it a new lease of life with games.

If you want a luxury fun extra you may want to consider an SSD – to accompany your new Win 7.

asoxedri · 19 Oct 2009 at 14:23

as suggested already upgrade your gpu. other then that, it seems all good to be honest.

sems · 19 Oct 2009 at 18:26

The main reason for thinking about upgrading or building new rig is since updating my camera I notice that photoshop seems a bit sluggish. Would adding a HD 5850/70 be of much benefit to a non gamer or someone who does very little gaming?

Plec · 19 Oct 2009 at 18:33

sems said:
The main reason for thinking about upgrading or building new rig is since updating my camera I notice that photoshop seems a bit sluggish. Would adding a HD 5850/70 be of much benefit to a non gamer or someone who does very little gaming?

A 5850/70 would be of little benefit to non gamer.

I suspect that when you do your fresh install for Win 7 your system will, hopefully, perk up - as with a Q6600 and 8Gig of memory your system should be very nimble in PS (unless you're a heavy/pro user?).

EDIT: As mentioned already you have a mighty spec that can still hold it's own (especially if you clock the CPU) - and coupled with 2 great screens you should be fine.

PermaBanned · 19 Oct 2009 at 18:52

1. Download MalwareBytes - Run it.
2. Download Spybot Search and Destroy - Run it.
3. If you don't already have one, download an antivirus like Avira. Then run it.
4. Download CCleaner - Run it.
5. Search "msconfig" on your start menu, go to startup, and get rid of any unnecessary programs
6. Go to your control panel -> Uninstall program -> Get rid of any unnecessary programs
7. Download Auslogics Registry Defrag - Run it.
8. Download Smart Defrag or Auslogics Defrag - Run it.
9. Download Linux Mint - Install It.

sems · 19 Oct 2009 at 19:25

Plec said:
A 5850/70 would be of little benefit to non gamer.

I suspect that when you do your fresh install for Win 7 your system will, hopefully, perk up - as with a Q6600 and 8Gig of memory your system should be very nimble in PS (unless you're a heavy/pro user?).

EDIT: As mentioned already you have a mighty spec that can still hold it's own (especially if you clock the CPU) - and coupled with 2 great screens you should be fine.

Thanks, I had hoped it would speed up a bit on a fresh install of windows, I am a pretty heavy in photoshop and noticed a big drop when I upgraded the camera from a 10mp to 21mp, the Raw files are huge to start with.
Never atempted to overclock before but will have a look into having a go.

7. Download Auslogics Registry Defrag - Run it.
8. Download Smart Defrag or Auslogics Defrag - Run it.
9. Download Linux Mint - Install It.

Thanks

Not tried any of these so will have a look into those as well, I dont see a problem trying a new defrag program, but the Linux Mint is confusing me, not sure how that would help?