Help with budget upgrade

Gadgetguy007

Gadgetguy007

Gadgetguy007

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Joined
19 Apr 2003
Posts
110
Location
Milton Keynes
Well its that time again to start looking for an upgrade on my gear so would love some help.

Although i game a little its not top on my list but i do use Photoshop and Lightroom a lot for editing photographs and find my current system is a little slow now.

I can take upto 3000 images every weekend as i take pictures of British Superbikes and also Motorcross so it takes hours to go through and edit them.

Am running dual Dell U2413 monitors at 1920x1200 and have two Hitachi 2TB HD drives for operating system and image storage although i do move most stuff on to external drives for archiving.

This is the gear i have at the mo......

HIS ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail

Asus P8P67 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge)

Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9)

Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3)

All the above are running at stock as i dont like to play around with settings.

Many thanks for any help or advice you can give and budget wise i guess i can stretch upto about £600 for now or a couple of hundred each month.
 
As above, possibly add an SSD also and clock the 2500k even if you don't like it, as photo editing does like single core performance :)
 
Since gaming isn't your priority, I wouldn't make your priority upgrading the GPU (although that will also help a bit).

Start off with SSDs and overclock the CPU. Those will give you an immediate speed boost. Get your Operating System and programs on one SSD, and use another as a scratch disk. Read up on how to use them for your programs and have a think about what size for each. Do internet searches for "Photoshop/Lightroom SSD scratch disk" etc and research.

Next would be more RAM but here's the thing - if you invest in more DDR3 it might be a waste if you move to a DDR4 CPU/motherboard sooner rather than later. So either wait until you save up enough to move onto a new 6/8-core CPU platform using DDR4 like Intel X99, or if that's going to take a while then find some identical cheap 2nd hand DDR3 (8GB) to add to your machine for now.

So SSDs and more RAM. Next in terms of priority would be a 6 or 8 core CPU (plus new mobo and DDR4 memory for it). Something like:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte X99M Gaming 5 - Intel Core i7 5820K Six Core CPU & Motherboard Bundle ***£20 Saving*** £479.98
1 x Kingston Fury Black 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C15 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (HX424C15FBK4/16) £137.99
Total : £627.56 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).



Note that is a micro-ATX mobo. Would be fine as long as you don't need a full ATX for some reason. It's just the cheapest X99 bundle at the moment. You would also probably need a new CPU cooler at the same time with a Socket 2011-3 mount for X99.

And then a new video card, for a little boost for your work and a bigger boost for your gaming.

You'll also need to check whether your PSU is fit for the new job. Brand and model is important to know (to look up the details), not just the total wattage it states on the cover.
 
Danny75 said:
Since gaming isn't your priority, I wouldn't make your priority upgrading the GPU (although that will also help a bit).

Start off with SSDs and overclock the CPU. Those will give you an immediate speed boost. Get your Operating System and programs on one SSD, and use another as a scratch disk. Read up on how to use them for your programs and have a think about what size for each. Do internet searches for "Photoshop/Lightroom SSD scratch disk" etc and research.

Next would be more RAM but here's the thing - if you invest in more DDR3 it might be a waste if you move to a DDR4 CPU/motherboard sooner rather than later. So either wait until you save up enough to move onto a new 6/8-core CPU platform using DDR4 like Intel X99, or if that's going to take a while then find some identical cheap 2nd hand DDR3 (8GB) to add to your machine for now.

So SSDs and more RAM. Next in terms of priority would be a 6 or 8 core CPU (plus new mobo and DDR4 memory for it). Something like:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte X99M Gaming 5 - Intel Core i7 5820K Six Core CPU & Motherboard Bundle ***£20 Saving*** £479.98
1 x Kingston Fury Black 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C15 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (HX424C15FBK4/16) £137.99
Total : £627.56 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).



Note that is a micro-ATX mobo. Would be fine as long as you don't need a full ATX for some reason. It's just the cheapest X99 bundle at the moment. You would also probably need a new CPU cooler at the same time with a Socket 2011-3 mount for X99.

And then a new video card, for a little boost for your work and a bigger boost for your gaming.

You'll also need to check whether your PSU is fit for the new job. Brand and model is important to know (to look up the details), not just the total wattage it states on the cover.
Click to expand...

May well be failing here but is this cheaper with the 5820k option? https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-011-MS
 
Danny75 said:
Thanks Shivy. That's the exact bundle I was looking for in the Bundles > discount motherboard > Intel bundles section before before settling on the Gigabyte. It never showed up in the list on my screen, weird. Still doesn't now*, but I can access it through your link.

* https://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=2833&catid=2836&subid=2861

How are you getting to it?
Click to expand...

Just by searching MSI SLI bundle lol, I have the same problem as you - I think perhaps as it has a configuration option for the CPU it doesn't default to being in the discount motherboard section
 
It used to be there though, as that's always how I found it in the past. There must have been a recent change.

That's twice you've helped me now with finding stuff that doesn't appear in the proper section on the website. Cheers.
 
Danny75 said:
It used to be there though, as that's always how I found it in the past. There must have been a recent change.

That's twice you've helped me now with finding stuff that doesn't appear in the proper section on the website. Cheers.
Click to expand...

To be honest if I were you if you can't find it just try searching for it - always seems to work for me :)
 
Thanks very much for the info guys and will dig the make and model of the power supply out as im sure i have changed it since the one in my basket on here.
 
Gadgetguy007 said:
Just had a nose in the pc and have the 600TD version of this http://www.compucase-hec.co.uk/psu_xpower_600-700.htm
Click to expand...

You could do with a new and better one to go with any new CPU/GPU.

So something like this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI X99S SLI Plus - TeamGroup 16GB 2400MHz DDR4 Intel X99 Motherboard Bundle **£40 OFF** £259.94
- 1 x Intel 5820K 3.30GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail (BX80648I75820K) £329.99
2 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £89.99 (£179.98)
1 x EVGA Supernova GS 550W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £71.95
1 x Noctua NH-D14-2011 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler with PWM Fans £64.99
Total : £916.45 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).



Plus a new GPU. Don't know which coolers would fit in your case but included a suggestion.

Or go with 4-core/8-threads which would still be an improvement over the 4-threaded i5-2500K:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £289.99
2 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £89.99 (£179.98)
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD316G1600HC11DC01) £77.99
1 x EVGA Supernova GS 550W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £71.95
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £63.95
Total : £693.46 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).



Plus new GPU. And you can re-use the Akasa Venom cooler for Socket 1150.

And you may not need 250GB SSDs, perhaps 120s would do.

Get faster 2133-2400 RAM maybe. Just such a good price on that 1600 set. Keeps it closer to budget.
 
Last edited:
You could also look at dropping in a used 2600k/2700k or 3770k for a cheap upgrade which isn't too far behind hsdwell at all
 
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