Hmmm, which components go with which?

TheBigCheese · 27 Apr 2012 at 13:32

Hi guys

I'm looking into upgrading some components to Ivy Bridge for a system mainly for Photoshop work and video encoding, including HD video encoding.

Can you tell me which motherboards and RAM I would need to be looking at?

I'm a bit out of it these days, I know my old i7 920 has to have triple channel RAM but I've no clue on the new stuff!

The new motherboards seem to have a variety of socket types and I'm completely lost with that!

Thanks!

TheBigCheese · 27 Apr 2012 at 14:00

Thanks for the quick responses!

Ah Z77 that narrows it down a bit!

Cheers also for letting me know about the RAM!
How do you know whether it's dual/triple/quad channel RAM?

No SLI isn't needed, I'm quite happy with my GTX 570.

I'm got all the HDDs etc., I already need and I wanted to move the existing install of W7 64 on the SSD into the new system...it's a fully configured work and home machine so having to do a reinstall would be an enormous hassle, if I can avoid that it would be good!

TheBigCheese · 27 Apr 2012 at 14:58

Cheers guys, good price on the motherboard...might be a stretch with the SATA connectors though...I currently have seven internatl SATA devices plugged in (six HDDs and a blu-ray writer).

I was thinking about 32GB RAM...I currently have 12GB and can max that out just with Photoshop, Premiere and Encore can grind the current machine to a halt!

TheBigCheese · 27 Apr 2012 at 16:11

Cheers again guys, I really appreciate your help, I'm so out of it I have no idea what's available, I was shocked to see DVI and D-SUB ports coming from the motherboard!

The Gigabyte Z77X-D3H motherboard sounds absolutely perfect for my needs, two eSATA connectors will be really useful for me as well!

Just a quick question about the RAM...what would the difference between the OCUK Value RAM and the Corsair Dominator RAM that's £10 more? (well...£40 as I would be looking at 4 sticks).

Going back to the motherboard graphics adaptors...would I be able to connect a monitor up to one of those as well as the two monitors my GTX 570 supports, or would a 3 monitor setup not be supported?

Also...what would happen if I *didn't* do a reinstall and just connected the Windows drive I have up to the new build...will that knacker up Windows?

TheBigCheese · 27 Apr 2012 at 17:59

Thanks for the reply.

Hmmm, I see your point with the size of the RAM...I wouldn't be overclocking really (never done it before and stability is a must for what I'm using the machine for), but would a 'branded' RAM have any speed advantage over the OCUK RAM? If I'm going to fork out for this it's got to last a while so I don't want to skimp on one component if spending a bit more would yield better results.

TheBigCheese · 27 Apr 2012 at 19:54

Right...well as far as I'm aware it's not going to be loading lots into and out of RAM, more just dumping more and more in there...as I say editing HD video or even a large Photoshop file can take up the whole 12GB of RAM I have now...whether you could call that memory intensive or just hogging I don't know!

TheBigCheese · 27 Apr 2012 at 20:25

Ah don't misunderstand me, the i7 certainly isn't going to be going to waste or sold, it's going in my missus machine. She does the majority of the Photoshop work and her machine (C2D 6600 (I think) 4GB), really can't cope and she needs something now.

That's why she's having the i7 with 12GB and I'm upgrading as I do the video work.

If it wasn't for her needing that I wouldn't be spending a bean...I know there's always going to be something better coming along, that's the way of things but it's got to a point now where her productivity is suffering because she has to stop working while she waits for her PC to catch up...not good!