Photo/ Video Upgrade - Please help, I am lost!

Pandora2000

Pandora2000

Pandora2000

Associate
Joined
8 Mar 2010
Posts
19
Hi everyone,

I am looking to upgrade my current full tower PC to a decent spec for mainly photo editing (Lightroom 5 & Photoshop), but also some video and web design. I am not a gamer.

I would like to keep the upgrade costs to around £400-£600, not including SSD/ HD, keyboard and mouse costs. I am also assuming my current case, screen and PSU are okay to keep in the new build.

The current spec. is as follows. I would be really grateful for any advice on what I can keep to re-use and what my upgrade basket should be.

Current Spec:
Gigabyte H55-UD3H MOBO
Intel I3-530 Clarkdale CPU
Asus EAH6670 Graphics Card
2 x 2GB Corsair DDR3 1333mhz RAM
Mod X Stream Pro 500W PSU
Scythe Shuriken Heatsink

Thanks for any help guys.

Cheers,
Martin.
 
Keep the GFX card and PSU I think.

What case do you have? does the heatsink have AMD fittings for AM2/AM3 etc??
 
Thanks Stulid.

The case is a Lian-Li PCA05N... which I am hoping has life left in it.

The heatsink only has the fittings that are keeping it on the current MoBo, I must have chucked the other fittings at some point. That may need to be in the replacement spec.?

Thanks again for any help on the new spec.

Cheers,
Martin.
 
Cheap option is eight core AMD,

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £109.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD316G1600HC11DC01) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte 970A-UD3P AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £71.99
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler - Black £14.99
Total : £309.82 (includes shipping : £10.75).



As you can see its well within your price range.

You can easily get an SSD+HDD for the top end of your budget,

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £109.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD316G1600HC11DC01) £99.95
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £86.99
1 x Gigabyte 970A-UD3P AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £71.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £64.99
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler - Black £14.99
Total : £461.80 (includes shipping : £10.75).




----------------------------------------------------------------

Or go Intel,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4790 3.60GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD316G1600HC11DC01) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte B85M-D3H Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £56.99
Total : £406.52 (includes shipping : £8.00).




Your cooler should fit this as socket 1156/1155 and 1150 are all the same, just add thermal paste.
 
Last edited:
Thanks again Stulid,

I like the look of both of those options.

If I went Intel do you think there is any value in me getting a slightly higher spec. of motherboard? something like the Asus Maximus VII Ranger Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard which is £129?

I already have the SSD and so do not need to spend any of the budget there.

Thanks,
Martin.
 
I cant see the point as that is a Z97 board (unless you do want to overclock) that supports SLI and has gaming related features.
 
No desire to start with over clocking. My only reason for suggesting it was that it was a bigger board with more slots.

I guess the flip side of that argument is that the smaller board would allow me to downsize the case at some point.

I will be going with the Intel option. Cheers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom