Summer Computer Upgrade

greedy123 · 29 May 2011 at 12:30

Hi

I'm looking to upgrade my pc this summer. I bought a new gc last summer but the rest of the system is bottlenecking it at the moment.

Here's the current line-up:

Win 7 Ultimate x64
ASUS P5K-premium
Intel Q6600 (2.4 x 4 ghz)
*OCZ Vertex 2E 240GB SSD
OCZ 8GB (4x2GB) 1066MHz Reaper HPC Edition
*Evga GeForce GTX 570 1280MB
*Creative SB X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty 7.1 Champion Series
*Coolermaster Real Power 850w
Antec P180 Case
*Samsung SM-2493HM and SM-226BW

(*-I intend to keep)

I do a lot of CAD work using Cinema 4D, photoshop, indesign, after effects, lightroom and a little gaming. Basically I'm looking to upgrade the CPU to an i7 and max out the memory for the cad work. I've not really kept up-to-date with hardware over the last year so would like some advice on a new motherboard, cpu, cooler(?) and memory to match my existing graphics card, hard drive and sound card. I may also consider getting a new case if its worth it, this one is 4 years old now and the fans are sqeaking and the internal arrangement is really cramped with the new gc, sound card and 4 hds.

Looking forward to your advice chaps!

greedy123 · 29 May 2011 at 12:46

I'm running windows 7 ultimate at the moment and will be sticking to it as it suits me well.

budget... looking around £600-700 (not inc. case) but prob be willing to go a bit higher if its worth it

greedy123 · 29 May 2011 at 17:36

Nice, thanks for the suggestions.

Couple of questions:
What's the difference between the sandybridge and Nehalem? I see the first has integrated graphics? will that boost performance on top of my gc or just act as a substitute?

Memory wise, I currently have 8gb and it is usually maxed while working so having more would certainly be useful so will prob be looking for 16-24gb. would I need a better motherboard than the one suggested if I say went for 2x Corsair Vengeance 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel Kit?

greedy123 · 30 May 2011 at 12:59

Very nice response! Answered all my questions, thanks.

That case looks awesome, i only have space to keep my computer on the floor though so would have to put it on something to get it off the carpet.

For ram then, would 2x Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit work with the Z68?

Does Lucid Virtu switch to the gc for games/CAD work automatically then?

greedy123 · 1 Jun 2011 at 18:01

greedy123 · 2 Jun 2011 at 13:40

Nice, yeh i won't be doing much overclocking so cheaper ram is nice. I'm not as keen on those other cases really. I love the raven's back on top approach as much easier for where it will be kept. Pity OCUK are out of stock! Might look at sourcing elsewhere.

Thanks for your help olivier.

greedy123 · 2 Jun 2011 at 16:03

will do. i must admit i like having better and better stuff as time and therefore performance is very important to me in my work. i've upgraded my system a lot over the last 4 years and can honestly say the biggest jump in performance i saw was upgrading to an ssd.

will post my opinions on the new system once its all in place.

greedy123 · 6 Jun 2011 at 20:57

The components came today from OCUK, very quick as usual, very excited! Just waiting on the case which arrives tomorrow (had to source from another place as OCUK out of stock).

greedy123 · 10 Jul 2011 at 09:08

Well, its all installed now. The case was such a annoying problem. Only component I didn't buy from OCUK and the only one with any problems! As expected. The case arrived with 2/3 of the 180mm fans missing and it took them almost 4 weeks to replace them the b@#^&*ds.

But anyway all installed now and so far WOW! So much smoother on lightroom, and the cinebench benchmark proves how much my old setup was limiting the graphics card.

Old setup:
CPU: 2.55
GPU: 28.14

New:
CPU: 6.73
GPU: 52.95

Such an improvement for working in 3D applications (cinema4d).

Still reinstalling all my applications, takes so much effort lol. A lot quicker than it used to be though with the SSD etc.