Time for upgrade, maybe?

tozey

tozey

tozey

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Joined
9 Jan 2011
Posts
30
Hi, its been a few years :)

My current spec is as follows:

Motherboard Gigabyte System Model: P67A-UD3
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.6GHz
Memory: Corsair CML16GX3M2A1600C10B Vengeance LP Blue 16 GB (2x8 GB) DDR3 1600MHz
Card name: Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 1050 WF2 GDDR5 OC 2GB PCI-E
SSD: INTEL SSDSC2CT120A3 ATA Device 120gb (OS)
HDD: WDC WD20EZRX-00DC0B0 ATA Device 2TB
HDD: SAMSUNG HD103SJ ATA Device 1TB
Power: Antec Truepower 650
Case: Big Horrible Thing that is falling apart.

It still works extremely well, but the case does need replacing. I am not sure if its "worth" me upgrading as I am really not sure what performance difference I will see. I only use photoshop and lightroom, this is to be the main editing PC. I have been using a Dell XPS 15 9560 with a monitor and while it works well, it's doing my head in so want to give my PC a bit of a revamp.

Based on what I already have, I am thinking new Mobo with better connectivity, CPU, maybe a quicker SSD for the OS? and a new case, it doesn't need to look fancy as will be out of sight but could do with it being extremely quiet so water cooling can be an option?

Reading about what Lightroom requires, I think 16gb of ram is fine but not sure if new ram is quicker (its been a few years). Obviously fast CPUs help, there seems to be so much choice these days?

So if anyone can suggest how I can turn my battered looking, noisy but still perfectly working computer into a sleek, sexy beast, a list of recommended components would be appreciated.

I have babbled, apologies.

Thanks

Alex
 
I have the exact same mobo, cpu and ram and upgraded to a Ryzen 1800x about 1 year ago. The old kit as now under the TV running very nicely indeed as a HTPC.
I am also a lightroom user (less so PS) and when working on images themselves, I don't think the new PC is really much quicker. This may be due to it's single-threaded performance being limited compared to a higher clocked Intel cpu. Where it is hugely quicker (than the old rig) is when importing images, building previews and exporting images to Facebook, Flickr or another format.

Before upgrade the internals, I had previously upgraded the case to a Phantek ENTHOO EVOLV X case as I fancied a big of bling (compared to my old Antec super-quiet case) and the case looked really nice and very well made. I also upgraded the cooler to a Nocture D15 which is pretty much the biggest and best air cooler you can get and beats a fair few watercooling solutions for temp/noise ratio. My point is I'm sitting here with it under my desk and it's essentially silent when browsing the web and this case isn't even considered an especially quiet case due to vents, metal and glass panels that don't have damping. Fans running at about 580rpm and cpu at 43C.

So if I were you, I'd overclock that CPU to about 4.3Ghz which should be really easy and will give you a decent performance boost (this is what everyone else will tell you to do on here. In fact, it i s generally considered a criminal offence to not overclock that cpu) then buy yourself a lovely new case and sit back and enjoy it for a couple of weeks and see how you get on.

[edit] What will may LR faster is to have the catalogue and all your images on an SSD instead of a mech drive.

 
Op what's your budget?

As for cases I'm a big fan of Be Quiet! They're extremely well made and exceptionally quiet not to put to fine a point on it.

Do you do any gaming?

From my little bit of research an 8600k and plenty of ram would probably be a good upgrade, coupled with a 1050ti gpu.

Not clued up on monitor brands but a good ips panel is best for editing.
 
Thanks Vidar, I have my Dell Ultrasharp which is perfect for what I need. I shall check out the Be Quiet Cases, no I don't game, far too much work to do I dare not lol.

gEd, yep this is exactly why I wanted to ask the questions as I wasn't sure whether an upgrade would be worth doing as its a solid unit for what I need anyway but for all the money I could spend in the real world would it make that much difference. the importing / building previews thing is what takes the most time but I tend to do something else while this is happening, so its real hands on work performance improvements I am looking for. I have overclocked in the past to some success but after more fiddling with the board (which ended up being SSD failures), I ended up getting OC errors and the bios would default itself back to original settings after I attempted the OC. Ihaven'tt attempted to OC for years now.

The case you suggested does look awesome but I am really looking for something that is going to be sat under my desk and never looked at, so decent cooling, silent and stealth like lol.

I will take your advice for now and go down the OC route again, I can see there is endless advice online to get it as best as I can.

I'll look into another case (unless there is anything that can be recommended) and I will certainly look into the D15 Fan.

If after all of this is in place I find I am still not getting at least the performance of my Dell XPS laptop, I shall go back to looking into more component upgrades.

I really appreciate the advice :)

Alex
 
One more thing, when looking for a case, what size should I be looking at? I am confused with all the lingo, ATX, Full Tower, Mini-ITX etc etc, I dont want anything that going to be fiddly, happy to go a bit bigger for easy install :) but dont want overkill, thanks again.


*Dont worry I googled it* lol :D
 
'Unfortunately' for Lightroom you will need to go Intel for your upgrade from a 2500K but now is really not a good time to upgrade due to shortages and inflated prices of old and imminent new CPU's.

Overclocking your 2500K to ~4.5Ghz should be relatively straight forward on you P67. I would see how high you can go using 1.35v and call it a day at that.
 
MartinPrince said:
'Unfortunately' for Lightroom you will need to go Intel for your upgrade from a 2500K but now is really not a good time to upgrade due to shortages and inflated prices of old and imminent new CPU's.

Overclocking your 2500K to ~4.5Ghz should be relatively straight forward on you P67. I would see how high you can go using 1.35v and call it a day at that.
Click to expand...
I managed 4.2GHz on my 2500k with just a multiplier change, no voltage increase required.
 
HI all, I am reincarnating this post as I feel I really could do with some upgrades now. I managed to get my clock speed up to 4.3 anything higher would just fail and when it came to adjusting voltage, I couldn't get anything to work. My lack of knowledge no doubt. I am at that stage now where I want something that is going to rock and I dont need to think about it.

My Lightroom performance is lagging especially in the building previews and rending jpgs department. I have moved my catalogues/ previews to a separate SSD but still its not great, the SSD is quite small though, only 60gb. I back up the catalogue and clear the cache after every job (wedding) so it doesn't get too full.

Basically I have a budget now and ready to bring myself up to date as best as I can.

I want to use what I already have where I can but have £1k to spend.....Any advice on how I can use what I have and what new hardware I should get would be appreciated. I know it was mentioned before that prices were sky high on processors, not sure if this is still the case?

Thanks again in advance for you help.

Alex

*Current spec in top post*
 
4.3GHz is pretty good.
But 60GB SSD is likely such old that its performance isn't that great.

Prices of high end CPUs still aren't any better on Intel side.
Also upper models of Zen 2 Ryzens are going to cost.
Though they're going to put pressure on Intel, whose competition might also bring down prices of AMD.
I think Intel maintaining price level made AMD increase announcement/launch prices from original plans.

Situation would be lot clearer month from now.
Certainly prices of current gen Ryzens should decrease.
 
Thank you EsaT

Yep, I do need to reconsider my set up and yes I keep reading about the potential of the chip pricing. I will hold fire for a bit......

Cheers
 
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