Upgrade kit - For my sister

[Harl0]

Hi All

Gave my sister an old rig of mine couple years ago; she has since began college and entered the realms of photo editing for which my old rig is struggling at times!

Current kit is a few years old now:
Mobo: Gigabyte MA790XT-UD4P
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955
GPU: Invidia 570GTX
RAM: 4GB Dual_channel DDR3 Corsair Dominator @ 535MHz (7-7-7-20)
HDD: WD Caviar Black 500GB
PSU: Corsair 850W
Case: Thermaltake Shark

O/S: Windows 8.1 Pro

PC is struggling with Photoshop duties, almost seems to lock up for several seconds at times when duplicating/ heavily modifying images for example.

Recently installed Windows 8.1 Pro, carried out the usual optimisation and clean up. After analysing actual system usage when carrying out tasks in Photoshop, I found more memory, CPU power and a faster HDD would benefit me as most activities were maxing memory and HDD utilisation with CPU peaking at 100% but often not going above 80%.

Below is the spec I've been weighing up:

Mobo: Gigabyte D3H Z79
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-495-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2811

CPU: Intel i5-4690K 3.50GHz
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-540-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567

GPU: Invidia 570GTX (Warcraft mainly, non-essential upgrade)

RAM: Kingston HyperX 8GB http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-094-KS

HDD: Current drive for storeage + Crucial MX100 256GB
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-036-CR&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=2394

PSU: Corsair 850W (Upgrade needed?)

Case: Thermaltake Shark

Not sure if a simple upgrade to an SSD and more memory will improve performance or a mobo and CPU upgrade are needed too. This kit is for my sister who is on a budget, any advice would be great.

Cheers
Jason.

 

[deano-5]

Try ssd and ram first

 

[altrewin]

As above, try the SSD and RAM out first. The Corsair 850W (assuming it's a HX or AX?) will be plenty for any upgrades, if anything a Haswell setup will likely use less power.

 

[Harl0]

Cheers guy - RAM and SSD it is to start with.

Is Haswell still the best choice, Devils Canyon not worth the extra?

 

[RJC]

Go with Devils Canyon, should hopefully be here the end on the Month.

 

[mightymouse]

SSD first and if you dont have a really powerful gpu or not thinking of having dual gpu then 500W would be plenty.

Good luck

 

[Steveocee]

SSD is always a good start. More RAM is a given but depending on how much editing is being done, 8 or 16 GB is debatable.
What about upgrading to a second hand Phenom X6? Something like a 1090T would be a nice step up.

 

[Harl0]

Cheers guys, I'll order the SSD and memory upgrade to start with!

 

[Quartz]

Does she have the 32 bit or 64 bit version of Photoshop? She'll need the latter to make use of the extra memory.

 

[Harl0]

Does she have the 32 bit or 64 bit version of Photoshop? She'll need the latter to make use of the extra memory.

Good point. Pretty sure it's the 64bit version, I'll make sure of it when I reinstall.

Cheers.