What should I do? Upgrade or new build?

Brook · 29 Dec 2006 at 01:30

Hi all, am new here so please be gentle :-p

Hope you guys can help me out :-)

I have a PC that I built a few years ago, it mainly comprises of:

Asus A7n8X Deluxe Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2400
256MB ram
Ati Radeon 9000 pro 128MB AGP graphics card
Maxtor 80GB 8MB Hard Disk
Pioneer DVD RW

I don't know whether to upgrade it, perhaps to 2GB ram, maybe an additional ATA hard disk and a 19" TFT, and perhaps a new sempron processor (?)

or,

to build a new system and keep this one as a spare. (New sys: Core 2 Duo E6300, 1GB Ram, ATA HD, nVidea Asus Extreme 7600GS Silent 512MB DDR2, Asus P5B Deluxe or Asus P5WDH Deluxe motherboard).

I really don't know what to do :-/ Should I just upgrade this system and make do for another six months or so? Or spend double-ish and build a new system? Will there really be that much difference in performance between the two?

I will be using it mainly for photoshop, along with web browsing etc plus some video editing. (I don't play any games on the PC so am not too bothered by a high spec 3D card - I just need it for photoshop and video editing really)

What do you guys think? Hang on a few months? Maybe just upgrade my current system to hold up for another 6 to 8 months perhaps? Or just go ahead and build a new system?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 02:01

Its not worth upgrading.
Anything you put in it will just get held back by everything else.

Theres nothing really to wait for at the moment, cheaper quad cores will be drop in replacements for core 2s i think and K8L is a long while off, so nows as good a time as any. Lots of good boards around now too.

Your spec for a new system looks pretty good, but i would go for a sata harddisk, and you need to choose a psu and case. You may be able to use your current case, but its unlikely to be any good. You almost certainly can't use your current psu.
I also don't think much of the 7600gs, 512mb of memory on it is wasted money as it will never use half of it. Get a faster card with less memory. And if possible go for something with a well designed quiet fan cooler, as this should be cheaper than a passive system but just as effective and if you choose the cooler carefully just as quiet.

If you don't play games at all, get a really cheap graphics card and spend the extra money on a faster harddisk such as a raptor and more ram, which i believe will make the biggest difference in photoshop and video editing.

Wecome to the forums btw.

t31os · 29 Dec 2006 at 03:20

If you want a quiet system, then avoid a raptor?......

They're not quiet and not incredibly faster then the newer sata2 drives. (yes i have a raptor)

Best value for money are currently the 250gb sata2 16mb cache drives around £50 - £55.

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 03:29

t31os said:
If you want a quiet system, then avoid a raptor?......

They're not quiet and not incredibly faster then the newer sata2 drives. (yes i have a raptor)

Best value for money are currently the 250gb sata2 16mb cache drives around £50 - £55.

I have two raptors and i can't hear either. Quiet computing wasn't mentioned but if the op wants a quiet pc for the raptors all he needs is a decent hard disk enclosure. Obviously its another thing to buy but personally i never buy lower performance parts to get an ultra quiet pc, i prefer to spend more money on something to make the faster components quiet.

In terms of £/gb the 250s are best but i think the raptors are better for performance. But is there that much difference? As you say probably not a massive amount of difference these days. Depends on the budget really, if there are other things that can be bought such as more ram its probably better to get that instead.

Brook · 29 Dec 2006 at 04:04

Thanks both

What graphics card would you recommend? (I need a dual output card that can do 1680x1050 for one of the displays which I am hoping to get too)

And motherboard? I would prob prefer to stick with Asus as *touch wood* it has been brilliant, but will consider another brand if it's really <hot>.

What about the CPU? Get the Core 2 Duo E6300 now? And upgrade the cpu next year? or go for a 6400 or 6600 now?

Should I overclock? Will it really make much of a difference? (sorry if thats a nube question!)

I have a 400w psu at the mo, but will get a new case and psu anyway as I want to keep this PC going as well. Any case recommendations?

Thanks again :cool:

Tritium · 29 Dec 2006 at 10:48

I would say go with the 6300 and overclock. Use a decent CPU cooler, e.g. Artic Freezer Pro 7 and other suitable components.

The 680i mobo's seem to be getting all the nods at the mo, altho I've not checked them out myself so would be reluctant to put too much emphasis on that one - I'll let others do that for ya

For your usage, I'd recommend getting 2Gb of 800Mhz DDR2 (headroom for overclocking) from a decent brand such as Corsair, OCZ or Geil.

You're definitely going to need a PSU upgrade as well I'm afraid

New systems use 24 pin mobo connectors and 4 or 8 pin auxillary mobo power for the CPU. You need to be looking for something 500w or above imo, from a reputable brand such as Tagan, Seasonic, OCZ, Corsair etc.

Cases are truly personal preference, but I almost always swing towards offerings from Lian Li and Antec

As for graphics, I'd be looking at an x1950pro 256mb. They are excellent vfm and excellent performers

englishpremier · 29 Dec 2006 at 10:55

hehe, this similar to my system of

AMD XP2500 @ 3200 speeds
Gigbyte GN400pro2
512MB ddr 400
80GB HDD
Geforce 5600.

I don;t play games very much at all, but it would be nice once in a while.

Like the original poster asked are the new generation of CPUs an enourmous amount faster than the good old Barton, which admitidly is about 3 generations old by now.

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 15:04

englishpremier said:
Like the original poster asked are the new generation of CPUs an enourmous amount faster than the good old Barton, which admitidly is about 3 generations old by now.

Yes. Particularly the dual core, that should be very noticable.

Brook said:
Should I overclock? Will it really make much of a difference? (sorry if thats a nube question!)

If you bought an e6300 for example it will go to e6600 speeds no bother i believe, so thats a lot of free performance. The only disadvantages are you get more heat, more power usage and a slightly reduced cpu life, but thats always worth it for the free extra performance. The reduction in cpu life is not a problem because they usually last far longer than you would ever want to keep them for anyway. So spend a little more on a board and cpu cooler to get e6600 performance and it will still be far cheaper than if you got an e6600 and ran it at stock without a fancy cooler and overclocking board.

Tritium said:
As for graphics, I'd be looking at an x1950pro 256mb. They are excellent vfm and excellent performers

He says he doesn't play games so that would seem to be a bit of a waste. I would say get the cheapest card you can get.
According to nvidia's website even the 7100 will do 2048x1536@85Hz. Do you need dual dvi?
If not i would have thought this would do.

Brook said:
And motherboard? I would prob prefer to stick with Asus as *touch wood* it has been brilliant, but will consider another brand if it's really <hot>.

Both the 680i boards are designed by nvidia, and built by evga or bfg. They are excellent boards. For a cheaper board i believe the ds3 and 4 are good.

neocon · 29 Dec 2006 at 15:19

build a new system and keep this one as a spare. (New sys: Core 2 Duo E6300, 1GB Ram, ATA HD, nVidea Asus Extreme 7600GS Silent 512MB DDR2, Asus P5B Deluxe or Asus P5WDH Deluxe motherboard).

gfx card you chose is a bit rubbish for 2007 games.

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 15:23

neocon said:
gfx card you chose is a bit rubbish for 2007 games.

He says he doesn't play games. So imo its overkill.

Brook · 29 Dec 2006 at 17:43

Thanks again for all your help everyone.

Really not too sure about which motherboard to get, I've found the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe for just £132 !! That's dropped £20 since last time I checked, so now the P5B Deluxe is at £113 only 20 quid difference. I do like the p5w feature set tho.. check this out: http://uk.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=248&model=1198&modelmenu=1

I would prob get the 6300 core 2 for now (OC it) and then maybe next year upgrade CPU to a quad if they've dropped down enough in price.... so I am thinking about future upgradeability. The P5W is 975X chipset whilst the P5B is (the newer?) 965.

Which one will be a good choice for future upgrades? But which one is best overall?

I am still open to other brands though... I've read the MSI platinum is doing well in reviews too, however its £138, but is it really better than the asus boards?

Maybe someone can recommend a system for me? (please?

)

My needs are:

A motherboard that is relatively future proof - so I can upgrade cpu next year or the year after once they drop in price if need be. Although I really like Asus I am open to other good brands, but prob won't risk any 'cheapo' brands as I need reliability.

Primarily needed for Photoshop and video editing. So don't need a 'top' gaming card, but I do need two monitor output (pref dual dvi or possibly hdmi? or at least one dvi and one vga).

(Motherboard note : Although I'm not into PC gaming, I 'might' be interested in upgrading the video card next year and give it a try, but gaming really is not a priority as I'd rather get away from the PC and go sit on the sofa to play games (I work from home so need a break from the PC once in a while lol) But I guess any crossfire or sli boards will be ok?.

Any other recommendations also welcome, even if it's completely different to what I had in mind initially - I'm quite open minded

Thanks in advance!

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 17:58

Sadly i'm not really in the know when it comes to core 2 motherboards, but regarding the graphics card very few if any have an hdmi connector atm, do if i can find you a cheap (£30-50) one with dual dvi you can upgrade it when you get your quad core in 6 months time or so and get a gaming one if you fancy it with hdmi.
Will you be wanting to run vista aero anytime soon or could that wait until you get a new graphics card and cpu later on?

Btw almost any motherboard with a pc-e slot will allow to to plug a high end graphics card into it, although i think some newer cards need pci-e x16 slots.

Brook · 29 Dec 2006 at 18:13

Thanks Joe.

Yep I will prob get Vista, although I'm not sure which version yet.

I think the Asus has x16

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 18:17

Brook said:
Thanks Joe.

Yep I will prob get Vista, although I'm not sure which version yet.

I think the Asus has x16

Yeah i think it does. Have to see what others say about its overclocking capabilities though. Its not as good as the 680i i reckon, i doubt it has proper ntune integration or any decent fan controller settings in the bios.

Looking at graphics cards, i can't find any 7100 series cards with dual dvi, only the 7300 series seem to have it and thats £60 rather than £30, which seems a bit of a waste if you won't be gaming on it. Not sure if the 7300 and 7100 would run vista, i suspect they both do.

t31os · 29 Dec 2006 at 18:36

Joe42 said:
I have two raptors and i can't hear either. Quiet computing wasn't mentioned but if the op wants a quiet pc for the raptors all he needs is a decent hard disk enclosure. Obviously its another thing to buy but personally i never buy lower performance parts to get an ultra quiet pc, i prefer to spend more money on something to make the faster components quiet.

In terms of £/gb the 250s are best but i think the raptors are better for performance. But is there that much difference? As you say probably not a massive amount of difference these days. Depends on the budget really, if there are other things that can be bought such as more ram its probably better to get that instead.

So what did you do with your raptors to quieten them?......

On that note, i have a raptor here, i've used windows, gamed, & ran aps from the raptor and other drives, and between them there is zero noticable difference.

gb per £ its wasted money...

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 20:41

t31os said:
So what did you do with your raptors to quieten them?......

One is in a scythe quiet drive enclosure, the other in a nexus drive-a-way.
The nexus enclosure is far better than the scythe one, and when the enclosure is suspended with elastic the disk cannot be heard at all from 30cm away. When seeking i don't think it can be heard from 1 metre away. It is extremely quiet.

I'm going to buy another one to replace the scythe enclosure because its nowhere near as good as the nexus.