Upgrading

[Fweddy]

I'm toying with the idea of upgrading my pc, as I haven't in ages. I don't keep up with hardware any more so I thought I'd ask your opinions. I don't have time to play games much these days but do occasionally, but I do do a lot of video/image/3D animation stuff so priorities are reliability, memory and cpu speed.

Here's what I've picked out:

Intel CPU Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz 1333FSB LGA775 4MB cache Retail inc.Fan (3yr Manufacturers Warranty) - BX80557E6750 - www.microdirect.co.uk
Asus Motherboard P5B-SE P965 LGA775 Core2 Quad / Extreme / Core2 Duo 1333FSB ATX - P5B-SE - www.microdirect.co.uk
Western Digital 160GB Caviar SATA II 300 7200rpm 8Mb cache Hard Disk Drive (JS) oem - WD1600JS - www.microdirect.co.uk
Samsung 500GB SATA II 300 Hard Disk Drive 16MB cache 7200rpm oem - HD501LJ - www.microdirect.co.uk
Asus Extreme 8500GT 256MB DDR2 Silent PCI-E DVI HDTV Out Retail - EN8500GT SILENT/HTD/ - www.microdirect.co.uk
Corsair 4096MB TwinX XMS2 6400 DDR2 Memory Kit (2 x 2048MB) - TWIN2X4096-6400C5 - www.microdirect.co.uk x2

Any thoughts please? I'm wondering if it would be worth getting Intel CPU Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 2.4GHz instead of the one above, and if 4gb of 1333fsb ram would work out better than the 8gb of 800fsb above.

For most of the stuff there I just picked out brands I'd heard of at around the right price, so any suggestions for better deals would be welcome. But the graphics card has to support two monitors.

Also, are there any issues I should know about changing from 32bit XP to the 64bit version? Will all my software still work?

 

[Jonty]

Hi Fweddy

Video and imaging applications generally make better use of multi-core CPUs, so the quad core may be a worthwhile option. As for the RAM, although the speed is important, 8GB may be worthwhile if the programs you use support it (and good quality RAM can be overclocked).

The graphics card is quite poor for gaming, but for general use it should be okay. As for 64-bit compatability, just do a search and you'll lots of information about program and driver compatability. Generally speaking everything should work okay, but older hardware or obscure programs may be unsupported.

Kind regards

 

[inactionman]

If you are doing animation, get quad core. Most of the animation programmes can use quad core.

Get a 8800GT or a 9600GT as well, as most programmes can off-load some tasks to the GPU via OpenGL, so the faster the better.

Curious about the 2 drives, you may be better off getting one big terrabyte drive like I have, particularly the Hitachi, as it's a top performer (better than the 10K RPM Raptors in some tests) and you'll need space.

You won't need 1333Mhz ram, 800 should be fine, besides it's expensive there's better places to spend your money.

One piece of buying advice, check scan they tend to be very competitive, particularly their today only page.

 

[Fweddy]

Thanks both of you. The two drives is so that I can have windows + software on the smaller one, and then pair up the Samsung with the 500gb drive I already have for storage.

 

[Kryten]

And get rid of the motherboard. 965 chipset will limit your options in the future.
Get a P35 equivelent - P5K for asus, Gigabyte DS3 for budget or Abit iP35 if you like Abit.

 

[Cromcruaich]

Yes 800 ram is fine unless you into pushing some serious overclocking or want a good fiddle. That allows for a sensible overclock (ie 1600 mhz cpu fsb) at 1:1 cpu/fsb ratio.

Spend the difference on a better graphics card.

Oh and to back everyone else up - the quad core for multithreaded grown up applications. Q6600 G0 stepping is the one people going on about if you into overclocking.

Otherwise advoid the E6xxx processors now and get a new E8xxx one which runs more efficiently, more cooly and has a bigger cache. Funnily enough the prices seem a bit cheaper as well. Ahh only problem would be that you'd have to be sure you pick a mobo that is stable with it - only way to do that would be to hit google.

Oh, the stock cpoolers with the retail cpus arnt brilliant - they will just about do the job but arnt the quietest out there, nor provide great cooling - again if you not gonna OC you'll prob be ok though.

 

[Kryten]

Not really entirely the case with the Core2s - the Intel stock coolers are rather good. But of course they're neither silent or are going to allow for much overclocking

 

[Cromcruaich]

Aye thats what i was getting at really. My take on it was that the op would be using it for work and concentration tasks - where a bit of peace and quite could be a consideration.

 

[Kryten]

True enough. If there is room, the Scythe Mugen/Infinity is lovely and quiet and can be even quieter/silent with a fan controller in use. Or those large Zalman round things are supposed to be equally good in the volume side of things

 

[Cromcruaich]

Might be interested in this.

CPU Cooler Charts 2008, Part 1 | Tom's Hardware

there is a part 2 and part 3 as well.

I do like toms hardware.

 

[Fweddy]

Aye, quiet is nice but I usually have music playing and the case I'd be putting it all in is a quiet one. It seems I may be moving house very soon though, so my upgrading plans may have to go on hold for a little while

Thanks for all this advice though, it will all come in very handy.

 

[chipper]

get the quad core 6600 m8 its the best deal you can get atm performance wise

also if you arent using intense graphics programs ie 3dmax etc 4 gig is ample for gaming

also u can get around 500g HD for around 40-50 quid if u shop around

now that the 9x series is out expect the 8x card prices to drop like a lead weight now is the time to get a 8800 GTX or maybe 8800GS and sli it. ofc it depends on budget but you really should be lookin at a 8600 series card as minimum now i know the card you are looking at is cheap but i cant stress how important your gfx card is ofc it depends on your budget if its tight drop down to 4 gig of ram and invest some more in a gfx card infact the 9600 is quite cheap.

 

[Reza]

The main thing that sticks out is your motherboard choice. Go for the P35 chipset instead which is actually the replacement for the P965 you chose. There are quite a few very good P35 boards to choose between (from great no thrills to very good OCing boards), and for anyone not wanting crossfire or sli they are almost the no brainer chipset choice.

The only thing that the other new intel chipset options (X38/48) would offer over P35, other than crossfire ability, is the full bandwidth on PCI express 2.0. That is something which I think no current gfx card makes use of, but they might start to down the line. So the X38/48 chipsets would simply offer you possible full bandwidth PCIe 2.0 upgradablity for your gfx card, but at the cost of being a more expensive purchase and actually a little more of a headache to use (some more reliability and performance issues reported relative to P35s).

The way I personally look at it is, that probably you wont want a PCIe 2.0 gfx card untill such time as you want DDR3. ie by that time DDR3 prices would have dropped enough and their latency would have improved to make the switch worthwhile. So by that time you get a new DDR3 board anyway.


On the Vista 64, I think you might very well have some issues with software compatability. But im not really the right person to confirm this as I havent used it myself, just going on what I've read a bit. Iirc though with the single windows vista liscence you can change between 32 and 64.