Upgrade PC or a second hand Workstation

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Cyrus3v

Cyrus3v

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Dec 26, 2012
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Hi everyone,

I really need some help regarding if I should upgrade my PC or buy a secondhand workstation. I have between £350-400 (+- 600$) to spend either on getting new hardware for my current system:

Windows 7 64x
Asus P5Q
4GB DDR2 Ram
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Radeon HD 4850

I work with 3D which means I was looking for a more powerful CPU, more RAM (at least 8GB) and a new graphic card to help me cope with some GPU work (Lumion) and the new games :D. If I had to choose, I would prefer having a new CPU and graphic card and buy some ram latter.

However, I saw a second hand T5500 Dell workstation on ebay for £250 (+-400$):

Chipset: Intel 5520
RAM: 12GB ECC DDR3
CPU: 2x Intel Quad Core Xeon E5520 2.26 GHz
PSU: 875W, 88% efficient Power Factor Correcting (PFC) power supply
Hard Drive: 200GB
Optical Drive: DVD
Video: nVidia Quadro FX 1500, 256MB

And since I work with Lumion I was thinking of getting a GTX 650 ti graphic card and this will bring the price for something like £370 (+-620).
My concern about getting a workstation is:
Can I use a non professional graphic card with this workstation?
If I need to change some RAM, do I have to buy only Dell?
Will most of the games work fine with this configuration?

Many thanks in advance.
 
Solution
goodguy713
typcially what will happen is if your only using one of the pci slots it defaults to 16x 2.0 but if you add stuff like a sound card or anything else it will automatically cut it down to 8x speeds on both lanes. and yes the gen 2 . is same as 2.0 as for the 650ti that would be ideal. you might want to look at 750ti as it is the more recent model.
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Cyrus3v

Cyrus3v

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Dec 26, 2012
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Thanks goodguy713 for your reply.

They say that the T5500 has:

Two PCI-e x16 slots wired as x8
Two PCI-e x16 Gen 2 graphics slots up to 150 watts each
One PCI-X 64bit/100MHz slot with support for 3.3v or universal cards
One PCI 32bit/33Mhz 5V slot

Is this what you mean with pci 2.0 16x slots?

I was thinking of buying this graphic card:

Asus NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB Graphics Card Physx/3D Vision Dual Fan Coolng

And yes it is true, the graphic power is very limited.
 
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goodguy713

goodguy713

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Oct 23, 2009
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typcially what will happen is if your only using one of the pci slots it defaults to 16x 2.0 but if you add stuff like a sound card or anything else it will automatically cut it down to 8x speeds on both lanes. and yes the gen 2 . is same as 2.0 as for the 650ti that would be ideal. you might want to look at 750ti as it is the more recent model.
 
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Solution
Cyrus3v

Cyrus3v

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Dec 26, 2012
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Thanks.

I saw a gtxx 750ti for £120, which is not bad.

I worked with Dell workstations in the past, but I am not sure if regarding the RAM and CPU and I am stuck with Dell products.
 
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goodguy713

goodguy713

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you will want to upgrade your power supply if you intend to buy that graphics card. In the long run gold versions or platinum rated power supplies last longer and are more reliable and you can always reuse them in other builds.
I dont know what kind of hardware or extra drives you have but a decent 750 watt power supply by like corsair or seasonic would be ideal.

while that platform will support it I would be concerned about the other parts in your system holding you back. but look at it this way if you buy the 750ti you will know for a fact that your system wont be graphic bottle necked and more than likely only processor limited. so get the power supply and then get the 750ti and later on all you will need to buy is a motherboard / processor and ram combo and just reuse the other parts in your current system.
 
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Cyrus3v

Cyrus3v

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Dec 26, 2012
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I have to check once I get back one, but I know that I have a Corsair and if I am not wrong is a 650W.

I only have two HDD, the Radeon HD 4850 and 4GB Corsair.

Thanks for your feedback. I start to believe that workstation wasn't so great after all after seeing some new and powerful pc for just 450 pounds.

Do you have any other recomendation for a good graphic card? In particular for SLI or Crossfire??
 
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Cyrus3v

Cyrus3v

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Dec 26, 2012
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I am reading a reviwe of a Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 and makes me thing that perhaps this is a good solution.

EDIT:

Turns out it seems that GTX 660 is better that the GTX 750Ti.

Now, I am not to sure which should I choose between the GTX 660, GTX 750Ti or Radeon R9 270.
 
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Cyrus3v

Cyrus3v

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Dec 26, 2012
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I manage to check that my power supply is only 550w. I only have 2 HDD, 1 DVD drive, 1 Radeon HD4850 512MB and my CPU E8400. There is any place where I can check the Watts for each application?
 
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