[Solved] Advice on upgrade $400 Budget for Graphic Designer

My current problem is that I am doing design work with large files and my PC can't handle processing my requests.

I would like to get:
Motherboard
CPU
RAM

I am interested in longevity. Would like to be able to take advantage of USB 3.0 (if this can be solved by buying a PCI card at a later time, that is fine) in the future. Would be nice to get a board that will be compatible with the next generation of stuff that is coming up.

I know it isn't a huge budget, but hopefully you guys can give some advice.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: ASAP 3/26/10

BUDGET RANGE: $400

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Design Programs (Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.), some gaming, but mostly just need to process the Adobe stuff.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED:
keyboard, mouse, speakers, OS, DVD/CD Drive, Case
Monitor: ASUS VE246H Black 24"
PSU: HIPRO TOP-500P5 500W ATX V2.01 Power Supply
GPU: NVidia 9600GT

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Cheap and ships to Florida.

PARTS PREFERENCES: Would like to stick with Intel.

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe in the future.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Need a work horse since this is what I use everyday for 8+ hours a day to make money to feed my family.

On a budget like that you aren't going to get what you're after from intel. You'd need to up the budget quite a bit. (then quite a bit more to get some upgradeablility like you were suggesting.)

There are AMD motherboards with USB3 and SATAIII for about $90, DDR3 4 gigs would be about $100, and then you could go with anything from an athlon II x4 to a phenom II 955.

First ... we need to know exactly ALL of what you already have ... so we can know if we are doing you any good ...

... SECOND ... Strongly recommending SSDs plus (prolly) MORE RAM and a better GPU ... But all of this is out of context until we know exactly what your current config is ... would also help to know what tools you use and which you use MOST ...

... Were exactly are you "feeling drag" ? ? . . . During renders ?? .. what kind of renders ?? .. We need to know "all that" ...

... Proc, RAM (speed and amount and mode), GPU, Drives ... all can be bottlenecks ...
... I am including a dedicated "render to" drive, for instance. ... Having dedicated system/apps/read/write drives can keep all your buffers/caches/pipelines all primed and reduce flushing and latency ... more RAM reduces paging/swapping/temp-ing.

... Better GPU helps most with motion, particle, 3D and CPU+cores/RAM-speed help with codec transcoding and final render output.

... Tuning a "render-engine" requires specific knowledge of how your tools address hardware specific features and hardware and OS "calls" and graphics language protocols (open GL ... DX-9,10,11 ... etc.).

= Al =

This is a likely addition to any solution but ... we still need to know about your current platform and toolsets and workflow.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814133266

= Al =

No, Frosty, I do not think that I am AT ALL out of bounds ... The OP is looking for the "correct" solution ... I should think that, in your sharp mind, a GPU would be seen as a very relevent component in any "Graphics Compute Engine" ... Triple so if 3D and motion is the goal.
Definately cannot make an accurate determination without very specific operational data ...

... His current GPU is, well, a pretty decent one, but I think you might well agree that a 250 will run "cycles" around it.

= ?? no ?? =

And .. just because he was asking for a mobo/ram/cou didn't, at that point, mean that it was what he "needed" ... necissarily.

= Al =

I mean that suggesting that specific graphics card, in a vacuum, isn't all that productive. Yes, it's better than what he's currently got, but without other info, and without knowing if he's actually GPU-limited (somewhat unlikely), it's not very useful.

For $400, I really like shortstuff's suggestion. Quad-core, 4 GB RAM, mobo, full stop. You're not going to get much more than that at that price point. An AMD quad-core on an 890 mobo is about the most future-proof choice you can make right now. Pretty much Intel quad-core solutions are going to be more expensive, once you factor in mobo & RAM.

Of course, you have to take into consideration that you might need a new OS as well, with replacing the mobo. Hopefully that isn't an issue, or it can be considered a separate issue.

Well ... depends how tight the budget is ... surely worth mentionning, as a potential adjunct but, yes ... Of course ... first things first.

= Al =

You could go with a similar Intel i5-750 solution for $50-100 more, for little additional benefit. For another $80-90 on top of that, you could go with an i7-860 and get hyperthreading, which might be useful, but probably isn't worth the premium over the AMD solution.

If you had even more money to drop (another $100-200), you could go with an i7-930 & 6 GB RAM, which might be worth it, but completely blows your budget.

I say go for shortstuff's parts list.

... and a full 8GB of main system RAM (to reduce disk swapping and paging) ...

... regardless of RAM speed ... mobo ... cpu ... drives ... GPU

= Al =

These other techs, here, I consider to be my seniors (so do they!) ... but I don't think I'm wrong, here.

Yes, Boss! ... I do, indeed concur ...

... But must ask: How far will spending (ONLY) $400 (on cpu/mobo) go toward SOLVING his drag issues ?? Especially if said issues are file-size/xfer related ??

Not to be a pest OR to cloud the issue ... bud just to turn over these other stones and to verify their potential "contribution" to an effective solution ...

... I understand the "stated limits" ... just making sure those limits are firm and that expectations are not overblown.

= Pesky =

The processing power of the Phenom II X4 955 will blow your current E2200 out of the water. If you have $400 to spend on upgrades right now, I don't see how you're going to do much better than what I suggested above.

I also agree with shortstuff's list. Especially since I said that first, though without specific parts in mind till I knew if it was a waste of time to look at them and get links.

That will always be the case but, NO ... unless you want to wait a whole year, for PCIe 3.0 ... Or wait till September, for SSDs to drop in price ...

... Forward vision is very good, right now ... prices aren't likely to drop any before August.

RipJaws Dual kit just went up $5

= Al =

That RAM went up DURING THIS conversation.

I waited on buying the parts and now that combo isn't available!...

With the 790 I would be losing the USB 3.0 capabilities? Anything else I would be sacrificing?

That combo deal has a $15 rebate and looks like MW2 is going for $25 on ebay. So my price for the 790 would be about $250.

Sorry I am dragging this out...

I'd guess that any AM3 mobo will work with the six-core CPU's and just need a BIOS update. But that's the same as even updating the BIOS to use, say, athlon II x3's (which were definately not around at the beginning).

So I'm not sure why all the news when like asus already did that BIOS update for the six cores.

But that's just my $.02