What to upgrade next

[psymonpeers]

Hi all,

I use this desktop for web & graphic design adobe cs5, some video production work pp v2.0, and some fps games. plus the usual internet etc.

i7-2600k @ 4.1
as rock fatality pro p67
his 5770
1tb western blue
8gig ripjaws
gx 650w psu

2 monitors, 20'gtc led & 16'benq led

it just doesn't seem to perform quite as well as i expected so i'm looking to strengthen the weaker links, thought that maybe a 100gig ssd for the os would help, but am looking for better alternitives??

thanks

 

[rolli59]

The SSD is going to give you the best boost overall with its much faster read/write times. A better GPU would gain you mostly in gaming.

 

[psymonpeers]

hi,

thanks for the reply, i was trying to read into ssd's and from what i understood they are not all created equal? any personal recommendations?

and because of the adobe nvedia relationship i was thinking of getting a gtx 570? or going crossfire with another 5770.

thanks again

 

[rolli59]

I do not have any specific recommendation but here is a couple of articles from Toms that I find interesting http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/m4-ssd-capacity-comparison,2957.html (suggesting the 128GB version)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ssd-caching,2966.html
Even a GTX560TI would be a big step up from the HD5770.

 

[geofelt]

1) I understand that CS5 can make use of lots of ram. Since ram is cheap, try 16gb. Extra ram will let windows 7 cache your most used apps, ready for instant reuse.

2) I love the SSD. It makes everything feel so much snappier. It is the single best performance improvement you can make. Get a 80-120gb SSD for the os and some apps, and use the hard drive for storage. If you can put most of your files and apps on a SSD, then that is the way to go. Plan on $2 per gb. Intel is, today the safest choice, either the 320 series, or the 510 series. For most things we do, there is little difference in percieved performance. Mostly discount synthetic benchmarks which are not representative of what we actually do.

3) Check out if CS5 can use the CUDA capabilities of a Nvidia card. Stick with a single good card. SLI may introduce other issues. If you can't make do with a single GTX580 or GTX590, then sli is an option.

4) The WD blue is not the fastest hard drive, the black would be better. But I don't think you would detect enough difference to be worth a change.

5) For what you do, why not get a couple of larger displays? Two equal displays make a multi monitor desktop easier to use. If you have a large budget(like $2000) get two 30" 2560 x 1600 displays.

6) Check to see that you have no malware, viruses, or unnecessary startup code running. I use Microsoft security essentials. It is free, and entirely unobtrusive.

 

[psymonpeers]

funny i just got through reading it, i guess i'll see if i can find a 120g ssd, living in indonesia it can be tricky to get stuff ,

and i think i will upgrade to the 570, if i can find it for the right price.

thanks your your 2 cents, its appreciated

 

[psymonpeers]

hi geofelt,

thanks for taking the time, ssd for the os and programs then. done

i'm reading into raid at the moment, but its getting a bit technical for me tonight! but would it be worth looking into?

I live in Indonesia, and the highest stick i can get here is 2gig! I've tried ordering from Singapore but customs here are so corrupt that they steal anything they think they can sell, so its a tricky one right now.

vga, i've just found an article here about a hack for cs5 that allows the gtx cards to use the mercury playback, huge advantage, and just for that i'm going to swap in a gtx570, i think!


i use mse as well, fire and forget and run mbam once a month.

thanks again

 

[chesteracorgi]

The SSD is the first upgrade. While there are many good SSDs I'd go with IBM 510, OCZ Agility 3, or Crucial M4. Size depends on your budget, but the bigger the better.

For graphic design I'd recommend the Nvidia GTX 560ti (or 470, which is its equal) or GTX 570 (or 480) or even the GTX 580. I'd stay away from the GTX 590 and AMD 6990 because of cost, supply and reliability problems. The reason for Nvidia over AMD is that they seem to perform better in video editing and transcoding.

More RAM will do well for video editing and transcoding, but will slow down gaming. Still it is a consideration for an upgrade.

If you are doing a lot of video another HDD could be useful. Because this HDD is for storage, go with a less expensive Samsung for SATA 3.0 GBps, or Seagate or Hitachi for SATA 6.0 GBps.

It depends on your budget.

 

[psymonpeers]

hi Chester, i've got maybe $500 to spend this weekend and importantly time to play around...

 

[geofelt]

There are many proponents of raid-0 as a performance enhancer, primarily because of impressive benchmarks.
Unfortunately, few apps are coded the way benchmarks are, and the real performance benefits are minimal.
Here is one such article on that:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2212/8

Your motherboard will hold up to 16gb(perhaps 32gb, but 8gb sticks are not out and will be expensive)
I suggest you hold out until you can get a full 16gb kit, or at least replicate the 8gb kit you already have.
Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards can be very sensitive to this.
It is better to get what you need in one kit.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

The SSD is the first upgrade. While there are many good SSDs I'd go with IBM 510, OCZ Agility 3, or Crucial M4. Size depends on your budget, but the bigger the better.

Dont you mean the "Intel® SSD 510"?

I happen to agree with the others that upgrading to an SSD is most likely the best performance thing that you can do for your system. Evening adding a SATA II SSD like the Intel SSD 320 would improve your boot times and access times a great deal.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[geofelt]

The SSD is the first upgrade. While there are many good SSDs I'd go with IBM 510, OCZ Agility 3, or Crucial M4. Size depends on your budget, but the bigger the better.

For graphic design I'd recommend the Nvidia GTX 560ti (or 470, which is its equal) or GTX 570 (or 480) or even the GTX 580. I'd stay away from the GTX 590 and AMD 6990 because of cost, supply and reliability problems. The reason for Nvidia over AMD is that they seem to perform better in video editing and transcoding.

More RAM will do well for video editing and transcoding, but will slow down gaming. Still it is a consideration for an upgrade.

If you are doing a lot of video another HDD could be useful. Because this HDD is for storage, go with a less expensive Samsung for SATA 3.0 GBps, or Seagate or Hitachi for SATA 6.0 GBps.

It depends on your budget.

Why would more ram slow down gaming?

 

[psymonpeers]

Best answer selected by psymonpeers.