Upgrade from a E8400

[osherono]

First of all, thank you for reading this. I usually don't post in forums, but I need some direct input here.

I have started doing video editing in the past 4 months, nothing fancy, just 1-2 minutes of HD video at a time (I do get paid for it). I am also starting the production for my first animated short film, which will be composed of digital "hand made" paintings in Full HD (and cinema) résolution. I do game, but it is not a priority at all : the only games I do play are free to play multiplayer games such as War Inc, S4 League, etc, and my current HD 3650 is more than enough for the task.

Now, I will be upgrading my system in the near future, once one of the financial backers accepts to give me a new system (yes, give as in gift), so the config for that is not important yet. I only now it will be either a 1090T or a 2700k (I don't get to choose) with a standard NLE config (standard for France at least) : 16 GB RAM GTX 470, dual FHD LED screens, raid...

The thing is, that is at least a month away, and I need to give my aging system a boost now. I have a E8400 overclocked to 4 Ghz, and it does quite well, actually, but it does struggle now that my needs are more specific. Here is the software I use :

- Artrage Studio Pro 3.5 : I work with resolutions of about 4000 x 6000 or more
- Photoshop CS4 : I work with up to A0 paper size at 200 dpi, and A2 and smaller at 300 dpi COATED FOGRAS color profile
- Adobe Premiere CS4 : 1080p editing using the sources I have created with the software above.
- Ableton Live : Mixing and editing of varied compositions
- Soundbooth : Basic audio mastering.
- Toon Boom Studio : Converting the painted sequences into animated segments, when necessary.

I have the option to upgrade my processor to one of two cpus, the 9300 or the q9650, the first is about 70€, the other is 200€. I can also get a qx9650 for about 239€. Now, I don't want to spend money unnecessarily, I will be getting a more powerful system soon, I just need a bit of a boost so I don't have to wait so much, specially when treating images in high resolution. So, is the performance increase from a q9650 ( or qx9650) from a q9300 worth paying the extra 130/169 euros? Mind you I am more concerned with the performance when treating images at high resolution than its video editing performance for now.

I have read reviews and comparisons, but since this is 2012, I was hoping to get some input from people who have had to go through a similar upgrade.

Oh and please, no "get an i7/i5/X6" response. I am getting one for free, eventually. My choices are limited to what I have described above. I would wait, but a month is a lot of time to wait when producing a film.

Thanks for reading and taking you time to reply.

 

[_Pez_]

here is a quadcore 8400 2.6Ghz for $230usd
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Q8400-Processor-Socket-LGA775/dp/B002654FQM/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1332837018&sr=1-7

or core 2 quad 9450
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Q9450-Core-Quad-Processor/dp/B00116VIEE/ref=sr_1_22?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1332837018&sr=1-22

both have the same frequency the only difference is L2 cache memory the first one has 4mb and the second one has 12mb

 

[vitornob]

A bit of boost? Go for Q9300 and OC it, it shall give you a little room to breath.

http://ark.intel.com/compare/33910,35428,33922

 

[jasont78]

get the q9300 if you wanna stick with the rest of your gear anymore is a waste on old tech, i had a q9400 i think 1 or 200 mhz quicker than the 9300 but u can quite easily jack your fsb up to about 420 on standard volts on my old cpu anyways which got my 3.45ghz from the default 2.66 which will be quicker than the qx9650 easily at its stock speed although as you would expect that can be overclocked too! if you were to spend 200 or 239 euro or whatever it is you could buy the i5 and a new mother board which you dont wanna do, so i hope this answers your question

 

[osherono]

Thank you for your prompt replies.

A couple of things :
- I live in France, so unless its available on Amazon France or UK I can't get it shipped to me. Also, taxes are evil in France this time of year. Very evil, as in old evil french guy with a moustache evil.
- I considered the q8400, but for the price you can find them I can get the q9300 which, from what I understand, is a much better processor.
- I had considered doing a mid-level upgrade (if there is such a thing), as in replace my mobo and get a 1090T and 16gb ram. Such an upgrade would cost me 300€, and give me things like usb 3, ddr3, PCIe 16x, etc. Power supply-wise I'm covered I think (I have a 700w power supply). The thing is, I am a bit hesitant to spend that much (300€ may not seem much, but it can be put to good use on other hardware I need to produce the film) since I will be getting at least a 1090T in a couple of months. Which is why I am holding out on spending around 200 on the q(x)9650 unless it gives a considerable boost from a q9300 (at least 30%). I will be using this machine as a backup machine/secondary work machine (for when the animated scenes are encoding and I can't use the main machine), so having an extra quad core is always useful.
- Yes, I know that for 200€ I can get an i5 2500K, but the mobo, RAM... well it adds up. Plus I can't justify (in my mind) NOT spending the extra 100€ in getting a 2700K (the 2600k and the 2700k are the same price in France). If I didn't have a chance at getting the free machine, I'd be willing to spend 500-600€ on the components to get myself a 2700k rig update.
- I have a PQ5 Pro motherboard, just in case, so overclocking shouldn't be an issue.
- What I like about the q(x)9650 is the 2x cache it has (in comparison to the q9300) however, having two extra cores/threads is already twice of what I have. Hopefully it will help my cpu usage. I'm willing to go to 8gb from the 6gb iif it will help (ddr2 is somewhat cheap if you know where to look).