TLicense Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 As with most things in my life at the moment, my computer isn't quite well.... fast enough. At the moment I've got the following:- AMD socket 939 64 bit 3700+ running at 2.37Ghz Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI 2GB PC3200 DDR400 CL3 memory 2 x Gigabyte GeForce 64 FX graphics cards (in SLI) 2 x 200gb Seagate barracuda HDD's. My OS is Vista 64 home premium. I do a fair bit of CAD and FEA using Catia V5, usually with something like itunes running in the background. The majority of the time my processor is at 100% and I spend a fair amount of time looking at egg timers.... Now, if I were willing to spend about £300 on "upgrades" what, and where from, should I buy? I've looked at CPU upgrades using my current m'board, but as 939 was discontinued some time ago, the most viable chip (Athlon 4800+) would pretty much use up all of my budget on it's own. It may be possible for me to buy a newer, more available (hence cheaper) CPU, motherboard and RAM for more or less the same money. So what's the recommendations then chaps? Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Something that would be worth checking is which processor type is better suited for your application, being CAD, integer and floating point would be a priority. That would then dictate which motherboard to go for. Just found this on google. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/247346-10-performance-autocad-2008-intel EDIT : Intel seems to be the definite favourite with the P35 chipset motherboard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 £300 isn't really the budget you should be looking at for big performance. For a start you are using memory intensive programs so you want 4gb of DDR2 ram, a motherboard that can handle it well and a core2duo processor. If the software will use the quad processors then i would go for the quad variant. If buying decent items that will be your £300 spent but i would also look to update the gfx cards and have a look at Raptor 10000rpm HDD's for the O/S. You would be looking at another £200 to get those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 £300 isn't really the budget you should be looking at for big performance. For a start you are using memory intensive programs so you want 4gb of DDR2 ram, a motherboard that can handle it well and a core2duo processor. If the software will use the quad processors then i would go for the quad variant. If buying decent items that will be your £300 spent but i would also look to update the gfx cards and have a look at Raptor 10000rpm HDD's for the O/S. You would be looking at another £200 to get those. Wise words, reading a few of the articles for my own personal research, they definite seem to favour the quad core intel over the AMDs hands down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Intel all the way, although I am slightly biased Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Bloody hell, they are pricey http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/Intel+Core+2+Quad+Q9300+2.5GHz+%28Retail+775%29+?productId=30245 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommygun Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 This is a pretty good bundle. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-101-OK Memory is cheap as hell so adding another 2 gig would not cost you a lot. Also this is a pretty stable board if you wanted to overclock the cpu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 This would be a perfect starting place mate :- http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-101-OK Abit IP35 Pro Motherboard / Intel Q6600 Quad Core @ 3.3Ghz / 2GB (2x1GB) OCZ PC-8500 RAM / Tuniq Tower CPU Cooler £314.83 inc VAT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 This is a pretty good bundle. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-101-OK Memory is cheap as hell so adding another 2 gig would not cost you a lot. Also this is a pretty stable board if you wanted to overclock the cpu I wouldn't go with Abit and i wouldn't buy from overpriced either. Yeah Gav they are a bit pricey. I have a core2 as thats what was out at the time i was buying. Absolutely unbelievable difference it made to encoding etc. I'm not sold on the Quad core yet as there are even less applications that use it. This could be one of those applications though. U ever remember the days of rendering on Amiga's or other such computers? My cousin used to render images, one of them took 3 days lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 This is a pretty good bundle. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-101-OK Memory is cheap as hell so adding another 2 gig would not cost you a lot. Also this is a pretty stable board if you wanted to overclock the cpu That isn't a bad combo either really, not sure I've overclock it personally as I don't trust overclocked systems to be stable (I know it can be done as I used to do it ) Seems a fair price as well (I think) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 U ever remember the days of rendering on Amiga's or other such computers? My cousin used to render images, one of them took 3 days lol. Povray perchance? I wasn't an amiga boy, I was a ZX81, C64, 8086, x86 kiddie... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Wasn't Povray think it was something 4d. U mean the doorstop?? I had a 48k spectrum, a 128k spectrum, an amiga 600, an amiga 1200 and then finally onto PC's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TLicense Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 U ever remember the days of rendering on Amiga's or other such computers? My cousin used to render images, one of them took 3 days lol. lol, I remember waiting for literally days to render island images in vista. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 lol, I remember waiting for literally days to render island images in vista. Yep, type in some random numbers and wait two days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommygun Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 That isn't a bad combo either really, not sure I've overclock it personally as I don't trust overclocked systems to be stable (I know it can be done as I used to do it ) Seems a fair price as well (I think) LMAO You have never used one off our systems JG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P iP35 Socket 775 8-channel audio ATX Motherboard 132266 4 in stock £89.28 £75.98 £89.28 £75.98 Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18) Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty 130429 469 in stock £57.23 £48.70 £57.23 £48.70 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16GHz) Socket 775 Wolfdale 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor 140428 127 in stock £166.95 £142.08 £166.95 Thats what i would buy with that budget. Get yourself a "big typhoon" and some silver paste for the processor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Just got me thinking.... What was the bloody program's name that did the fractal images. I remember doing one and it must have taken 36 hours on my old 12...wait for it...Mhz PC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 The one my cousin used was the one used to make babylon 5. Think they used amiga 4000's though. He was stuck with a 1200. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 LMAO You have never used one off our systems JG I have no doubt the systems will be okay, however when it comes to putting my name against a design on something that requires 99.999% uptime I'd rather not risk it Sadly the geek me brought that mentality home and I gave up overclocking my systems at home and spec them up to do only what I need them to now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 The one my cousin used was the one used to make babylon 5. Think they used amiga 4000's though. He was stuck with a 1200. Lightwave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TLicense Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 Cheers for all the input so far guys. Keep it coming As far as my very limited computer knowledge seems to be able to tell, I should aim at an Intel processor for the reasons stated above. From what I can see socket 771 is the latest incarnation of Intel processor, and DDR3 is the latest ram technology? Is that correct?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Cheers for all the input so far guys. Keep it coming As far as my very limited computer knowledge seems to be able to tell, I should aim at an Intel processor for the reasons stated above. From what I can see socket 771 is the latest incarnation of Intel processor, and DDR3 is the latest ram technology? Is that correct?? Yup but i'm pretty sure for the amount of ram you need that will be outwith your budget. DDR2 is fine at the moment, DDR3 isn't THAT much better IYSWIM. Socket 771 is also expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TLicense Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TLicense Posted May 6, 2009 Author Share Posted May 6, 2009 Well it's only taken 9 months, but I've finally sorted my PC out. I've ordered the following:- Intel Nehalem i7 920 S1366 2.66Ghz processor Gigabyte S1366 Intel X58 DDR3 ATX Audio 2Gbe Lan 3 Channel motherboard Corsair 6GB 1600MHz DDR3 CL8 RAM XFX Geforce GTX 260 660MHz 896Mb DDR3 PCIE graphics card. Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB HDD Should be here tomorrow. I'm going to run a benchmark with my current setup and then after the upgrade. Am looking forward to seeing the difference it should make! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted May 6, 2009 Share Posted May 6, 2009 Well it's only taken 9 months, but I've finally sorted my PC out. I've ordered the following:- Intel Nehalem i7 920 S1366 2.66Ghz processor Gigabyte S1366 Intel X58 DDR3 ATX Audio 2Gbe Lan 3 Channel motherboard Corsair 6GB 1600MHz DDR3 CL8 RAM XFX Geforce GTX 260 660MHz 896Mb DDR3 PCIE graphics card. Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB HDD Should be here tomorrow. I'm going to run a benchmark with my current setup and then after the upgrade. Am looking forward to seeing the difference it should make! Wow thats a bit of a beast. I only have one criticism, you should have got the samsung spinpoint rather than the seagate. I don't know how samsung did it but my 1tb drive is almost 50% faster than every other drive i have. I'm seeing 80mb/s in nero drive check. 6gb of ram lol Did you manage that lot within budget? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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