I need to upgrade!

[vincarrillo]

What we have:

CUP - AMD Athlon 64 FX-74 Windsor 3.0GHz
MOBO - ASUS L1N64-SLI WS
GPU - BFG GeForce 9800 OC 1GB PCI-E
CASE - Thermaltake VA8000BWS Super Tower, with hernia inducement
PSU - Corsair TX750W

What we want:

CPU - ?
MOBO - ASUS Crosshair III Formula AM3 (saw the review at Tech Reaction)
GPU - same or possibly 2 with Quadro's
CASE - something not so heavy!
PSU - same

We all have the same specs for graphic design and after hours lan parties and are looking to swap out all computers - 4 in all. Any suggestions on upgrade paths and CPU coolers just in case the stock cooler is worthless?

 

[Marshmallow64]

whats your budget? For Cpu get the Phenom II 955 or 965.

 

[QuietIce]

The stock cooler is OK if you're not going to OC. If you are going to OC here's a list of good CPU coolers you might look at ...

http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

 

[vincarrillo]

whats your budget? For Cpu get the Phenom II 955 or 965.

Budget is not really a consideration; we write-off most business expenses. I see in your sig you use the Phenom II X3 720 3.5 Ghz - what do you use this primarily for and are you happy with it? Any case suggestions? QuietIce, thanks for the link!

 

[QuietIce]

Just re-read your first post and I missed something that's very relevant to your processor decision. Is your graphics design software multi-threaded, dual-threaded, or single threaded? That makes all the difference in the world. For multi-threaded the obvious CPU choice is the 955. For dual-threaded I'd go with the 720 X3, two cores to process graphics and one to run other tasks and O/S overhead. If it's a single-threaded app then the dual-core 550 would be a fine choice. In all cases having L3 should speed up processing in graphics apps ...

 

[vincarrillo]

Multi-threaded. We use Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Flash and Premier extensively. I appreciate the suggestions especially since we typically upgrade every two years and prefer the hardware to last us as long as our software.

 

[QuietIce]

The 955BE is what you need then - Photoshop will use every bit of it ...

 

[Marshmallow64]

i acutally use my phenom II 720 for only gaming, web surfing, chatting, and movies. My case is the antec 1200. But I take it that since you are in an office environment and doing different things you might want a different case. Look into the antec 182. It is a good case with no side window.

You will want a quad core for the things you are doing. Ill stick with my first suggestion of 955 or 965.

 

[vincarrillo]

First, thanks for all the replies and suggestions. We got our first delivery; 1 Crosshair III Formula, 1 Phenom II X4 955 3.2, and 2 x 1GB 1066 1333mhz. Looking inside the mobo box, does anyone suggest we replace our Creative X-Fi with the supplied SupremeFX X-Fi?

 

[ekoh]

which creative x-fi do you have? IF its the Extreme Audio , go for it, anything above that i would keep what you have.

 

[moonshake]

If you use A. Premier extensively go for a quad core. As mem modules are fairy cheap right now, buying 2x 2gb of mem would be a better - and also future proof- choice.

 

[vincarrillo]

which creative x-fi do you have? IF its the Extreme Audio , go for it, anything above that i would keep what you have.

Thanks for the suggestion. Each machine has an X-Fi Platinum, so with your suggestion we will leave the sound element as-is.

If you use A. Premier extensively go for a quad core. As mem modules are fairy cheap right now, buying 2x 2gb of mem would be a better - and also future proof- choice.

We received our first 'test' order with 2 sticks of 1GB each. We are planning to install Windows 7 a month or so after the initial release - I believe Win 7 caps out at about the same limit of RAM as XP, which is 2GB's. Is this correct?

 

[Bobnova]

XP 32bit caps at 3gb, 64bit doesn't really have a cap, win7 likes 4gb more then 2, and 6 more then 4. I don't know where it stops being useful, but i would make 2x2gb ram the minimum personally.
Definitely a quad core for adobe stuff, it utilizes four threads quite well (built a PS4 photo processing computer for my dad with an AMD quad, it runs nice and quick).

 

[Mjolnir]

Photoshop only has specific filters and such that use all cores.. But a good portion of it is still single-threaded.. Anyways, though Im unsure about the Quaddro, etc, Yes def go the quad for any other Adobe program.

And your options for RAM are either 4gb or 8gb, thats my suggestion anyway. I run 8GB and its quite fine, running both photoshop and After effects at the same time and still going strong =). (CS3 only, they can both only use up to 4gb each anyway). AFAIK Photoshop CS4 is 64 bit right? Or has a 64 bit version.. So 8gb would be great. (I say 8 as well to keep the whole dual-channel thing), whereas 6gb wouldn't be dual. 6gb is more an i7 tri-channel thing XD.

My $0.02

 

[tweakboy]

Also for video card get geforce 260 216 core for around 150 bones. gl