Looking to upgrade desktop PC

[chef-]

Hi all, I am about to start heavily endulging myself in 3d art/animation/game creation. I need to upgrade.

I have an intel e6300 with 2gb of G.Skill DDR2 800 (5-5-5-15 if that matters) that i'd like to overclock since it's very capable and widely known that these can oc' pretty well. First - Is that amount of memory sufficient and fast enough? I know they make DDR2 1300 etc.. not up to date in that aspect.

Id like upgrading motherboard, video card, cooling and probably power-supply and hard-drive(ssd) down the road. I'm on a strict budget of $500.

Thinking:

MB: CrossFireX, ASUS TurboV & Turbo Key - O.C. Tool - ASUS P5Q Pro Turbo LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard $104.99 with Rebate

GFX CARD:HIS IceQ 5 H577QT1GD Radeon HD 5770 Turbo 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity $159.99 with Rebate

PS:Antech NEO ECO 620C 620W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
$64.99 with Rebate

If those work, I'll spend the rest(around $200) on cooling so I don't burn up my system. Any recommendations for cooling systems for that money, or will I need to spend more?

Thanks in advance!

 

[SOSTrooper]

Well since nobody took a stab at your request, I'll throw something out to start off, and hopefully we can refine this upgrade for you so you get the most out of your money.

Don't waste $200 on cooling. Use that money to get a quad core CPU instead. You're doing 3D animation, so I'm assuming you'll need all that cores to render your models. If you're very tight on budget like you said, then, I would look into getting a Q9300/Q9400 CPU. You can stick with your Asus P5Q choice, and maybe add 2 more pieces of 1GB DDR2 to make your system 4GB total. If you want to OC then get an aftermarket cooler like the Hyper 212+ which runs you about $30 and is very effective. But keep in mind the LGA775 platform is dead, so you're making an upgrade that many people made 2 years ago.

Unfortunately, the high memory prices really make it hard to stay under the budget if you want to jump platform. Ideally in your situation, if you can muster another $150 or so, I'd probably make the jump to something like an i7 860, a P55 motherboard, and 4GB of DDR3. With your hardware and the budget, you're really kinda stuck in a situation where you can't go guns blazing with the upgrade, so you're resorting to upgrading to outdated hardware.

 

[SOSTrooper]

double post

 

[chef-]

Thanks for the reply, and yes I realize that I'm making upgrades that some may have made 2 years ago, which is fine with me because I'm budget shopping. My budget is tight because I need to upgrade my monitor too, so that's going to run me around $250 as well.

Wouldn't a 150-175% overclocked e6300 do some justice in the 3d world?

Eventually I'm hoping with my new job I will be able to build a 2nd rig, but until then, I want to capitalize and make use of some of the good stuff I still have.

 

[chef-]

Also, I have a brand new set of pc6400 800mhz ddr2 ram(4gb ocz) in package I was going to sell to put towards the new mobo+vidcard etc....

But if you're saying I need more than 2gb for sure, then I suppose I could sel the 2gb and use the 4gb...

 

[superccs]

I recently bought a 6 core and CPU and mono for $215. That plus $100 in ddr3 ram, $170 for5770 gourmet and $65 for psu. Puts you only $50 or so over budget, which you can make up by selling your currrent stuff. You will end up with a system 4-5 times faster

 

[chef-]

Okay, I appreciate and will note that advice.

4-5x faster is definitely worth the extra buck or two... even if it means i gotta sell this old processor that i fell in love with 6 years ago.

Let me go ahead and sell some of my stuff...

 

[MisterDonut]

8gb of RAM + 1055T. Find some way to fit that into your budget? .

 

[jaydee]

I am not perfectly familiar with your specific computing needs, but it you can manage it, I'd put money towards an SSD (Kingston 64GB for ~$150), video card (5770 is good) and more RAM (2x1GB), then jump to a new platform Q1/Q2 2011 (Sandy Bridge or Bulldozer). All but the RAM you can carry over, and even the RAM should have decent resale value. I think that E6300 has life in yet, but by no means upgrade your motherboard to another socket-775.