Which CPU/Mobo to complete my build?

[TP]

This is a segway thread from my last thread... Basically I shined on getting a used LGA1156 45nm i7 cpu to finish my upgrade and am now considering completing my upgrade with a more current cpu/mobo.

My main intensive use of computer these days is image editing (16-bit raw files etc) and the next most is video editing...

I have 16gigs of Crucial (1333) DDR3 ready to go for this build.
My g-card is dated but still seems sufficient - Nvidia 7950GT
My PSU I think is still sufficient at 520 watts
SSD OS drive
3 data drives (1TB, 1TB, 1.5TB)

My remaining budget is basically as close to $200 as I can get for a cpu/mobo. Someone on the other post mentioned an ivy bridge quad core for $175, but I haven't found that deal yet. (Assuming that's an i5). I don't really care if it's AMD or Intel at this point I just want best bang for my buck for what I am doing...

Any recommendations?

 

[Torn Mind]

Based on Passmark, your graphics card is almost certainly crappy now and even a Radeon HD x6xx would be immense upgrade.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+7950+GT

 

[TP]

I was afraid someone would tell me that..

 

[TP]

Well after shopping I understand why i shouldn't get much response here... Best I could come up with for what seemed a decent situation with Intel (without adding a card as TM suggested) is $277. With a 6670 g-card my total is $356 ($346 after rebate). It's a good exercise anyway...

 

[mfenn]

Well after shopping I understand why i shouldn't get much response here...

You gotta wait more than two hours.

The 3350P is the Ivy Bridge quad that I was referring to in your other thread. It bounces between $170 and $180. The other $50 I was referring to was for a B75 motherboard. Note that $175 + $50 = $225, not $200.

i5 3350P $180
ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0 $50

If you want the best CPU/mobo that you can get for strictly less than than $200, check out AMD :

FX-6350 $130 AP
Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 $60 AR

 

[TP]

Sorry didn't mean to sound impatient... I was just saying that it's a tall order. Thanks for you input. Edit: unfortunately that board won't cut it for me as I need 4 ram slots.

Can anybody describe to me what the immense difference would be for my photography editing experience if I added an HD 6670 graphics card upgrade to this? Is it going to add to the speed of processing significantly? (That's obviously my biggest desire)

 

[Cerb]

What about using the i3, getting a nice new lower power video card, then just get something much better a bit later (such as a Xeon E3-1230V2+B75, or whatever good Haswell values come out, if any)? Your RAM will be good for another year, at least, as far as new parts support goes.

If you have a 2.2GHz or less C2D now, or any speed w/ 2MB or less of L2 cache, a 1st-gen i3 will still be a great upgrade. Make the free i3 count, and be part of the desktop PC market slump .

Sorry didn't mean to sound impatient... I was just saying that it's a tall order. Thanks for you input. Edit: unfortunately that board won't cut it for me as I need 4 ram slots.

Can anybody describe to me what the immense difference would be for my photography editing experience if I added an HD 6670 graphics card upgrade to this? Is it going to add to the speed of processing significantly? (That's obviously my biggest desire)

The main benefit to a new video card will be it not sounding like a jet engine, and saving a light bulb's worth of kWh/month. For most software The CPU and RAM are the majority of your performance.

 

[TP]

What about using the i3, getting a nice new lower power video card, then just get something much better a bit later...

This is what I am debating every day until the i3 arrives in the mail. Would a 3g i5 quad core cut my renders in half or more compared to the 1g i3 dual core? (This claim can be implied from what Sleepingforest said in the other thread I started...) If it really will then this is what really tempts me to upgrade now...

The main benefit to a new video card will be it not sounding like a jet engine, and saving a light bulb's worth of kWh/month. For most software The CPU and RAM are the majority of your performance.

If it's really just the noise and power usage that improves significantly with a graphics card upgrade, then it can wait a month or two or more...

 

[Sleepingforest]

It probably won't actually cut renders in half. Look at these benchmarks, keeping in mind that CS6 threads a bit better than CS4 (so you'd probably be looking at ~30% improvement rather than the 15% depicted in the bench).

 

[Cerb]

This is what I am debating every day until the i3 arrives in the mail. Would a 3g i5 quad core cut my renders in half or more compared to the 1g i3 dual core? (This claim can be implied from what Sleepingforest said in the other thread I started...) If it really will then this is what really tempts me to upgrade now...

Possibly, but probably not by that much. OTOH, the 1st-gen i3, for no cost right now, except a little time, will probably do that or better v. your Core 2, if it's one of the weaker models.

For rendering, CPUs right up to a Xeon E3-1230 V2, at this moment, can offer good performance for the money, and would offer quite a bit over the low-end IB i5 for that task, for about $80 more (MSI B75MA-P45+E3-1230V2).

Practically every quality video encoder or 3D renderer will not only use more cores, and faster cores, but get significant benefits from Hyperthreading, too.

Going ahead and using the i3 will make it easier, either way, since you can then have a feel for the performance of your baseline. If it's not enough, then go ahead and get better, and just include something like a 4GB RAM stick, so that you can then do something with the 1156 i3 guts.

i3-540 v. E4600 (2MB 2.4GHz C2D)
i3-540 v. E6550 (4MB 2.33GHz C2D)
i3-540 v. E6850 (4MB 3GHz C2D)
i3-540 v. E8600 (6MB 3.33GHz C2D)

Notice how it's a almost a side-grade to the fastest C2D, marginally faster than the fast Conroe, a good bit faster than the midrange Conroe, and far faster than the chopped-down Conroe (they lack benchmarks for the original 4MB L2 1.86 and 2.13GHz models).

 

[TP]

What you're saying def makes sense. I'll have to look at the Xeon to IB comparisons..

You're right I should try this i3 on for size since it's no further cash investment, to see what I get out of it and make the decision from there and buy me some time. Part of why I've been considering the further upgrade too is that my friend has been too busy to ship the chip to me so I have everything except that ready to go and the waiting is getting old. If it doesn't come this week I may break down (unless I can't hold on to the money. Gotta love those bills...).

 

[mfenn]

What you're saying def makes sense. I'll have to look at the Xeon to IB comparisons..

The Xeon E3-12xx V2 chips are Ivy Bridge, same as a Core i5/i7 3xxx. They're just branded for servers instead of desktops.