unexpected upgrade...

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 6:50 pm

oh, the things i have to suffer through.

now, this isn't my absolute first choice of hardware for an upgrade, but there was essentially $0 involved, so i'm going from:

intel E8500 (Core2Duo @ 3.16GHz)
8GB DDR2
Gigabyte board (P45-UD3 style)

to

AMD 1090T BE (6-core @ 3.2GHz)
RAM...still deciding
Asus m4a89gtd pro/usb3 (usb 3.0 and sata 6Gbps)

i'm a heavy photoshop user, so the i7-930 or higher was my ideal base, but performance is close enough with this and in general, a fair upgrade from the aging E8500. i'm also more of a gigabyte fan these days after my previous Asus had issues and was RMA'd.

so, it's rebuild time once i figure out the best RAM for this thing. then the pain of reinstalling.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 6:54 pm

If money is an issue, put 4Gb (2 x 2Gb) in it for now, and you can always add another 4Gb later on.

If you're a heavy Photoshop user then you'll appreciate more than 4Gb, but the system will still do a nice job with 4Gb. A lot depends how large an image you work on and how many layers you use.

Err · Post by **Err** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 7:04 pm

Nice MB. I recently built a system with the ASUS M4A87TD. The northbridge is different from the one you're getting but the southbridge is the same. If you're going to use the onboard sound, be forewarned that Windows 7 doesn't detect it for some reason. I couldn't figure out why I didn't have any sound when there wasn't any problems in the device manager. On top of that, the ATI card I installed had HDMI sound so I had a speaker in the tray. After I ran the setup for the onboard sound from the ASUS MB disc, everything was fine.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 10:03 pm

FP- agreed...typically, even when working on multiple large files, i am not over 4GB used on my current rig. i found some RAM that might work temporarily (just so i can get the build done), but will have to see if it works or not. i do a lot of scripted actions in CS5 and point to a folder with 100-200 images (~10MB each). it's cpu limited now and hopefully the additional cores will spread the love. intel is more efficient at photoshop work (usually), but i'm hoping this cpu is new enough that it'll add some decent speed. gaming hasn't been a problem at all w/ the E8500 + 4850, so that's a wash for me.

err- good tip...i'll keep that in mind while installing.

thanks!

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 12:30 am

Why not get an AM2+ board that supports the DDR2 that you already have. All the tests I've seen show a negligible performance difference between DDR2 & DDR3 due to the memory controller being integrated in the AMD CPUs.

Also, another thumbs up for Gigabyte. Compared to other brands I've worked with lately, the Gigabytes have been like rocks.

From the reviews I've found, the I7920 is only about 10-15% faster in Photoshop compared to this processor, but in the end that is not a monster huge difference & if Adobe refines it's multithreading capabilities it may get even better.

Here's some graphs I found with Photoshop CS4 doing various filters & such:

DaMaN · Post by **DaMaN** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 7:24 am

If you are looking to off the :

intel E8500 (Core2Duo @ 3.16GHz)
8GB DDR2
Gigabyte board (P45-UD3 style)

Let me know, I'd be interested.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 9:19 am

Good point on recycling the old memory. There really isn't THAT big a performance difference. With modern memory controllers, memory isn't the bottleneck it used to be.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 9:26 am

DaMaN wrote:If you are looking to off the :

intel E8500 (Core2Duo @ 3.16GHz)
8GB DDR2
Gigabyte board (P45-UD3 style)

Let me know, I'd be interested.

will do...i'll be looking to sell once the new rig is up and running (hopefully within a week or so).

regarding the memory, my DDR2 is 800MHz, so the 1333MHz DDR3 should be at least slightly better. i wouldn't mind recycling it on an AM2 board, but i didn't have a choice and the cpu/mobo came as a combo without much choice from my end.

Pugsley · Post by **Pugsley** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 11:36 am

Why are you upgrading?

I think im still running a dual core Intel with 4 gigs od ddr2 on xp. Only thing I do that requires any power is TF2. That's probably why I haven't upgraded in so long.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:50 pm

Well, if you got a combo, there's no going back, but even the 800 to 1333 difference isn't what you'd think. Couple percent overall.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 4:20 pm

Pugsley wrote:Why are you upgrading?

I think im still running a dual core Intel with 4 gigs od ddr2 on xp. Only thing I do that requires any power is TF2. That's probably why I haven't upgraded in so long.

$0 other than RAM...basically a gift. i didn't have the option to select exactly what i wanted, so the combo listed is what i got.

Pugsley · Post by **Pugsley** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 7:36 pm

oh... I thought something broke... One think I hate about upgrading is the fresh OS install. The first week never feels quite right, then I get the computer back to a state it was in before the upgrade. If it wasn't for that I might upgrade more often... and use linux.