Upgrading...i do photo/video work

[SaoFeng]

Hi all

I currently have a 3+ year old system.

i7 2600k
ASUS P8P67 DELUXE
16GB ram
NVIDIA Geforece GTX580
512GB OCZ Vertex4 HD
misc hard drives for storage
Corsair AX850 power supply

I do nearly all photo/video (using Adobe Premiere/photoshop/lightroom) editing on this thing.

I'd like to upgrade my system - what do you guys suggest I upgrade to? Or, should I just upgrade parts in my machine?

I have a budget of $1000-$2000.

I really want to get the new MacPro but I don't have $8k to spend!

Thanks!

 

[Essence_of_War]

That's still a pretty solid system!

Is there something in particular that your current build doesn't do adequately that you'd like it to do better? Offhand, you could probably add RAM because as you are probably familiar with, Photoshop will eat every ounce of RAM you're willing to throw at it. That's the only thing that jumps out at me without knowing more about your workflow and where your bottlenecks are, though.

 

[SaoFeng]

Haha is it pretty solid still? I remember upgrading every year haha

The biggest thing is that my system isn't that stable. Always hangs up or crashes. Kind of tired of it.

Maybe I should upgrade my motherboard and add ram? If so, what mb ?

 

[SaoFeng]

Also I've never gotten my USB 3.0 to work on my damn mb. No matter what drivers or bios updates I do.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Well if you'd like nice features like sata 6Gb/s ports, USB 3.0 etc Haswell and the associated chipsets are pretty good.

Hmmm...any indication of where the instability is caused by? I noticed you have a 'k' chip, are you OC'ing? Is it possible your OC has drifted unstable?

 

[SaoFeng]

I never oc'ed my chip.

Even when I had a fresh install, it was never 100% stable.

Maybe I just got a bad batch or something

 

[hackerballs]

could swap in a 77 MB to replace that 67 as it has better USB3 support and better RAM support. (I would not bother)(have you upgraded your BIOS yet? 3602? http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=1&s=39&m=P8P67%20DELUXE&os=29&hashedid=FpufhQASBFHNvccl

You could crank up the cpu quite a bit and you have no Bottlenecks there at all. Use a
aftermarket cpu cooler for that.

I assume you use Windows 7 x 64 but you could upgrade to Windows 8.1 x 64 bit. Reformat and upgrading the BIOS might just fix your crash problems. I would try this first before throwing out the PC.

This might be a very opportune time to upgrade your Monitor/speakers/keyboard/mouse. The new 1440p ISP monitors look nice http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...NG&PageSize=20

otherwise a very good rig

 

[Chapbass]

If it really isn't stable, I would look into troubleshooting it instead of building a new one, as yeah, your system is pretty solid still!

 

[Ken g6]

Even when I had a fresh install, it was never 100% stable.

Then you need to run diagnostics to see what's making it unstable. Have you checked your CPU temperatures to make sure your heat sink is installed properly? Have you tried memtest on your RAM? Do you have the latest nVidia drivers?

Edit: AKA what Chapbass said.

 

[SaoFeng]

I'll do a total rebuild. Any recommendations on diagnostic software?

 

[Ken g6]

I'll do a total rebuild.

By that you mean reassembly of what you have now, right?

Any recommendations on diagnostic software?

[thread=2195063]Idontcare has a few[/thread].

 

[SaoFeng]

I may want to upgrade my motherboard....any suggestions?

 

[richaron]

I would suggest not upgrading the PC at all, at least until you know what is wrong. A little OC would be similar to spending $hundreds on new hardware. Although, apart from stability, it doesn't sound like your current system is actually slowing you down.

If you want to buy something, why don't you blow some coin on a super sweet monitor and/or studio monitor speakers.

Edit: I added a PCIe USB3 card to my box...

 

[SaoFeng]

do you guys this it's worth it for me to upgrade to 32gb of ram from my original 16gb?

i was thinking of getting these modules:
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Ballis...8G3D1608ET3LX0

and buying two of those kits, because it's actually cheaper than buying a single 32gb kit! haha

 

[biostud]

What monitor do you have?

 

[SaoFeng]

i have a 30" dell (u3011) and a 24" dell (forgot the model number).

i was thinking of getting another 30" dell too

 

[SKORPI0]

Just upgrade your memory and video card. Or even fastest processor the LGA 1155 Intel P67 mobo supports.
You're not doing video re-encoding/remux are you?

 

[SaoFeng]

I edit weddings in premiere. Then I encode. Haha

 

[mfenn]

do you guys this it's worth it for me to upgrade to 32gb of ram from my original 16gb?

i was thinking of getting these modules:
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Ballis...8G3D1608ET3LX0

and buying two of those kits, because it's actually cheaper than buying a single 32gb kit! haha

Adding more memory won't make your computer faster unless you're exceeding your current 16GB capacity. Check out the Performance tab of the Task Manager while you're doing your most intensive workflow and see if the Available value gets really low.