Upgrade Suggestions

[PeterRead]

Hello all,

 

I am a gamer, 2D/3D artist and video creator/editor. I do all of these things on a regular basis and I would love feedback on an upgrade. I have a budget of $1000 maximum, but I don't need to spend all of it. I just need to upgrade what is necessary.

 

Current Specs:

 

Intel Core-i7 3820 CPU

Asus P9X79 Motherboard

Corsair 750W PSU

AMD Radeon 7950 GPU

OCZ Vertex 2 SSD

WD Green 1.5TB Storage HDD

16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz RAM

Corsair Carbide 500R Case

 

The machine is very good as is, but I'm looking for more performance.

 

I'm thinking of upgrading to 64GB of Ram for video and 3D work, but not too sure how much performance gain I will see? (Programs are Premiere Pro and 3DS Max/Maya all in 64-bit on 64-bit Windows 7..)

 

I'm also thinking of replacing my current OCZ SSD to a couple of Samsung 840 Pro 120gb SSD's, one for boot and another for programs/games.

 

Would it be worth spending money on another CPU from the 2011 socket range to get better performance from Maya and Premiere Pro in particular? What sort of benefits might I be looking at the new Haswell CPU's over the 2011 range?

 

Thanks for suggestions guys, appreciate it. 

 

Peace, xo

[Akula]

Are you currently using all your RAM under load? If Not, don't bother.

The 3820 is still a great CPU, upgrading to the 3930k/3970x will be a huge waste so don't even consider this.

 

You have a very well rounded system already, it's hard to pin-point upgrades, but looking over it id say you could use a new SSD/Storage drive, and even then i couldn't guarantee huge performance gains.

[PeterRead]

Not quite, normally around 9-10gb out of my 12gb (I did purchase a 16Gb corsair kit but one of the DIMM's was fault and did not work).

 

I'm thinking it's more or less my CPU, because rendering times in Premiere Pro aren't the best. For example, Premiere Pro renders a video into a 720x406 H.264 movie with 320kpbs AAC audio at about 1 sec video footage = 1 sec rendering time ratio, with an 8 thread/4 core CPU shouldn't that be a lot quicker?

 

Would a switch to nVidia for GPU make a big difference (say for example I went with a GTX 780) instead of another 7950 in SLI for 2D and 3D work?

[sk8ermanblue]

I would say this wou

 

Not quite, normally around 9-10gb out of my 12gb (I did purchase a 16Gb corsair kit but one of the DIMM's was fault and did not work).

 

I'm thinking it's more or less my CPU, because rendering times in Premiere Pro aren't the best. For example, Premiere Pro renders a video into a 720x406 H.264 movie with 320kpbs AAC audio at about 1 sec video footage = 1 sec rendering time ratio, with an 8 thread/4 core CPU shouldn't that be a lot quicker?

 

Would a switch to nVidia for GPU make a big difference (say for example I went with a GTX 780) instead of another 7950 in SLI for 2D and 3D work?

i would say the switch to the green team makes the most sense for you as adobe loves cuda. I personally have a 7950 and love it for gaming. I would say that for 650 bucks and getting the rest of your 16 gig kit up and running as well as a larger ssd 240-256 gig like 840 pro would be your best bet.

[WoodenMarker]

Not quite, normally around 9-10gb out of my 12gb (I did purchase a 16Gb corsair kit but one of the DIMM's was fault and did not work).

 

I'm thinking it's more or less my CPU, because rendering times in Premiere Pro aren't the best. For example, Premiere Pro renders a video into a 720x406 H.264 movie with 320kpbs AAC audio at about 1 sec video footage = 1 sec rendering time ratio, with an 8 thread/4 core CPU shouldn't that be a lot quicker?

 

Would a switch to nVidia for GPU make a big difference (say for example I went with a GTX 780) instead of another 7950 in SLI for 2D and 3D work?

Using this: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/14186-how-to-get-nvidia-cuda-support-in-adobe-creative-suite-6-for-gtx-gpus/

My render time in premiere pro using a 3570k @ 4.6ghz and 560 ti 1gb went from 45 seconds to 6-7. You'll probably see a very large improvement if you do that. 

I'd say a 660 ti/670 should be fine though considering I only have a 560 ti and it's rocking pretty well.

 

Also, a nice 256gb samsung 840 pro might be a good investment.

[PeterRead]

Do you guys think the 840 Pro is the best option in terms of SSD? Do you think it would impact performance much if I went to a Corsair, Kingston or Intel?

[WoodenMarker]

Do you guys think the 840 Pro is the best option in terms of SSD? Do you think it would impact performance much if I went to a Corsair, Kingston or Intel?

The samsung 840's are the best consumer grade ssd's right now--Performance AND price. http://ssdboss.com/ssds/the-best-ssds

It's up to you if the 840 Pros are worth the extra money.