Recommendations for system upgrade

[Chrisroman]

My current system is in sig. I plan to reuse whatever I can.


1) What will you be doing with this PC?

• Heavy web (Internet Explorer) based work (Many work resources are cloud based. CRM, Email, etc...). Between work and research I typically have 30+ tabs open during the day. Current system actually seems to struggle with the most with this web based work. Especially the 7970, that gives displayport errors now and then, and well as screen flickering. I'm not sure why 2D work is stressing this card so much, but a GPU upgrade may be needed.
  
• MS Office Suite - Generally have 7-10 Word, Excel documents and Outlook open during the day. These don't seem to have any impact on current system. At least with Office 2010. I tried upgrade to 2013 and it brought my system to it's knees. So I'm just sticking with 2010 for now, it does what I need.
  
• Adobe CS5 - Occasionally will fire up InDesign or Photoshop during the day.
  
• VMware (Typically have 2-3 VM's open concurrently). I currently have 24GB Ram which has been fine, but I wouldn't mind bumping up to 32GB+. I personally like having a block level cache setup, and the more cache the better... I notice the difference when its there.
  
• Video editing (Adobe Premier) - This is just part time hobby as I work through years of family footage on MiniDV.
  
• Light gaming. I don't game much and when I do, I almost always game on a single 30" screen. A single 7970 can't push 3x30" and I don't have the patience to deal with crossfire issues.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

• I'd like to keep this under $1,500 USD, with an absolute cap of $2,000

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

• California, USA

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.

• MB, CPU, RAM, possibly GPU

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

• See current system in sig below

6) Will you be overclocking?

• Maybe, but stability is crucial, I can't afford downtime.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

• 3x30" (7680x1600)

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

• ASAP

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI
support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.

• Essential - Stable, fast SATA 6Gb controller. Need something that can handle a Samsung Pro and possibly a 3x256GB Samsung Pro RAID 0 setup down the road. Current controller gives me about half of the Samsung Pro's rated throughput.
  
• Absolute minimum of 24GB ram support. Support for 32GB+ preferred.
  
• Essential - hardware acceleration for VMware
  
• Not interested in crossfire/SLI unless absolutely needed

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

• Win8 Pro x64 license.

 

[Dangman]

]Heavy web (Internet Explorer) based work (Many work resources are cloud based. CRM, Email, etc...). Between work and research I typically have 30+ tabs open during the day. Current system actually seems to struggle with the most with this web based work.

Out of curiosity, have you tried using a different web browser? What exactly do mean when you say your system struggles with the web based work? Besides the GPU I mean. I ask because I easily have 30 or more tabs open with my system and it doesn't struggle unless I have multiple flash content going on at the same time.

Especially the 7970, that gives displayport errors now and then, and well as screen flickering. I'm not sure why 2D work is stressing this card so much, but a GPU upgrade may be needed.

What do you mean by "displayport errors"?

Also, are you constantly running out of RAM or nearing your max amount of RAM?

 

[Chrisroman]

I definitely must use IE for the CRM (MS Dynamics) and a couple other web apps, but I suppose I could use a different browser for everything else.. The other thing I noticed is this.

When pages are loading, the entire browser will freeze, cant scroll or move the browser window. and sometimes... maybe 2-3 times a day I'll get the "Internet Explorer is not responding" and have to close all instances of IE and start over.

The displayport error is,

"DisplayPort Link Failure
The system has detected a link failure and cannot set the requested resolution and refresh rate on your DisplayPort display. Your display might not support the requested resolution or there may be an issue with the cable connecting the display to your computer"

I've replaced the cables once, but that didn't solve the issue.

So needless to say. There are enough issues that Im ready for a system update.

 

[Dangman]

I definitely must use IE for the CRM (MS Dynamics) and a couple other web apps, but I suppose I could use a different browser for everything else.. The other thing I noticed is this.

When pages are loading, the entire browser will freeze, cant scroll or move the browser window. and sometimes... maybe 2-3 times a day I'll get the "Internet Explorer is not responding" and have to close all instances of IE and start over.

That might be due to software issue than a hardware issue. Try resetting IE settings and restore advanced settings in IE. You can find that options by looking in the Internet Options in the Control Panel. Select the Advanced tab. You'll find the settings you need to restore/reset there. From what I've seen, doing that tends to clear up quite a few IE issues.

The displayport error is,
..
I've replaced the cables once, but that didn't solve the issue.

Well, here's the deal: In terms of GPU performance, you're honestly not going to be able to find a card that'll provide noticeable performance increase over your current HD 7970 that would be worth the money. So you're looking at a side-grade pretty much. With that said, if you go the Nvidia route, you don't have to use display port cable as Nvidia's GPUs can support 3 GPUs via DVI or HDMI without issue. That way you don't have to deal with Displayport. So I recommend this GPU since it's equal to your HD 7970 at worst and a tad faster at best in games:
$400 - MSI N770 TF 2GD5/OC GTX 770 2GB PCI-E Video Card

So needless to say. There are enough issues that Im ready for a system update.

If you're fine with 24GB of RAM, I would just do the above GPU sidegrade and IE reset first before doing a new build and see if that changes anything.

 

[Dangman]

But if you still want to do an upgrade, then here's what I recommend:

$568 - Intel Core i7-3930K CPU
$320 - Asus Sabertooth X79 Intel X79 Motherboard
$230 - 2 x Crucial BLS2CP8G3D1609DS1S00 Ballistix Sport 2 x 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$400 - MSI N770 TF 2GD5/OC GTX 770 2GB PCI-E Video Card
---
Total: $1518 shipped

You gain an extra two cores plus the higher clock for clock performance of each core/thread. You're also starting off with 32GB of RAM and can max out at 64GB of RAM in the future if you wish. Or reuse some of your current RAM and add it on to the computer for a max of 48GB of RAM. You're also getting enough PCI-E bandwidth for any SATA 6.0GB/s RAID controller you decide to buy in the future for that SSD RAID setup. Yes that mobo does have four SATA 6.0Gb/s ports but they're split into two different storage controllers which means that you won't be able to do more than a two SSD RAID 0 array with the SATA 6.0Gb/s ports.

The above setup should provide a noticeable performance increase over your current system with your usage.

 

[Chrisroman]

But if you still want to do an upgrade, then here's what I recommend:

$568 - Intel Core i7-4770K CPU
$320 - Asus Sabertooth X79 Intel X79 Motherboard
$230 - 2 x Crucial BLS2CP8G3D1609DS1S00 Ballistix Sport 2 x 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$400 - MSI N770 TF 2GD5/OC GTX 770 2GB PCI-E Video Card
---
Total: $1518 shipped

You gain an extra two cores plus the higher clock for clock performance of each core/thread. You're also starting off with 32GB of RAM and can max out at 64GB of RAM in the future if you wish. Or reuse some of your current RAM and add it on to the computer for a max of 48GB of RAM. You're also getting enough PCI-E bandwidth for any SATA 6.0GB/s RAID controller you decide to buy in the future for that SSD RAID setup. Yes that mobo does have four SATA 6.0Gb/s ports but they're split into two different storage controllers which means that you won't be able to do more than a two SSD RAID 0 array with the SATA 6.0Gb/s ports.

The above setup should provide a noticeable performance increase over your current system with your usage.

"K" series isn't an option since it doesn't support VT-d, or TSX for that matter. And overclocking isn't important for this current setup. Any advantages moving to a Xeon system, other than two physical processors? I'm looking for more of a workstation setup, I wonder if I should go in that direction.

 

[Dangman]

"K" series isn't an option since it doesn't support VT-d, or TSX for that matter. And overclocking isn't important for this current setup.

Well, I accidentally listed the wrong CPU (but linked the right CPU): The Core i7 3930K does support VT-D according to Intel:
http://ark.intel.com/products/63697

It's the mainstream K series that don't support VT-D. Also, I recommend the 3930K since it's the cheapest Intel six-core CPU out there that isn't a Xeon.

Any advantages moving to a Xeon system, other than two physical processors? I'm looking for more of a workstation setup, I wonder if I should go in that direction.

You do get to use ECC RAM which means less chance of corrupted files. However, you may have to switch out your case if your case does not support eATX motherboards and if you want to go the dual socket 2011 route. It would also mean a rather substantial price increase since you have to use ECC RAM with a Xeon system and those will cost more than regular RAM.

 

[Chrisroman]

I looked at the Xeon setups, and holy shite they are expensive! Nice, very nice, but way outside my budget. The 3930K looks like a winner. Thanks for recommendation, Supports VT-x and VT-d. Up to 64GB of ram... I think this chip will do very nicely.

What motherboard do you recommend?

 

[Chrisroman]

Above post should have read, "What motherboard do you recommend that supports 4x SATA6 RAID with onboard controller?

I'm not seeing a lot of options. I did find an ASrock with an onboard LSI controller with 4 SATA3 ports, but reviews were pretty bad.... will keep searching...

 

[Dangman]

Above post should have read, "What motherboard do you recommend that supports 4x SATA6 RAID with onboard controller?

I'm not seeing a lot of options. I did find an ASrock with an onboard LSI controller with 4 SATA3 ports, but reviews were pretty bad.... will keep searching...

That will support the 3930K? Nothing. If you Want that four SATA 6.0GB/s raid capability in a motherboard, you will have to downgrade the CPU and limit yourself to only 32GB of RAM. Not sure if you Want to do that.