Upgrading this old rig...

[cLaWz]

Current specs are in my sig but I'm looking to upgrade. College student so I can't go to crazy, looking to spend 800 or less if possible. Basically as low as I can go but still have a system that will last awhile.

This old machine is showing its age. Biggest problem is more then likely the video card (9800 Non Pro) so I wanted to get some advice.

I'm currently looking at something like this...

E6400
Gigabyte DS3
2 GB of DDR2 667 or 800 (depending on what I actually need to have)
7900 GT (or similiar)

Think this will last me a good long while and be worth the money to upgrade? I do alot of 3ds MAX rendering/encoding, video encoding, and of course GAMING. Heavy gamer.. so I might actually go up higher in the video dept. Would it be worth dropping down to an E6300 to upgrade to a better vid card?

Suggestions welcome.

 

[Lyquist]

I am looking at building a similar system. I don't have advice for you yet, but maybe we can both learn something from this thread

Lyquist

 

[yevaud]

... I do alot of 3ds MAX rendering/encoding...

I'm using a 6800GT softmodded to a quadro 4000 Running an E6400 at 2.4Ghz on an Asrock Dual VSTA mobo with 1gb of pc4000 ddr ram at 500 mhz.
Here's my Specview perf 9.0 result for 3ds MAX:
---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 23.01

Compare this to an X6800 on an Asus P5N32-SLI delux using an XFX 7900GT Pcie card:
---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 16.58

Or to an FX-62 running on a M2N32-SLI mobo using an XFX 7900GT Pcie card:
---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 12.26

Here is a link to my SOURCE for the comparison info. Depending upon how much you value improving your rendering time in 3ds MAX you might consider going a similar route. You can pick up a softmoddable 6800GT for around $240 and reuse your memory. That would mean just another say $299 for an E6400 and $60 for a mobo. Total price $600.

Run Specviewperf 9.0 on your current rig to get an idea of how much you can improve your rendering rate.

 

[cLaWz]

According that source page ya linked, higher is better. Which mean's my current rig is horrible lol.


---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 5.289

---------- SUM_RESULTS\CATIA\SUMMARY.TXT
catia-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 7.504

---------- SUM_RESULTS\ENSIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
ensight-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 4.143

---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
light-08 Weighted Geometric Mean = 7.646

---------- SUM_RESULTS\MAYA\SUMMARY.TXT
maya-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 7.627

---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT
proe-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 5.007

---------- SUM_RESULTS\SW\SUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 9.935

---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGNX\SUMMARY.TXT
ugnx-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 4.157

---------- SUM_RESULTS\TCVIS\SUMMARY.TXT
tcvis-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 2.804

Went ahead and ran em all just to do a full benchmark. Only thing I do not like about your comparison source is its the high end Conroes. Would love to see some info from like the 6300-6600 range.

 

[aldamon]

Would it be worth dropping down to an E6300 to upgrade to a better vid card?

YES

 

[yevaud]

Only thing I do not like about your comparison source is its the high end Conroes. Would love to see some info from like the 6300-6600 range.

Well, I also ran the test with my video card in 6800GT "mode" and the latest Nvidia drivers. Here are the results (running same E6400 proc at same OC, with same ram):

---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 10.67

---------- SUM_RESULTS\CATIA\SUMMARY.TXT
catia-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 10.55

---------- SUM_RESULTS\ENSIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
ensight-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 6.997

---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
light-08 Weighted Geometric Mean = 11.73

---------- SUM_RESULTS\MAYA\SUMMARY.TXT
maya-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 14.70

---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT
proe-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 6.698

---------- SUM_RESULTS\SW\SUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 12.40

---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGNX\SUMMARY.TXT
ugnx-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 1.359

---------- SUM_RESULTS\TCVIS\SUMMARY.TXT
tcvis-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 1.574

And here are the complete results with the softmodded 6800GT AGP card:

---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 23.01

---------- SUM_RESULTS\CATIA\SUMMARY.TXT
catia-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 24.46

---------- SUM_RESULTS\ENSIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
ensight-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 13.26

---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
light-08 Weighted Geometric Mean = 27.13

---------- SUM_RESULTS\MAYA\SUMMARY.TXT
maya-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 18.06

---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT
proe-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 17.99

---------- SUM_RESULTS\SW\SUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 27.04

---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGNX\SUMMARY.TXT
ugnx-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 7.098

---------- SUM_RESULTS\TCVIS\SUMMARY.TXT
tcvis-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 4.587

As you can see, the softmodded 6800GT makes the biggest impact. Thing is, you can only mod the AGP cards- the newer PciE cards are unmoddable. If you want to beat my score with a Pcie only mobo and something from the 7900gen, you're going to have to buy a PCIe quadro like THIS ONE for $556.

 

[cLaWz]

So its obvious the video card makes the biggest difference. I game a ton though, so I want this rig to be viable for that for a good while to come. Been looking between these:

ATI 1900XT(X)
7900 GT(X)

then going with what I mentioned above.

E6300
Gigabyte DS3
2 x 1 GB Patriot DDR2 667

 

[yevaud]

E6300 = $203.00
Gigabyte DS3 = $159.12
2 x 1 GB Patriot DDR2 667 = $163.98
Subtotal = $526.10

The graphics cards you reference are going to cost you from:

$326.12 atiXT
$399.40 atixtx
$270.63 7900gt
$436.12 7900gtx

Of these I'd pick the 7900gt if I were you. If for no other reason than that if you've been playing games on an 9800 non pro up to now, you're going to be very happy with the jump in performance a 6800GT would give you- and the 7900gt would be moderately faster. I would not dump any more money that that into a video card that will be superceded by the DX10 gen in a few months.
So with the GT, your total would be $796.73-- just under your stated budget target. Only problem I can think of is that you have not listed your PS specs. Going to the DX9 gen video card is going to put a larger load on your ps than the 9800 did- and that may not be totally mitigated by the consumption drop in the C2D- if you overclock.

 

[cLaWz]

Yeah, right around the prices I have been seeing. Why I was looking into that stuff.

Right now I have an Antec 350W True Power PSU. Not sure if its gonna be enough juice or not. It could be... only stuff not listed in my sig is my DVD burner, HD, NIC, and my Audigy sound card. Not alot of power consumption.

-EDIT-

Found this nice PSU config at http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

Put it all the parts Im looking to buy plus my current stuff and it came out to about 315 watts needed. Thats including a overclock to 3.0 ghz at 1.4 v core (just in case I get that high )
Without the overclock it only needs 250 so I should be good for now.