What upgrade path to take?

[smesx]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
General browsing, gaming, hd video encoding off the DVR... Parts that are switched out will go towards an HTPC
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
raised from $500 to $800
3) Where do you live?
Indiana
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
That is the question.... I am thinking CPU/MB/RAM is the next upgrade but wanted others opinions.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I like my Lian Li V350, MB's would have to be mATX, will reuse SSD, HD's, optical, 5870 and possible the PSU, already have a mATX case for HTPC
6) Will you be overclocking?
yes some, nothing too extreme though, i'm no longer using my custom watercooling
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
2x24" HP LP2465 + 1x24" HP LP2475w. Eyefinity kicks ass!
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Not pressing, doing research now on the next upgrade... within 2-3 months though.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
raid, firewire, eSATA, mATX, preferably good cooling on NB/SB already, USB3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s wouldn't be bad either
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Student W7 pro x64

I've been looking at putting together a HTPC capable of 1080p x264 playback. Rather than build something new for that I'd like to upgrade my main box and reuse my current mb/cpu/ram + my old HD4850 for the HTPC.

I feel like I've been following a pretty good upgrade path having replaced my 4850 with a 5870 and my raptor with a X25-M g2 before upgrading cpu/mb/ram. I'm actually fairly pleased with the performance on my current setup except for encoding time. I've really been going back and forth on if I should spend less money on an HTPC setup, or more money on future proofing my main box and doing a hand-me-down HTPC. Then I run into the cost/benifit of i7(more than $500) vs Phenom II X4 for encoding.

I'd be curious to know what type of percent decrease in time i7 or PII X4 would do for x264 encoding vs my E8500 @ 3.8GHz.

 

[Dangman]

You can see the performance difference with Core i5, Core i7, AMD Athlon, and AMD Phenom CPUs, in video encoding with these reviews:
http://hardocp.com/article/2009/09/07/intel_lynnfield_core_i5_i7_processors/4
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i7-870_10.html#sect0
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/01/04/intel-core-i5-661-core-i3-530-cpu-review/6

Though I would not recommend reusing that PSU. So with that in mind, an AMD Phenom or Core i5 750 build would be your best bet. I recommend this replacement PSU:
$100 - Corsair 650TX 650W PSU

 

[engiNURD]

If you replaced your mobo/cpu/ram, would you get a regular case, or stick with the V350? 'cuz I was gonna say move everything except the HD5870 and X25-M to the HTPC, and grab a new mobo/cpu/ram/case/psu for your main system that you'd be using for encoding, then a new hdd (F3 500GB) and cheap vidcard (HD 4550 or better) for your htpc.

 

[smesx]

@Danny Bui
Thanks for the links. Didnt realize how much intel owns amd for encoding/transcoding. Also, I suppose I would need an extra PSU for the HTPC so I could upgrade that too, wasnt thinking about that in the total cost though so that sucks.

 

[smesx]

@enginurd
I'd like to keep the V350 for my main rig. I have a spare mATX case for my HTPC. Was going to put my HD4850 I have laying around in the HTPC. Also already have a HD that I could use for the HTPC, an old raptor, all media comes of a WHS box so space isnt an issue. But good point on the F3, I have a 1TB and its faster than the old 74GB raptor. Great HDD.

 

[Dangman]

@Danny Bui
Thanks for the links. Didnt realize how much intel owns amd for encoding/transcoding. Also, I suppose I would need an extra PSU for the HTPC so I could upgrade that too, wasnt thinking about that in the total cost though so that sucks.

You can use the OCZ PSU in the HTPC but not the new PC upgrades.

 

[smesx]

Ok. So I did some soul searching (and money searching) over the weekend. Listed several things on ebay to sell and am highly considering bumping my price up to the $800 range.

What I am looking at so far.

89.99 Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W Just dropped the price today by an extra $30

209.99 ASUS Rampage II GENE LGA 1366 Intel X58 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

54.99 Noctua NH-U9B SE2 92mm SSO CPU Cooler One of only a few coolers that will fit well into my V350 case

433.98 Intel Core i7 920 + OCZ Gold 3x2GB DDR3 Combo [+$20 mail in rebate]

Add in about $10 for shipping an that comes out to $799.58. So i have 42 cents to spend.....

I lean towards the 1366 because it seems like a more future minded platform. I also figured since I jumped in the high end for the SSD and the 5870 I may as well jump in for the CPU. Thoughts???

 

[Dangman]

Looks good to me. That PSU price is a sales price BTW so you might want to buy the PSU ASAP.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device

 

[smesx]

Bought...

 

[engiNURD]

Looks good to me. That PSU price is a sales price BTW so you might want to buy the PSU ASAP.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device

Amz has the tp-750 blue for the same price, for my fellow cali peepz. ... and if any of you would like to spot me for one, i'd greatly appreciate it (just threw down cash for another ssd, lol, otherwise, i'd be grabbin a couple of these, hehe ).