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Rock County, MN | Some here have asked to share how's and what's, so for those considering a change for newer stuff here is the recommendations of one knowledgeable of video editing....these recommendations would perform well in most computing situations:
I was wanting to upgrade my system so that it had a little more speed. I was working with an old Q6600 (SLACR) that was overclocked from 2.4GHz to 3.2GHz. I started pricing the new Core i7 processors knowing I would have to replace the motherboard and RAM. Here is what I came up with:
Intel Core i7-950 for $284.99 (on sale), ASUS Sabertooth X-58 for $199.99, and 6GB G.Skill PI (6-8-6-20-2T) RAM for $164.99. Using my existing case, HDD, DVD writer and OS (Win7 x64), this kept the cost to under $700.00 for the entire upgrade. The performance increase is amazing. I have overclocked the processor to 3.6GHz easily and bumped up the RAM speed and QPI bus a modest amount as well.
Video editing can be a slow and tedious process, but with the Hyperthreaded cores of the i7-950, and really fast bus (and HDD's), the system clips along at a very astonishing pace. Using Microsoft's Expression Encoder 4 which can use all active cores/threads, the CPU jumps to about 87% and finishes a CBR 2-pass video conversion in about a third of the time as compared to my previous setup.
The reason for purchasing the Core i7-950 was price/performance. Doing an online comparison of the 900 series processors, I couldn't find a better deal. For the ASUS motherboard, the price point was the key reason I selected it. It had the SATA 6G connections (x2) I wanted, as well as other amenities, for a lot less than other X58 based boards. The RAM was selected purely for speed. The 6-8-6 timings made it very attractive for the price.
If anyone is wanting to do their own upgrade, I will give (2) points of advice. First, do the research. Find what you want for your price range, and make sure you know what it needs to work (compatibility). Second, do more research. Try to find the items on sale, or see if a store will give a discount for multiple items.
After having built many systems, both for myself and others, this was by far the most rewarding build. I got top of the line performance at a budget. Being able to use my older existing hardware gave me more benefit, and dropped the outlay by a large margin.
Regards, and happy upgrading!
Note that "video editing" was the primary driving functionality, and his choices might not coincide with appropriate choices for other applications, but the description of the system, the price information, and the reasons for selecting particular options are, to me, very valuable information.
Edited by bwire 11/4/2010 15:13
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Sharing...In response to your request, here goes
