Upgrade or buy new PC?

For normally I using my PC for Movie Editor and video encoding. However I used this PC for 3.5 years.

Current Spec is

M/B : Tyan S2696
CPU : Intel Single Xeon X5365 (Quad core 3.0 GHz)
Memory : DDR2 4GB with ECC
GPU : Nvidia GeForce GTX 470
HDD : SSD+SATA+SAS
OS : Windows 7 (64 Bit)

I think this spec is not enough for me anymore.
Please help me decide, Should I upgrade it or buy the new one?

Thank you& Sorry for my english

Reply to exssrerion

A more modern system would certainly help you. Do not know what your budget is, but something like the Core i7-2600 has proven to be quite good at video editing. Bumping up to 8gb ram will also help a little.

It seems your motherboard has another CPU socket on it as well. Perhaps if you could find an additional Xeon X5365 and add 4 more gb ram, that may be sufficient. Unfortunately I am not really up on dual processor systems, so I would have to defer to someone else on the procedure. I do not know if you can just pop in an extra CPU or if you have to do a reinstall. I do know you can just pop in extra ram.

Message quoted 1 times

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Reply to tlmck

tlmck wrote :

A more modern system would certainly help you. Do not know what your budget is, but something like the Core i7-2600 has proven to be quite good at video editing. Bumping up to 8gb ram will also help a little.

It seems your motherboard has another CPU socket on it as well. Perhaps if you could find an additional Xeon X5365 and add 4 more gb ram, that may be sufficient. Unfortunately I am not really up on dual processor systems, so I would have to defer to someone else on the procedure. I do not know if you can just pop in an extra CPU or if you have to do a reinstall. I do know you can just pop in extra ram.

The problem is that CPU has been discontinued. And I'd really hesitate to recommend buying one off eBay because there's a lot of shady sellers selling PC parts. 771 is quite a bit old now so I agree that it'd make more sense to buy a new system. I'd say go with an Asus 1155 workstation board, Xeon E3-1270 and an ATI Fire Pro. You can certainly reuse a lot of already existing hardware (case, PSU, HD, optical, etc) if that helps improve your budget.

Message edited by g-unit1111 on 01-27-2012 at 07:54:07 PM

My take. It's not just about the CPU or GPU performance that I look at. It is the features that have been added to the "NEWER" MB. If you upgrade your system you might up the performance - the question is it it worth it.

Upgrade path - NO USB 3, No SATA III (6). The SATA III really only benifits the SATA III SSD (hybrid HDDs will be coming out that will use sata II/III) - BUT upgrading to a SSD removes the single Biggest Bootleneck on computer. USB 3 is not a biggy, but it Does provide a significant boost to BU external HDDs and provides a good boost to USB 3 Thumbdrives. And OFcoarse the newer CPUs are considerably faster on a perclock basis.

Bottom Line - new build with a SB CPU (ie I5-2500k) and a Z68 MB. With that you can take advantage of Quick sync and Lucid to improve your Video work. As stated above, you can reuse some components and upgrade them later as money comes available.

Message edited by RetiredChief on 01-27-2012 at 08:39:54 PM

Reply to RetiredChief

I think your biggest bottleneck is your 4GB of ram, which is enough for SD editing, but really not enough for HD editing. You should have 8-16 if doing HD work, but you didn't really let us know what type of editing or software you are running.
Also, HDDs may be a large bottleneck. What is your CPU usage while exporting? If it is not 100% then you need RAID or SSDs to get the most out of your system.
I noticed that the mobo will take a 2nd CPU, which would quite literally doubble your export speed if you have enough throughput from your Ram and HDDs. running 8 cores would be more than enough for most things, even with modern software.

All that said, Retired Chief makes an excellent point about newer architectures, there have been a lot of features added lately that would make a more civilian build very tempting. I have to say that editing on my i7 2600 is a dream come true, and it is difficult for me to think that I am not using it to it's full potential yet (definitely bottlenecked by my HDDs at the moment lol)! But I am not sure what the performance increase would be compared to your current board, especially if you were to pimp it out with a 2nd CPU and a full compliment of Ram. The upgrades may be cheaper and give you the extra kick you need to keep the system for a good while longer than adopting a new mobo, cpu, and Ram.

Reply to CaedenV

x5365 = $275 on Amazon
16GB DDR2 ECC (2 4x2GB kits at $98ea) = $200 newegg
Total: $475

vs

i7 2600 (non-K version) = $250 at Microcenter (in store only)
16GB of DDR3 (1333, non ECC, in a 4x4GB kit) = $80 at newegg
Good mobo = $120-180 depending on your specific needs and preferences
Total: $450-510

Your current hardware is 'workstation' class (meaning there is error correction), while the newer hardware is not. Newer workstation class hardware would be much more expensive (~$1000+), but if you do not mind civilian hardware then you would be much better off upgrading to a new platform than adding to your old one.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to CaedenV

CaedenV wrote :

x5365 = $275 on Amazon
16GB DDR2 ECC (2 4x2GB kits at $98ea) = $200 newegg
Total: $475

vs

i7 2600 (non-K version) = $250 at Microcenter (in store only)
16GB of DDR3 (1333, non ECC, in a 4x4GB kit) = $80 at newegg
Good mobo = $120-180 depending on your specific needs and preferences
Total: $450-510

Your current hardware is 'workstation' class (meaning there is error correction), while the newer hardware is not. Newer workstation class hardware would be much more expensive (~$1000+), but if you do not mind civilian hardware then you would be much better off upgrading to a new platform than adding to your old one.

Yeah really, a workstation build would look something like this which you could do for less than 1K but not much more:

Board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131725 - $219.99
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115087 - $264.99
Cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835103099 - $34.99
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820233198 - $94.99
Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814195097 - $379.99

Total: $994.95

Thank you for all suggestion.

Actually I'm interest in ASUS P8B and Intel Xeon E3.

But the biggest problem is this M/B didn't sell in my country.
Are you have another recommend M/B.

Thank you very much

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to exssrerion

exssrerion wrote :

Thank you for all suggestion.

Actually I'm interest in ASUS P8B and Intel Xeon E3.

But the biggest problem is this M/B didn't sell in my country.
Are you have another recommend M/B.

Thank you very much

Where do you live and is there a store that you do use like Newegg or Tiger?

Sorry for late replay my main work is very busy.

Actually I live in Thailand.
After I check in Asus Thailand website, they sell only "P6xxx" model.

How about this model?

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by exssrerion on 02-02-2012 at 01:28:47 AM

Reply to exssrerion

exssrerion wrote :

Sorry for late replay my main work is very busy.

Actually I live in Thailand.
After I check in Asus Thailand website, they sell only "P6xxx" model.

How about this model?

I'd have to see the specific model number.

g-unit1111 wrote :

I'd have to see the specific model number.

OK please refer from this link

http://www.asus.co.th/Server_Works [...] ocket_1366

Thanks& Sorry for very late reply

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by exssrerion on 02-09-2012 at 06:01:31 PM

Reply to exssrerion

exssrerion wrote :

OK please refer from this link

http://www.asus.co.th/Server_Works [...] ocket_1366

Thanks& Sorry for very late reply

I didn't see your PM but yeah that board runs the much older Intel X58 chipset and it will a Xeon CPU but it will run the much older Xeon models like the Xeon E5520 or Xeon E5506.

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