I have $500 to blow on my PC! HELP

[skenzer]

Yep,

For the first time in a long time, I've been given the green light to blow some cash on my PC. I have $500 to do with what I want. I'd like to blow it on my pc but if I can't figure out what to do with it, I'll have to settle for a new speedlight for my Nikon. :new_shocked:

 

That being said, please take a look at my current pc specs and tell me what you think I should do with the cash. I want to get the most bang for my buck. I'm looking (always looking) for more speed. I don't do much gaming...so a new video card doesn't seem like it should be at the top of my list. I do a lot of Photoshop and video editing. Along with typical business apps.

 

Here's what I'm thinking so far:

1) New Western Digital Raptor drives - 150GIG version. They're faster then my current Raptors and provide more storage

2) Bump up the CPU to a X2 4800+

3) New case....larger and more breathing room

4) New keyboard (mine is getting a bit nasty)

 

Any other thoughts or suggestions? Thanks for you time

Skenz

[UncleDavid218]

Don't get the Raptors. It's pointless. Go with one or two perpendicular recording Seagate 7200.10s with 16MB of cache. 250GB for $80 IIRC

 

Do you game? Might want to consider a new GPU.

[Guest Timmay]

Nicey Shiny new screen for PS?

I wouldn't really bother with the new CPU nor R150.

As for keyboard check out Logitec G15, Very nice keyboards.

[Kaxx]

You ought to look at the opty 165's. I just bought a great stepping off Ebay for only $10 more than Newegg's.

 

Or you could give the money to me...............

[Robc1880]

Don't get the Raptors. It's pointless. Go with one or two perpendicular recording Seagate 7200.10s with 16MB of cache. 250GB for $80 IIRC

 

Do you game? Might want to consider a new GPU.

 

I second what UD said. If you don't need the extra storage then go with a new GPU, then if you don't feel like upgrading the GPU, you could go for a new monitor or maybe a second screen.

[skenzer]

Don't get the Raptors. It's pointless. Go with one or two perpendicular recording Seagate 7200.10s with 16MB of cache. 250GB for $80 IIRC

 

Do you game? Might want to consider a new GPU.

 

Worthless? Have you seen the benchmarks for the Raptors? The Seagate's don't even come close to touching the Raptor's performance....especially i RAID 0 or stand alone.

Sorry man, but you won't convince me or any other sane person any different. :-)

[skenzer]

I second what UD said. If you don't need the extra storage then go with a new GPU, then if you don't feel like upgrading the GPU, you could go for a new monitor or maybe a second screen.

 

Well, I like my HP 23" LCD :-) Best LCD out there right now in that size. Good thought on the GPU...I could always use a better VC.

Any suggestions on which one to get?

[skenzer]

The new GPU seems to be a common thought amongst you guys....so...which one to get?

[UncleDavid218]

The X1900XT is the best bet right now, but the 7950GT comes out tomorrow and should offer comparable performance.

 

But my thing with the hard drives and why it's not worth it is two fold:

 

1) You can get four times the storage for the less than the cost of a single Raptor, with WAY better performance obviously

2) Raptors are not "that" fast in the real world -- is your pictures loading 2ms faster worth that much money?

[skenzer]

The X1900XT is the best bet right now, but the 7950GT comes out tomorrow and should offer comparable performance.

 

But my thing with the hard drives and why it's not worth it is two fold:

 

1) You can get four times the storage for the less than the cost of a single Raptor, with WAY better performance obviously

2) Raptors are not "that" fast in the real world -- is your pictures loading 2ms faster worth that much money?

 

I'll have to check those cards out..thanks for the tip.

To respond to your two thoughts on the drives..

1) WAY better performance with RAID5....I would agree with you there.

2) Yes, it is. Sure, loading a single picture wouldn't count for much...however...when I'm in Photoshop i'm doing a lot more then just loading a single image. And when I'm rendering video it also all adds up. I've run both the Raptors and regular 7200RPM drives in RAID 0 and my experience simply gives the Raptor's a HUGE advantage.

 

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I do think that you have a strong arguement for cost vs. performance vs storage space..but I think it all depends on the budget the person has to spend on their pc build...and overall performance. I also like my 5 year warranty that comes with my WD's.

[UncleDavid218]

Yeah for me hard drives have never been a huge concern but I don't do anything where I would gain a lot of performance anyway

 

Have you considered overclocking your CPU?

[skenzer]

You know, I used to do a lot of overclocking but now I'm more into pure stability. I just can't afford to have my system crash during a photoshop session or editing video simply due to overclocking. I know...I can overclock and be stable, but I still like the security of running my system as intended.

that being said, I've never been happier with any other motherboard then my DFI NF4 SLI. I love this board!

If you look at my specs, do you think I could overclock with any success?

What kind of performance gains do you think I would see with an X2 4800+ cpu?

Also, if I were to bump up my GPU...don't you think it would be a waste to go with ATI as I'm running an SLI based system?