Need to upgrade an old PC and need your input
 

Hi there

My uncle like to do photo / video editing but he found that his current computer is very slow. See the spec below:

Windows XP SP3 (32bits)
CPU is Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q6600 (8M Cache, 2.40 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB)
4GB of RAM
Video Card is ATI Radeon HD 4670
Motherboard is Aus P5KPL-CM (conly can support 4GB RAM MAX)

If I want to help him to save money and upgrade his PC to Windows 7 64 bits, which Motherboard would you recommend to accomdate for his quad core CPU and also alloe him to add more than 8GB of RAM ?

Upgrade budget is around $ 500 before tax.

Please kindly advise

C2Q 6600 should be sufficent for hobbiest...

i would suggest a SSD drive first then video card..

after those 2 upgrades if he still finds it slow... i7, but hes going to need a new board... is his ram DDR2 or DDR3? going with DDR3 would be slightly better also

I agree, A newer video card my be a nice upgrade as well.
I found a huge speed upgrade simply switching to windows 7 with only 4gigs of ram, and with the 64bit upgrade you would be getting as well you may be very surprised as well.

If you want to save the most money start small: I would highly recommend upgrading to the OS alone to Win7 64bit, make sure his current ram set is half decent, and make sure he is using editing software that isnt a cheap knock off.

Unless your uncle owns a production house where extra few minutes of encoding time will ruin a contract. I don't see why he needs a new CPU or 8gb of ram.

I do part-time wedding videos nearly a year with a E3200 2gb ram, as long as you keep your system clean and pick the right software, it shouldn't give you too much of a headache. First thing he needs to do is to reinstall windows and see if there's any improvement

it also depends on if his system has 4x1GB sticks, as opposed to 2x2GB sticks. Because to upgrade to 8GB with the former, you would have to buy an entire thing of 8GB, as opposed to 2x2GB, where you can buy another 2x2GB (assuming your MB has 4 slots).

But I agree with the SSD. Windows 7 is a good bet as well - if you decided to get a new computer later on - you can scrap your first one and transfer the licence to the second one.

If he have a budget of $500 to upgrade this computer...I would highly
recommend him just shell out another $100-200 and get a brand new
computer. $800 is more than needed to build a new system to his needs.
Plus, he could reuse some parts such as the casing, DVD drive, etc...

His pc is fine. Upgrade to windows 7 64 bit first would be the first thing I would do. I had a similar system and it performed fine. I only upgraded because the motherboard died.

for frequent video editting, I wouldn't recommend a single SSD, sure it is fast, but it won't last long before you need another HD to backup your stuff. Back and forth, it takes more time than single spinning HD. IMO 80~100gb is barely enough for most people.

oh, I wouldn't use the SSD for your photos. You have photoshop/lightroom running on the SSD - and the photos on a fast HD - like a WD Black.

lets not forget the couple facts about SSD's
-fast
-expensive size to space ratio (a 120gb is gonna eat about half his budget)
-Write Endurance: - The number of write cycles to any block of flash is limited - and once you've used up your quota for that block - that's it The disk can become unreliable.
(tho I'm not sure how much that has improved lately) would not extensive video editing be something that would eat into this relatively fast?

Exactly. SSD for the OS and Applications. Regular HDD for storage.

part out the system. get 200$ish or more if possible. (save some stuff like case, psu if its good, cd dvd, hdd)

350-500$ for a core i7 and mobo. cheaper for i5 if i7 is too much.
150$ for a gtx 460 these days easy.
80$> for 6gb ram.
100$ for a better PSU if needed.

800$ MAX Total for an amazing spec comp

He doesn't need to spend that much money and it doesn't sound like he's doing video editing professionally. The q6600 is very capable for what he wants it for. It sounds like he really just needs to do a fresh install.

just get a cheap H67 motherboard, a Core i5-2300, also 8GB ram. since DDR3 are cheap now, and reuse all the old components, don't even bother with the video card, those Sandy Bridge using the on board video can use Quick Sync to encode video

that should easily be twice as fast as a Q6600

CPU: $200
MOBO: $90
8GB DDR3: $90
and use the rest on windows 7 64bit

what's his current HDD?

either way, like stated befor:

1) Win7 64 bit
2) a new HDD if his old one is slow.

Or if he can fit it in his budget, get two HDD's. One fast one, for the OS, programs, and files currently being worked on, and one large (but slower) for storage of final/old projects.

The write cycle limit is not something a normal person should worry, unless you are keeping the drive for more than 5 yrs (2-3yrs for server), which is unlike, by the time your ssd becomes useless, 500gb with 1gb/s transfer rate ssd is going to be dirty cheap
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when i mention an SSD drive, it never intended for it to be used as a storage medium.

as most people would use it to install the OS and programs.. for a storage medium, go with reg HDDs as they are dirt cheap...

and yea, i wouldnt suggest upgrading his PC if he doesnt need too.. anything more then 4gb is really not worth upgrading too as most people wouldnt notice a difference with what they use it for...

make sure to stay away from Vista! either XP or Win7... if you go with a 64bit OS, get Win7 as the driver support is way better.