Upgrading existing PC for Photo and Video editing

[Ballisitics]

Upgrading existing PC for Photo and Video editing
I have a box sitting in my room with a burned out PSU so I need to replace that, and while shopping around I noticed that since my last build in 2007 (has it really been that long?!) the prices for parts has dropped dramatically.

Here is what the PC has right now.

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
EVGA 8600 GT
ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
Sony Optiarc 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write Black E-IDE / ATAPI Model 7170A-0B - OEM
Kingston HyperX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KHX6400D2LLK2/2G
Windows 7 64 bit edition
SCEPTRE X20WC-Gamer Black 20.1" 5ms Widescreen Glare HD (HDCP) LCD Monitor

Now granted this is a very dated system, and I was going to do a little upgrading for this upcoming semester in the fall, but how much upgrading? I'd let to keep the upgrading in the $450 range. Just want to use it strictly for multimedia editing.

[dlambert]

A solid-state disk drive will make a big difference, and I'd look at adding RAM. After that, I think I'd look at mirrored data drives so you've got a little protection in case a hard drive dies. I think at that point, you're going to have taken a good chunk out of your budget. If you think you might upgrade your motherboard & CPU, skip the RAM and buy that to match the new board & CPU when you get to that.

[ArmySoldier777]

If you're looking at bare minimum upgrading. I'd upgrade the motherboard "preferably one DDR3 compatible" as well as the CPU and of course however much ram your budget allows. I just upgraded my PC doing the same and spent about $460. Keep in mind that DDR3 ram isn't the same as DDR2. 4GB of DDR3 is about equivalent to 8GB of DDR2. Also keep in mind that your hard-drive speed plays a part in how fast your system operates as well. A lot of people don't realize that when they buy an expensive system, then go out and buy a cheapie hard drive.


Here's my specs to give you an idea of what I'm running:

Motherboard: NF980-G65 (MS-7612)
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 945 Processor "Quad-Core"
Memory: 4GB DDR3
I won't bother listing the hard drive. It's a 2TB, but it's an average speed hard drive. Not fast, but not too slow either.

It's designed as a gaming PC which makes it great for Photo Editing. The board even supports 3 graphics cards.


David

[Ballisitics]

Originally Posted by ArmySoldier777

If you're looking at bare minimum upgrading. I'd upgrade the motherboard "preferably one DDR3 compatible" as well as the CPU and of course however much ram your budget allows. I just upgraded my PC doing the same and spent about $460. Keep in mind that DDR3 ram isn't the same as DDR2. 4GB of DDR3 is about equivalent to 8GB of DDR2. Also keep in mind that your hard-drive speed plays a part in how fast your system operates as well. A lot of people don't realize that when they buy an expensive system, then go out and buy a cheapie hard drive.


Here's my specs to give you an idea of what I'm running:

Motherboard: NF980-G65 (MS-7612)
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 945 Processor "Quad-Core"
Memory: 4GB DDR3
I won't bother listing the hard drive. It's a 2TB, but it's an average speed hard drive. Not fast, but not too slow either.

It's designed as a gaming PC which makes it great for Photo Editing. The board even supports 3 graphics cards.


David

Very similar to the package I have been eyeing for $335.


ASUS M4A88T-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBR
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX

Would I have to upgrade my video card for multimedia editing?

[BigFuzzy]

RAM RAM RAM RAM!
With Win7 64 bit and all of the adobe software being able to take advantage of 64 bit, you should load up on ram.
I have 12 gb and my OS sits on an SSD drive and LR3 and PS sit on another SSD. It's such a big improvement over my last system you'd not believe it.

In the end, as it was explained to me, motherboard, chip and RAM are most crucial.. but I'm far from a PC expert, just know that with my i7 chip, 12gb RAM LR and PS open almost instantaneously when I double click on the icons and images load almost as quickly.

[Ballisitics]

Originally Posted by BigFuzzy

RAM RAM RAM RAM!
With Win7 64 bit and all of the adobe software being able to take advantage of 64 bit, you should load up on ram.
I have 12 gb and my OS sits on an SSD drive and LR3 and PS sit on another SSD. It's such a big improvement over my last system you'd not believe it.

In the end, as it was explained to me, motherboard, chip and RAM are most crucial.. but I'm far from a PC expert, just know that with my i7 chip, 12gb RAM LR and PS open almost instantaneously when I double click on the icons and images load almost as quickly.

Thats a beautiful tthing. My PS takes a solid minute to open lol.

After doing a bit more research I think an overclocked intel i5 is the way I will go. For the same price, I can get an intel i5 a gigabyte z68 mobo and 4gb of DDR3 RAM. The benchmarks for the i5 in photo and video editing at 3.9ghz destroy the AMD phenom II processors. Seems as if AMD has taken the gaming lead and Intel has taken the Multimedia lead.