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Participant
October 30, 2017
Question

upgrading a 5 year old 2600k rig

  • October 30, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 564 views

I'm considering updating my current system. Realistically I have about GBP1k-1.2k to spend (around US$1500).

Here's my current set up:

i7 2600k

32gb ddr3 2666 RAM

GTX 760 4gb

Drives:

ssd1 (120gb) OS and programs

ssd2 (256gb) Media cache

ssd3&4: 2 x 256gb in Raid 0 (getting 970 mbps read and write speeds) – Scratch/Previews/Exports

(these are all Samsung Pros)

HDD 4x2tb WD Blacks in Raid 0 (getting 580+ mbps read and write speeds) – Project Media

I often have several projects on the go as well as regular clients where i'm using the same media several times a year, hence the 8tb Raid 0 for media files has been useful. I've tried to keep it under 75% utilised though.

I also have an old Blackmagic Decklink Extreme 3 HD card attached to it for monitoring.

My footage is mainly Sony f5/f55/fs7 avc intra MXF, log 2 and 3, in HD1080. And it all works fine...at HD. 4K works too with a bit of dropping to half res. R3D files can be sticky and horrible, but RED projects are only a twice a year occurrence.

Some after effects work happens on the suite on most jobs too. Sometimes dynamic link, other times just exported and treated like other rushes. Type of work varies from simple animation, to animated type, to more sophisticated compositing and tracking etc.

I'm going to be using 4k a lot more in the coming months.

So given my budget, what do people suggest I spend the money on? Perhaps keep my case, PSU and cooler, drives etc and update CPU/MB/RAM/GPU? An i7 6850k update? Would I see a noticeable uplift in performance by moving to that CPU and DDR4 RAM? And maybe a GTX1060 6gb card?

I'd be grateful for any thoughts/suggestions. Thanks in advance.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

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    RjL190365
    Legend
    October 31, 2017

    Right now there is no reason whatsoever to go with an i7-6850K CPU or an X99 motherboard, especially if the street prices in your area for those components are still on the high side (remember, the i7-6850K has only six cores and 12 threads), since both components are now EOL and obsolesced. If you're going to be doing 4k often you will want at least an i7-8700K with a Z370 motherboard, or an i7-7820K CPU with an X299 motherboard, or an AMD Ryzen 7 series CPU with a compatible AM4 socket motherboard. All of those platforms that I suggested require DDR4 system RAM.

    And with those platforms your originally considered GTX 1060 is OK; however, I'd go higher up to a GTX 1070 or 1080 for any of those three platforms that I suggested.

    Randall

    G
    gallery AAuthor
    Participant
    November 2, 2017

    Thanks Randall. It's a bigger budget upgrade that you suggest, but i totally take your point and perhaps i should just be patient and go to a x299 system in about a year.

    R
    RjL190365
    Legend
    November 2, 2017

    No problem. It's just that at this point the older X99 platform is simply overpriced because even the 6850K costs more than the 8700K/Z370 platform while it doesn't perform any faster or better than the newer platform.

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