PC NPoCP

"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
06/26/2016 at 18:53 • Filed to: None

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc…

DISCUSSION (39)

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 18:58

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Preci…

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby
06/26/2016 at 19:03

Afternoon Nibby, thanks for the link. I currently have a Core-2 Duo proc that is the fastest one they made. I wanna say e7600.

The precisions we’re talking about are DDR-2 RAM. Sould I upgrade to this used dual-quad, or buy a new ATX mobo/CPU?

I do not game. At all. Zero. No gaming, not any expectation of any gaming. At all.

Thoughts?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby
06/26/2016 at 19:06

And shipping was free on the other one...

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 19:11

$261 is still $89 less than $350

Your C2D system probably would require a new PSU/drives/etc. and DDR2 RAM is pricey... and an upgrade to C2Q would help but you would be better off with a new i3 machine. ..so you are better off getting a new (or used with betterhardware) system. A dual Xeon machine is overkill if you don’t do any gaming or video editing/rendering/3D modeling/data processing/high demand stuff. That 490 will also eat up power compared to a single processor build...

If you just surf and watch movies, you could probably just build your own i3 machine with 8GB RAM an SSD and data drive and call it a day.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 19:17

Tempting, but I wouldn’t do it... 9 year old computer without much in the way of an upgrade path. No UEFI. No ECC. Processor doesn’t turbo. Graphics card was low-end then, probably outperformed by a $50 card now. Comes from a sketchy era of reliability as far as Dell goes.

That being said, if you need an 8-core workstation for multithreaded work, it’s okay for $400 of you just want to get a year or two out of it and move on. But something a bit newer with E5-series CPU’s using more recent memory for $1000ish would serve you better in the long run.

We have a few of these machines and the next generation of them (T5500) still kicking around at work. Can’t upgrade them the way we want (need UEFI). We’re basically throwing them out rather than trying to repurpose or sell them. Interpret that how you want.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby
06/26/2016 at 19:18

There could be some video editing in my future. I’d be more like, Core i7 and 16 GB RAM, SSD. Any recommendations?

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 19:24

If you’re video editing, then you should try to find a more powerful machine... I;d look for something Sandy Bridge era or newer. What’s your max budget>?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby
06/26/2016 at 19:29

I have a nice Lian Li case and Zalman Power Supply that I’d like to reuse. ATX. Sub-$400, hopefully, for mobo/proc/ram.

Junkrat aka Rick Sanchez: Fury Road Edition > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 19:30

I have a HP workstation with a similar setup. Mine has the Xeon X5450's which are a little faster than the one here. I have since ditched the SAS array, put in a SSD, replaced the video card with a HD 7970. It is still a decent rig, but the CPU’s are starting to show their age. There is still new software that is not multi-thread capable so you are stuck using one out of eight cores. I don’t know about this one, but mine is not SLI/Crossfire capable. They produce a lot of heat, and I mean a lot.

I don’t know what you do with the computer, except not game. I would build something new that runs quiet and cool. A new generation i5 will bury these Xeons and use less power.

Don’t get me wrong I have had my machine for five years at this point and it was used when I got it. I just think their viability is waning and the money is better spent elsewhere. Here is a reddit page with a few suggested builds.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PCMasterRace…

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
06/26/2016 at 19:30

Some of your terms I do not understand, but that’s okay. Thanks for the post. If I went with a newer ATX board/proc/DDR3 RAM, would you have any recommendations?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Junkrat aka Rick Sanchez: Fury Road Edition
06/26/2016 at 19:31

Sound advice. Thank you.

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 19:33

What’s the output of your PSU

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Junkrat aka Rick Sanchez: Fury Road Edition
06/26/2016 at 19:33

Any thoughts about Intel v. AMD procs?

tromoly > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 19:34

Well, if you have a case already, try this:

http://www.natex.us/product-p/s260…

About $100 more expensive, but sooooooo much more power.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby
06/26/2016 at 19:40

I have a PC Power & Cooling Silencer at 370 watts and an OCZ at 500 watts.

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 19:42

That 370W one is rubbish for what you want... the 500W one will do. I managed to squeeze in an SSD :)

That i5 will outperform those Xeon desktops and the faster RAM will help too

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/fj22RG

Junkrat aka Rick Sanchez: Fury Road Edition > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 19:46

The Intel is worth it if you have the money, there is no reason to buy AMD unless you need to save money. An i7 will cost about the same as this whole computer alone. I saw that you said something about video editing, right? I would buy an Intel/Nvidia combo. All the decent video editing software can use the CUDA cores on the video card for the video rendering. So even though you don’t game don’t skimp on your video card and the Quaddro’s are not worth it unless you are a professional.

I was pricing my new build the other day, and it was going to be around $1400. It was an i7, 32GB of RAM, SSD, 2 x GTX 1070's. I could provide a detailed shopping list if you want. It is such a robust machine because I am going to use as virtualized gaming machines. That way my wife and I can just use our laptops as dummy terminals. It’s pretty slick and we don’t have to share the video card we each get our own.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby
06/26/2016 at 19:50

We have not discussed video. I have a Quadra FX 580 card in the machine now. Could I reuse?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Junkrat aka Rick Sanchez: Fury Road Edition
06/26/2016 at 19:51

Check out the build that Nibby is recommending above. What you describe sounds like a butt kicker, but more than I would need.

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 19:54

Yeah but I think the iGPU on the i5 would be better. I do video editing (no 4K stuff tohugh, 1440p) on my iGPU on my Skylake CPU and it is okay... waiting for the RX480 to come out

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby
06/26/2016 at 19:55

So are you talking about video onboard the mobo? Is my Quadra card seriously dated?

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 19:55

Are you specifically looking for something with dual Xeons?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
06/26/2016 at 19:58

No. I think it’s time to upgrade and that looked like a lot of computer, but I am being told otherwise by some Oppos.

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 20:00

Yeah, it’s a 7 year old card... and iGPUs have come a *long* way. Actually today’s iGPUs can even handle some gaming

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby
06/26/2016 at 20:07

So does iGPU work with video components on the mobo and lend them computational power?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby
06/26/2016 at 20:09

What are your thoughts about Win 7 versus 10?

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 20:10

The video connectors are on the mobo but it really won’t use a noticeable amount of CPU power... it uses your RAM as VRAM... but it only uses as much as it needs. eg. if you have 16GB RAM it’ll probably use like 64-128mb idle and around a couple GB for games or intensive tasks

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 20:10

User preferance. I don’t mind either of them.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby
06/26/2016 at 20:15

I can buy 2 x 16 for 32 gb of RAM and come in at $398 with everything coming from Newegg.

That proc will have a FHS, right?

What do you think of saving a few $$ and buying an AMD processor?

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 20:44

Heatsink, yeah it comes with one. Honestly, I never heard of anyone using AMD CPUs for video editing... cause Intel ones have outperformed them for years now. Not worth it.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 20:51

I guess it depends what you are upgrading from and what you want to do. It is a decent amount of power for the $ but you’d have to being using stuff written to take advantage of lots of CPU’s. In general usage it really wouldn’t feel much faster than your C2D, because it doesn’t turbo or use fast RAM like a modern Intel chip. Rather than build, do you think you could stretch to something a Dell T3600 like this one?

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?…

This one uses the current chassis that Dell is still shipping and and will feel much faster in mixed usage. The Quadro 600 is tolerable. I was using one with SolidWorks until just a few months ago. Yes it’s a bit more expensive, but you should be able to get several years out of it.

Something else that caught my eye is the Lenove S30 direct from NewEgg (vs. 3rd party seller on the Dell) with the same CPU and RAM with a bigger HD for $430. That Xeon has no integrated graphics, so throw in a Quadro K420 for $120 and for $550 you have a PC that should feel like a huge upgrade in daily usage. If you don’t need a Quadro card for CAD you can get even more performance for the same price from a GeForce GTX card.

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?…

TL;DR consider a refurbished workstation from Dell/HP/Lenovo with an E5-1630 processor and 8-16 GB DDR3 for around $500 and get much better daily performance than that $400 sale.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
06/26/2016 at 20:55

Thank you; let me look this over. My actual usage will be largely Photoshop, InDesign and LightRoom. There will be some video editing, but not a whole lot. I’ve bought many refurbished Dells over the years and found the Optiplex and Latitude machines to be robust and long lasting.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
06/26/2016 at 20:57

The Dell is kind of a stretch. I don’t need Xeon processors, I just saw that one listing and wondered about them. I have had good service from Lenovos over the years.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 21:35

Gotcha. Yeah I probably overthought it. I can see why the sale was tempting, but probably not right for you. $300-400 will buy you a lot of Optiplex. Look for something with a 3rd-gen quad-core i5 processor and 8 GB of RAM and you should be good to go.

As an aside, are you using Adobe CC pay as you go? I got a new PC a few months ago at work and have been trying to muddle through with GIMP, but it’s not worth the headache any more. I can’t transfer my CS5 license due to a comedy of errors that involve the old machine dying catastrophically and the original install DVD being lost in an office move. So I’m trying to decide if I should ask my boss to spend $700 for CS6 once or $30 a month forever.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
06/26/2016 at 21:57

I’ve been using CS6 for awhile now. I used CS1 forever prior to that. I’m a teacher, and I use a district-owned copy. There’s no difference in the actual usage of the product; you still download and install just as you normally would. And you can install it multiple times, though it phones home when you launch it so only one box at a time can use it. But you might have already known all of that...

I might look for a used copy of CS6 on Ebay...

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/26/2016 at 22:55

Hadn't thought about looking used. Of course I guess I'd be counting on it being deactivated but I think CS6 would be fine.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
06/26/2016 at 23:04

I think CS6 would be fine as well. I’m no big time expert, rather a very serious amateur, so I might not be your best last word on the subject. I go to church with a guy who works for Adobe and can get me the unlimited access pass for something like $10/mo, but until I lose access to the district’s copy — whom I still am employed by — I’ll wait.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby
06/27/2016 at 20:45

Hello Nibby, I am about to order the parts you’ve recommended. I think I will buy two 16-sticks of RAM, just because. And a Sandisk super-pro (whatever) 240-gig SSD. Any final words for me?

I appreesh the help, BTW.

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/27/2016 at 22:05

Sure thing! Good luck!