Im putting together a plan to cycle through the hardware in the house, since some of it is very below what Id like (and need) performance wise. Plus, some things like my server, are held together by voodoo and fairy dust. The duct tape failed a long time ago.
I pretty much know how I want to mix things up. The question is in the timing. I want to meet my current and future goals while not really wasting a bunch of money in the process. I probably wouldnt be facing this dilemma so soon, but my aging server and HTPC, combined with current upgrades, is making me rethink my timeline.
Systems
My PC: Athlon II X4 @ 3.3 GHz / 12GB DDR3-1600 @ ~1472* / Dual AMD 6950s
Current Issues
Obviously the server is *old*. Its the bare minimum requirements to run Windows Server 2008R2, and it really, really shows. The systems been a trooper, though, as Ive had the CPU fan die for over a month and the system still chugs. Though the motherboard barely has any working ports or PCI slots left, and the power supply is on its way out. The whole shebang needs to be replaced, except the drives.
Secondly, due to a series of unfortunate and fortunate events, I wound up with a pair of 6950s new-in-box for $160 each. This was a wee bit of an upgrade over a single Nvidia 460 GTX. As the Athlon system was not built to utilize the crossfire cards (and I never expected to get a pair of 6950s, let alone much better than a 460GTX), Im hitting a CPU bottleneck in some games with a single card, let alone a crossfire setup. This is especially true in games like Rift, where my single-card utilization never goes beyond 80ish%. I do play a perhaps excessive amount of Rift, so I notice the bottleneck a lot.
Thirdly, my laptop is serving OK duty as a HTPC, though too hot with the screen closed and isn't happy running 24/7. Such a setup next to my TV not only looks bad, but I have to also utilize the laptop to do my AirVideo and VLC streaming vice the very-old server. Otherwise I could let it go into standby when were not using it.
Aside from a few cooling/case issues with my girlfriends case, her setup works for the things she does. I currently use it as a secondary system, so a little extra performance wouldnt be bad, but Ill be limited by the CPU if I go too much higher.
Plan
*When* should I do all this? Id like to utilize the AMD setup for the server since it runs a lot cooler, quieter, and uses less power than my Q6700 while pushing out better multi-core conversion numbers. But, Id have to purchase two new sets of CPU/Mobos since Id like to not continue using the Q6700 setup for my girlfriends PC. I could still do so, but I'd have to add on $75-$100 for a better ventilated case.
Im kind of leaning on getting an i5-2500k to tide me over on my current PC for a yearish, purchasing the latest and greatest mobo+CPU after that, and then migrate the i5 2500k setup to my girlfriends computer and further migrating the AMD setup to the HTPC. That way her computer gets a bit of a longevity boost after a year, and I wind up with a cooler/quieter system for the HTPC/server combo I plan.
Or, should I wait 6 months to a year, and then grab the latest and greatest for my PC and a discounted i5/whatever setup for the missus?
Id like to see what everyones opinions are on the matter. Hopefully, that way, I wont so easily be able to rationalize myself into an i5-2500k purchase for no good reason
I pretty much know how I want to mix things up. The question is in the timing. I want to meet my current and future goals while not really wasting a bunch of money in the process. I probably wouldnt be facing this dilemma so soon, but my aging server and HTPC, combined with current upgrades, is making me rethink my timeline.
Systems
My PC: Athlon II X4 @ 3.3 GHz / 12GB DDR3-1600 @ ~1472* / Dual AMD 6950s
Tasks Video Editing, encoding, gaming, some code/script work, virtualization (hence memory)
Girlfriends PC: Intel Q6700 @ 3.6 GHz / 4GB DDR2-800 / Single 285GTX, soon to be replaced with a 460
Tasks Office tasks, gaming, some photo work. Possibly some occasional video re-encoding later on.
HTPC: Dell XPS Laptop, Core2Duo @ 2.6ish GHz / 2GB DDR2-633 / Dual mobile 8600GTs
Tasks XBMC, AirVideo and VLC stream live transcoding, 24 hour operation. I want to offload the streaming and transcoding tasks to the server and thusly remove the 24-hour operation requirement.
Server: Athlon 64 @ 1.8 GHz / 1GB Registered DDR1 / 4x2TB SATA in RAID 0 / Win Server 2008R2
Tasks File serving, DHCP, DNS, Active Directory, Audio Galaxy music streaming, backups (LTO-3 & disk), 24 hour operation. Will expand into application and possibly web serving later on, and I want to add on AirVideo and VLC streaming with live transcoding.
*Mobo on my PC only supports up to 1333 memory without overclocking
Current Issues
Obviously the server is *old*. Its the bare minimum requirements to run Windows Server 2008R2, and it really, really shows. The systems been a trooper, though, as Ive had the CPU fan die for over a month and the system still chugs. Though the motherboard barely has any working ports or PCI slots left, and the power supply is on its way out. The whole shebang needs to be replaced, except the drives.
Secondly, due to a series of unfortunate and fortunate events, I wound up with a pair of 6950s new-in-box for $160 each. This was a wee bit of an upgrade over a single Nvidia 460 GTX. As the Athlon system was not built to utilize the crossfire cards (and I never expected to get a pair of 6950s, let alone much better than a 460GTX), Im hitting a CPU bottleneck in some games with a single card, let alone a crossfire setup. This is especially true in games like Rift, where my single-card utilization never goes beyond 80ish%. I do play a perhaps excessive amount of Rift, so I notice the bottleneck a lot.
Thirdly, my laptop is serving OK duty as a HTPC, though too hot with the screen closed and isn't happy running 24/7. Such a setup next to my TV not only looks bad, but I have to also utilize the laptop to do my AirVideo and VLC streaming vice the very-old server. Otherwise I could let it go into standby when were not using it.
Aside from a few cooling/case issues with my girlfriends case, her setup works for the things she does. I currently use it as a secondary system, so a little extra performance wouldnt be bad, but Ill be limited by the CPU if I go too much higher.
Plan
- Upgrade my current system to something thats not so CPU bound. A simple CPU+mobo upgrade would work since all other components can easily transfer.
- Migrate the AMD setup (with new memory) to my girlfriends case. It runs cooler and quieter with the 460GTX and inside her current case. I had the same setup before the crossfire, and outside of games the system is whisper quiet.
- Migrate the Q6700 setup into a new case thats quiet and HTPC-looking-friendly, plop in a lower powered and inexpensive H264 accelerated GPU, and use that as a server + HTPC + streaming transcoder.
- Lab/decom the laptop and the current server.
*When* should I do all this? Id like to utilize the AMD setup for the server since it runs a lot cooler, quieter, and uses less power than my Q6700 while pushing out better multi-core conversion numbers. But, Id have to purchase two new sets of CPU/Mobos since Id like to not continue using the Q6700 setup for my girlfriends PC. I could still do so, but I'd have to add on $75-$100 for a better ventilated case.
Im kind of leaning on getting an i5-2500k to tide me over on my current PC for a yearish, purchasing the latest and greatest mobo+CPU after that, and then migrate the i5 2500k setup to my girlfriends computer and further migrating the AMD setup to the HTPC. That way her computer gets a bit of a longevity boost after a year, and I wind up with a cooler/quieter system for the HTPC/server combo I plan.
Or, should I wait 6 months to a year, and then grab the latest and greatest for my PC and a discounted i5/whatever setup for the missus?
Id like to see what everyones opinions are on the matter. Hopefully, that way, I wont so easily be able to rationalize myself into an i5-2500k purchase for no good reason
Facebook
Twitter