Upgrading Core i7 860 Build

[somethingsketchy]

Hello all,

After many years of reliable use, I've been contemplating upgrading my former multi-purpose rig (gaming, virtualization, rendering, distributed computing, etc) to newer hardware to support more video rendering.

The former rig's current hardware:

Core i7 860 (not-overclocked)
16GB 1600MHz (G.Skill Ripjaws)
MSI P55-GD65 LGA 1156 motherboard
x2 WD Raptor 500GB drives (RAID-0 array)
x1 Intel 120GB SSD
Sapphire 6970 GPU (sold it to a coworker), running on a ATI HD5750 during the past summer
Corsair 750w PSU (non-bronze/silver/gold/platinum edition)
x2 Acer 21" 1080p monitors (via HDMI and DVI)


Nowadays I use Adobe Premiere for video rendering, and I've noticed, with multi-hour video captures, rendering videos can take significantly longer via CPU. The dilemma I face now:

1. Do I buy a new GPU and stick with what I have
or
2. Upgrade to Ivy Bridge/Haswell (new CPU, Mobo, heatsink and GPU)?

My budget is $1500 and I will be reusing the PSU, hard drives, and case. This is what I picked out, based on a continued interest with virtualization and (GPU) video rendering

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VdPDhM

Thoughts? Thank you very much in advance for your suggestions, thoughts, and advice.

Sketch

 

[Ken g6]

Hi, Ryan. 🙂 That's a lot of money! 😱 Especially for the RAM. (There are cheaper options for DDR4. And motherboards for that matter.)

I see you're not overclocking now. Do you plan to for this build? If you do plan to overclock, I can see the utility of getting an Intel-E processor. You might also look into used 6-core Ivy Bridge-E systems, where you could also reuse the RAM - though the processor price might offset that.

If you don't plan to overclock, the low clock speed of these many-core systems can outweigh the number of cores for many games and some other applications. In that case I'd recommend a Z97 or H97 board, i7-4790K, and keep your existing RAM.

As long as you're not doing too much double-precision stuff on the GPU, I can't complain about a GTX 970. 🙂 ("Rendering" usually means 3D rendering, which uses double-precision, not video encoding, which I don't think does.) Then it all comes down to your DC apps and your power bill. 😉

 

[nsafreak]

Ouch, that 32GB of DDR4 RAM really is a good chunk of the budget at a bit over $500. I find it hard not to recommend the X99 platform in your case as what you list will see an improvement by having more cores. At the same time I have to wonder if you might be better off saving some cash by going with a Z97 platform with an i7 instead. Is this your livelihood or something that's done as a hobby?

 

[escrow4]

Asrock X99 Extreme 4 - I have one and it will allow you to hit closer to $1500.

 

[somethingsketchy]

I've been playing around with Adobe Premiere and encoding (not rendering, thank you Ken for the clarification) a bunch of 4-12 minute videos for a small YouTube channel as a hobby.

After looking around on the Z97 platform, I see I could get more bang for the buck with the 4790K. I figured by going X99, I could utilize more RAM (64GB and higher) if the work flow demands more encoding requirements. Worse case scenario, the extra threads on a 5820K could go towards more DC work 😛

 

[Wall Street]

Since premier is GPU accelerated, I would buy the video card first and see what type of sapped up that gives you with your existing system before buying the rest. Frankly, unless you know what you are doing really needs 32 GB or RAM, you are pretty much looking to throw away your money (encoding YouTube vids won't benefit from this).

 

[Zorander]

I recommend getting a CPU cooler and overclocking the 860 (they can go up to around 3.8 - 4.0 GHz). Besides extending the usability of your current system, if you move to a new LGA115x system, you can re-use the cooler.

 

[Cerb]

The GPU acceleration should improve responsiveness, and speed up effects applied to the video, but not do much for the encoding portion, if anything.

The best bang/buck would definitely be the CPU cooler, but the best overall bang will be from a major upgrade. Z97/i7-4790K gets you the most for your money, especially with DDR4 prices, but your could use the extra cores and cache of the X99 CPUs for encoding, too.

An i7-4790K, with multi-core enhancement on, and an aftermarkert cooler, would do quite well, I think, and allow some of the budget to more easily go towards SSDs, and/or more RAM, along with a nice $120+ video card, if you want to replace it all.

So, assuming you want to go all in (I'm not disagreeing with that other advice, at all), here's a tentative parts set for LGA1150, with the other one's cost as a max:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($329.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($31.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Dark Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Dark Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($209.94 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($209.94 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($356.13 @ Newegg)
Total: $1537.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-16 18:49 EST-0500

- Obviously, there would be nothing wrong with a better cooler, but the 212 Evo will be enough to keep from throttling with optimized arithmetic heavy work, like DC, even w/ multicore enhancement on, and a bit of overclocking on top of that, if you want (leaving overclocking available is why the Z97 board choice, as well).

-2 SSDs for RAID 0, to blow away the Raptor pair, in lieu of moar cores. Just need another PC running to do the RAID driver dance, to have a 1TB C:, capable of 500MBps transfers to/from itself.

 

[somethingsketchy]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I'm thinking of procuring a new GPU and a bigger SSD for the time being, then I will revisit upgrading my LGA1156 build to LGA1150.

 

[CropDuster]

X58 mobo + Xeon 5650 = 6 core goodness for ~$200. Overclocked to 4Ghz is close to a stock 5820k I believe.