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Hardware Question for upgrading system

Chandni Khondji

By Chandni Khondji,
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Chandni Khondji

Chandni Khondji

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I'm thinking about upgrading my hardware. I'm not looking for something expensive, but rather a budget upgrade that puts the resorces where I need them most. I looked at several options, but I don't know whether they will be sufficient for what I'm planning. Hence I'm asking this helpful community, perhaps someone who has good knowledge about hardware (or even runs one of the system him/herself) can help me find the right one?

Here's what I typically do at my PC:

One of the following:
- playing Second Life with several viewers depending on what I want to do (Firestorm/Astra/Viewer 3 for Mesh or/and Shadows, Imprudence for building and RP etc.)
- creating objects and texture baking with Maya
- rendering scenes with Poser / Vue D'Esprit and the like
- doing post-work and Photo-Touch ups in Photoshop
(being able to combine some of these tasks at the same time would be a very nice bonus, but isn't a must-have)

Additionally, I always have the following programs active:
- Chrome, for watching a low-quality video streams
- Opera, for browsing
- Eudora for Emails
- Skype, Trillian for messaging


Here's the hardware I currently have. With this hardware, every viewer together with the programs I have always open) maxes out RAM utilization, and occasionally CPU utilization as well:
- Athlon64 X2 5000+ (Brisbane) at 2.6 GHz
- MSI K9A2GM V2 mainboard with AM2 (940) socket
- 2 GB DDR2-RAM at 667 MHz (PC2-5300)
- ATI Radeon HD 5670 graphics card (this one will stay for the moment since it's not a performance bottleneck, it's rarely at more than 50% utilization)

Here are the upgrades I currently have under consideration:

System 1:
- Phenom X4 (Agena) at 2.4 GHz
- mainboard stays
- 4 GB DDR2-RAM at 1066 MHz (PC2-8500)


System 2:
- i3 2100 at 2.5 GHz
- MSI H67MA-E35 mainboard with 1155 socket
- 4-8 GB DDR3-RAM at 1333 MHz (PC3-10600)


System 1 is cheaper and has 4 physical CPU cores, but will it be powerful enough? System 2 is more expensive, has a more modern architecture, but only 2 physical cores (plus two virtual ones through hyperthreading), do I need more cores? Any other suggestions?

Also, since my current ATI graphics card doesn't support using anti-aliasing and shadows at the same time, it would be good to know if the Intel HD 3000 graphics chip included in the i3 CPU can do this, and whether it can run Second Life at an acceptable speed for taking photographs.

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to answer!
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Storm Clarence

Storm Clarence

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Chandni Khondji wrote:

I'm thinking about upgrading my hardware. I'm not looking for something expensive, but rather a budget upgrade that puts the resorces where I need them most. 

Here are the upgrades I currently have under consideration:

 

System 1:

- Phenom X4 (Agena) at 2.4 GHz

- mainboard stays

- 4 GB DDR2-RAM at 1066 MHz (PC2-8500)

 

 

System 2:

- i3 2100 at 2.5 GHz

- MSI H67MA-E35 mainboard with 1155 socket

- 4-8 GB DDR3-RAM at 1333 MHz (PC3-10600)

 

System 1 is cheaper and has 4 physical CPU cores, but will it be powerful enough? System 2 is more expensive, has a more modern architecture, but only 2 physical cores (plus two virtual ones through hyperthreading), do I need more cores? Any other suggestions?

 

 

I am not sure how to answer. 

I think both configurations above are near obsolete.  You are putting money into hardware that is way behind current low-mid-end technology.   In three months you will not be happy. 

If you are OK with what you have right now, I would save a few more dollars and buy a more current machine, e,g., i5/7, or a higher end AMD chip.  6-8 gig RAM, higher end Nvidia card, larger power supply. 

You will notice the difference!

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Helium Loon

Helium Loon

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Considering the apps you want to run (possibly concurrently), the quad-core is going to be a better solution, processor wise.

 

However, your biggest slowdown at the moment is going to be your memory.  4GB would be better, 8GB would be best.  Will your current motherboard support 8GB of DDR2?

 

The best you could do would be to go to an Phenom II x4, a new motherboard (that supports DDR3 SDRAM, and at least 8GB), the memory, and maybe an nVidia graphics card (say a 560GTX Ti).  CPU would be $90-140, Motherboard $50-120, and 2x4GB of DDR3 1333 for around $50.  The video card would be around $250, though.  A nVidia 550GTX TI would be around $150.  And you could re-use your current ATI card until you could upgrade that.  So, without the GPU, a good re-build (CPU/Motherboard/Memory) would be $190 - $310.  (prices taken from newegg.)

Intel HD3000 will NOT do well for SL.  You could run Low settings and get 5-15 fps typically.  i3 is dual core (not quad) so it wouldn't be much of an upgrade from where you are now.  Core i5 would be good, but is a lot more money.

 

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Chandni Khondji

Chandni Khondji

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Quote Helium Loon: However, your biggest slowdown at the moment is going to be your memory. 4GB would be better, 8GB would be best. Will your current motherboard support 8GB of DDR2?

No the current motherboard has only 2 memory slots and can only hold 4GB alltogether. And thanks for the elaborate suggestion. I'll read up on it. Perhaps a Phenom II combines the best of both worlds. And a new motherboard might be upgradeable at a further point. Will have to read up on that as well.

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Peggy Paperdoll

Peggy Paperdoll

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I pretty much agree with Storm.  Judging from the configuration of the existing machine it appears to be an older computer.  There's nothing wrong with older computers as long as they perform acceptably for the user.  There also comes a time when upgrading those machines is an exercise of diminishing returns.  For what you are looking for in an increase in performance, you going to get very little (if any) for the dollars laid out.  Getting a quad core over your existing dual core is going to be disappointing.......the number of programs on the market today that utililize multicore CPU's are very very limited and the only gain you might get is for your multitasking (but just having the programs open in the background is not multitasking and having those programs running without actually using them uses very little additional resources......they must be doing something to eat up much of the CPU resources).  It seems your machine's RAM is maxed out and a RAM upgrade would be about the only economically feasible upgrade that will gain you any noticable boost in performance (but you have all your motherboard can handle so that's out).

 

Keep your system and, as Storm suggested, get a new computer (or build one yourself) that has the hardware you want (not what you can spend today.........but what you can save for tomorrow).  Any computer you get needs a 64 bit operating system so that you are not locked into about 3.5 gigs (max) RAM usability.  That cost must be factored in to the price of a new computer.  The old 32 bit systems will be hanging around for some time but the future is 64 bit.......you might as well take the plunge now.

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Tara Chester

Tara Chester

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Don't know much about hardware, but I wanted to tell you 2 things. First, see my other post about optimizing your computer resources, which can be very useful tips for multiple logins in SL. And second, I'm also using Opera , so maybe you should try using iincorporated email client Opera has, instead Eudora, and it also has chat client, so you don't need Trillian either, and if you need RSS reader, it's there also. Opera is the best and it's more then just a browser. Oh, there is torrent download client in Opera, also :) Enjoy!

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wiked Anton

wiked Anton

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Hi, i had the same problem a while ago, and having quad cores wont do a lot for secondlife. i have dual core 3800 @ 2.8 ghz, 2x 2 gb mem, but i did change my graphics cards to a quad core 1 gb asus. it made so much differance to SL and it didnt cost all that much ($ 80.00 AUD) and i am very happy with it. although i am running out of HDD (60gb left) still good enough to run blender, DAZ3D. but i only use chrome browser as it is the fastest and most stable browser..opera used to crash on me a little too often, same as firefox. chrome has not crashed on me yet. hope i helped a little,some ppl that tell you to buy this or that dont seem to get the word BUDGET. we all dont have fantastic paying jobs or rich daddies. good luck!!

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Maryanne Solo

Maryanne Solo

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I agree with Bree, the motherboard is the most important thing for your computing future. Can you split your budget into parts and upgrade bit by bit? Eg: i5/7 motherboard with i3 for now, then drop in an i5 or i7 in the future? I dont know anything about AMD so don't know if your memory would work with an i5/7 motherboard.

I didn't see anywhere a mention of your operating system. I may have missed it. Remember only 64bit Win operating systems will support more than 4 gb of ram of any type.

My i5 that brother and I built, (well, I use it :D), is a 760 with 8gb of DDR3 Ram on Win 7/64 with 1gb graphics and is just superb. (12 months old). Gigabyte P55 USB3 motherboard, 22inch flat screen, 2 DVD drives, 1 x 1Tb Sata3 hard drive and Radeon HD 5700 graphics card, 2 Sata DVD drives, 1 x 1Tb Sata3 hard drive. This system only cost about $850 AUD when built. The network failed on it recently so we bought a $16 dollar card and disabled the onboard one, as did the original ATI 8500? graphics card. (fan got noisy).

This system is lacking in its eSata connectivity for external drives :( although it does have gSata o.0 and through very careful saving and planning it is time to go i7 with SSD hard drives, (apparently :o). We upgrade every 6/12 months and hand them down the family line.

The important point is that this is all planned months & months in advance and when the prices are suitable we pounce. It's always a hot topic as to what the prices currently are from our fave major wholesaler. We have been buying stuff from them for over ten years and can access super deals like the OEM version of Win7/64 for almost half price of retail here. Eg: $240AUD as opposed to $480AUD. (not upgradeable to Win8 but at that price who cares?). You sound like you already have the knowledge & confidence to convince the wholesalers you are a system builder and therefore qualify for that status and the many benefits. Try bluffing them, that's what brother did all those years ago :)

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