New Cpu, mobo, Memory, Assistance please.

Hi all, long time no post;

My rig needs upgrading and i'm looking at going for the Q9450 cpu when it's released in a month or so. As for mobo's i've been looking at the Asus P5N-D nForce 750i. Memory wise 4 gig is an absolute minimum. DDR2 or DDR3 for Quad core? I've been out of the hardware side for a few years and what a nightmare catching up with it all :headache:

Right, my primary usage is CS3 postprocessing, CaptureNX, Lightroom. I rip cd's to Mp3 all the time and DivX a few dvd's now and then. I don't game as much but i'm partial to BF2 Half life 2, CS.

Overclocking a little would be nice but not essential as stability is paramount. My current rig is 4 years old ish and i hope to keep the new rig for a similar time. I'm wondering what will be compatible with the new system. Currently the parts i'm sure will work are
SB Xfi Xtreme Gamer PCI
Pci 108 Netgear Card
Nvidia 7800 GTX PCIe
2 Sata II Hd's
Zalman CNP9500 Copper cooler
Antec p180 Case
Antec 600 watt PSU 24 pin atx

By far the biggest headache was trawling through mobo reviews, in the end i gave up and just considered the Asus P5N-d as my current Asus A8n Sli Nforce 4 has been superb in the reliability stakes. I'm open for mobo recommendations though so fire away. Sli doesn't interest me now but maybe down the line.. Not sure wether to keep the 7800Gtx or go for a dedicated CS3 GFX card? Does such a thing exist? if so i bet they're expensive.

As for OS's i'm presuming only Vista Ultimate supports 4 cores? and how much memory will Vista support? 4 gig Or 8 gig would great. I've seen some mobo's stating 8 Gig support but past experience hasn't proved so.

I'll be processing NEF's From a D300 and the current Athlon 4000 chugs a bit :) On a side note, whilst looking at mobo's i came across that HUGE Scythe cooler! have you guys seen the size of that thing!!! Jesus, i'm surprised that fits ANY case :)

Budget wise i want to keep below £500 if possible. :help:



Lots of Questions there So any feedback very much appreciated. :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:


EDIT Scrap the sli, so mobo recommendations essential.

I don`t think Vista is better at supporting multi-core than XP, generally slower if anything, you will need a 64bit version for anything over 3GB RAM (32bit supports upto about 3.25GB without fiddling).

Would go with a P35 (Intel chipset) M`board. Nvidia `boards don`t have the best reputation currently. Abit P35, Asus P5K-E/WiFi-AP or similar.

4GB ram is currently very good value, 8GB overkill perhaps?

CS3 Photoshop? I was surprised to read a review recently that showed crossfire (2 x ATI G/cards) making a difference with Photoshop, I always presumed that such things would be primarily CPU, rather than GPU?

Lastly, if your PSU is 4 years old, it might be best to look at replacing that, they do lose efficiency with age and a new high efficiency PSU (like a Corsair 520/620HX) might save you some pounds on your electricity bill.

Hi Thanks for responding.

Yes 8gig probably overkill and expensive, i'll check out the P35 boards, so many chipsets now :(

As for the OS, Yeah, don't really wanna go 64 bit yet so could stick with XP.

If the PSU is compatible with P35 mobos i'll stick with, no reason to spend on something i allready have. I got it a while after the old rig so it's about 2 years old.

Yeah, I second the P35 idea, I think the ABit IP35-E is capable and fairly cheap. Graphics wise its quite a good time to buy.... both the Ati 3870 and Nvidia 8800GT can be had for about £130 and will give a noticeable performance increase over your GTX. As far as RAM goes, isn't it the more the better for CS3? There are a few 4GB kits around for about £70 at the minute which is very cheap, so if you want 8GB I'd say get it now. As for DDR2 vs DDR3, there's no good reason to switch to DDR3 yet, still very expensive and loads of good DDR2 boards around.

Thanks GSte, 4Gig for 70 quid, Jesus, how times change!

Stability is key for me, it would be great to hear from current P35 owners with lots of ram using CS3 if your out there.

Great advice, heading in the right direction now, keep em coming!

No worries, and don't forget you'll need a 64bit version of Vista to use all 8GB of RAM:)

ABit or ASUS P35 based board (you should consider onboard Wifi), 4x2Gb PC6400 DDR2, Quad Core will suit very well. Corsair PSUs are very good value, the HX520 is almost certainly enough for your needs.

If you don't have a modern DVD drive get the Samsung SH203. As for HDDs, WD, Samsung and Seagate are all good at the moment. I'd look for the newest drives with 32Mb cache and the densest platters if I was buying now. Probably a dedicated soundcard is overkill for your usage, so you could save some dosh there.

If you get Vista, I suggest Home Premium 64 bit upgrade. You can even do a clean install from Upgrade, the method is widely posted on the internet. I bought several copies on Ebay for around 60 quid apiece.

C2D overclocking is very easy, and worthwhile, and unless you like noise replacing the stock cooler is de rigeur in any case. I recommend the Thermalright Ultima 90, coupled with a Scythe SFlex 1600rpm fan.

Get the Antec P182 rather than the older P180, cable routing is much better and there are a couple of other minor improvements.