Do I need to invest in a new graphiccard?

Question

Hi
Finally I have (almost) decided to buy a new pc to release my 2 1/2 years old i7 920 from duty.
Got my eyes on a i7 3930k 32 gb ram 240 hyperx ssd (system) and 2x1 TB (data)  sata 6gb/s barracuda in raid 0. Actually there is a quadro 2000 in the system, but I have invested in a fx3800 for 1000$ just 10 months ago and thought that might be ok for now? i could get a downgrade to a gtx 570 but how much would I really gain doing that instead of just keeping my fx3800? In wich situations would I really get anything out of having the gtx 570 instead of the fx3800? I use premiere Pro cs 5.5 - mostly for straight editing avchd files (very seldom more than one layer and just 2-3 effects like looks or colour correction) and plan to do some AE work in the future - but still guess it will not be really heavy effects...besides I mainly work with PS, AI and DW. Never doing any 3D stuff and my pc is for work only and not gaming (at All)!!! Any clues? i hope to be able to keep my fx3800 - saving some money...
Thx in advance.
Morten

Answer 1

Hi Harm
I have allready thought about doing something like that, but my old system is 2½ year old now, and it makes noises and the case is to small I guess for more disks etc.
My current system is like this:
Operating System
MS Windows 7 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i7  @ 2.67GHz
45nm Technology
RAM
12.0GB
Motherboard
(Socket 1366)
GIGABYTE EX58-UD4 rev. 1 (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pID=2988#ov)
Graphics
Dell U2711(Digital) on NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800
Standard PnP-monitor on NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800
Hard Drives
  1500GB Seagate ST31500341AS ATA Device (IDE) 48 °C
  1500GB Seagate ST31500341AS ATA Device (IDE) 49 °C
Optical Drives
PIONEER DVD-RW  DVR-216D ATA Device
Audio
M-Audio FW 410
My experiences with OC is bad. I have tried on this system and it locks up. need a better cooler I guess. I have three fans in the case - noisy too - even though I bought them afterwards and payed a lot for noiseless ones...am I unlucky
As you can see my HDD is almost 50 C...and i´m just surfing and usding Word right now...
So if I do as you suggest I would need to buy:
1. A new case ? 200$ (I live en Denmark, so the prices are based on danish prices)
2. New PSU - the old one is so noisy eventhough it is a silent something...could spent 200$ on a Seasonic X-660 X series 80+ Gold.
3. 2 additional disks? Must be SATA 3 I guess - my MB does not support SATA 3 6GB/s - only 3GB/s - or is it possible to use the RAID controller for that purpose? Might be about 600$ for 2 x 2 TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 SATA-6
4. RAID controller - 100-200$
5. GTX580 - costs about 600$ for the 1.5 GB - can get the 3 GB card for about 800$ - wich one is to prefer don´t think I can even get any money for the less than one year old FX3800 - OMG....
6. More RAM - have to buy new for about 300$
All in al about 2100$ and a lot of time to get it work...I can buy the 3930 rig above for about 4000$. But I get your point - being the firstmover on the 3930 might be a bad thing to be....next gen will proberbly be better...I feel I´m in a constant waiting position - and upgrading allways leaves me left behind. I will also reconsider the SSD - if it does not help me getting better performance in PPro I cvan not see why I should spend money on that - instead I will buy two more HDD....= heating issues???? Or noise...???
Anyway - could you pinpoint for me what a GTX 580 would do for me, that the FX3800 would not? Will it playback more smoothly inside PPro CS55 or when will it be worth the extra 600$
Thx, Harm!
Morten