Hi there I am Photographer and Videographer. I am currently running an ancient AMD Phenom II x4 940, with 8GB of RAM. Things are just not keeping up. My workload is increasing and it is starting to not be a hobby. That being said have a limited budget, about $500 or so to start. looking at benchmarks it looks like it might be smart to grab an old workstation like these
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkStation-S30-2-80GHz-Quad-Core-E5-1603-16GB-RAM-500GB-HD-Win7-Pro-/172172505388?hash=item281647f12c:g😛l8AAOSwAoRXFlYo
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T3600-Workstation-E5-1607-3Ghz-8GB-500GB-1GB-AMD-V4900-DVD-RW-/222062855462?hash=item33b3fa4526:g:HH0AAOSw9uFW8tci
and swap out the CPU for a 3930k, which can be had for $150ish. Will that give me a good base to start with. I can add in a video card and SSD's later. I have a power supply for a desktop that should give me enough for a hefty video card in the future. the 2011 socket is slightly confusing to me, so first of all would that work? if it can, I would have a full workstation durability with 16 ECC RAM and benchmarks that beat the 6700K in multi threaded tests for under $500. SO please somebody tell me if that is a good idea or a bad idea. Because I built a computer once 6 years ago, and that does not make me an expert. If there is a better build for under $500 let me know.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkStation-S30-2-80GHz-Quad-Core-E5-1603-16GB-RAM-500GB-HD-Win7-Pro-/172172505388?hash=item281647f12c:g😛l8AAOSwAoRXFlYo
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T3600-Workstation-E5-1607-3Ghz-8GB-500GB-1GB-AMD-V4900-DVD-RW-/222062855462?hash=item33b3fa4526:g:HH0AAOSw9uFW8tci
and swap out the CPU for a 3930k, which can be had for $150ish. Will that give me a good base to start with. I can add in a video card and SSD's later. I have a power supply for a desktop that should give me enough for a hefty video card in the future. the 2011 socket is slightly confusing to me, so first of all would that work? if it can, I would have a full workstation durability with 16 ECC RAM and benchmarks that beat the 6700K in multi threaded tests for under $500. SO please somebody tell me if that is a good idea or a bad idea. Because I built a computer once 6 years ago, and that does not make me an expert. If there is a better build for under $500 let me know.