Please, build advice: GRAPHICS and RAM

[mabouee]

Hi all, thanks in advance for your help.

I have an ~8 year old PC that I want to freshen up. Fresh OS install (Win 8.1) and a pair of SSDs have helped performance but need more. The video card is seriously lacking. Primarily used for graphics work; large files in photoshop. However, the ability to play modern games at high(est) settings is also desirable. I will attach the current specs and mboard specs below. Motherboard is P6TD DELUXE (LGA1366 X58 chipset).

My plan is to get:

EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti SC here

More RAM, 12+ GB. The mboard has six DDR3 DIMM sockets at 2000(OC)/1866(OC)/1800(OC)/1600(OC)/1333/1066 MHz and supports the following configs: Two DIMMs (dual-channel); Three, Four, or Six DIMMs (triple-channel)
Any advice for what to go with here? I'm wondering if its better to get 12GB triple channel here, or go with 16GB dual channel here. Same price. Or for $120 more max out the mboard 24GB triple channel with this.

Once I've done that I want to try over-clocking the CPU. It's an ~8 year old i7 930 @ 2.8 GHz. Any recommendations on how to go about doing that, and what cooling to use? Thinking this. This other one is probably overkill.

The goal is to get it working ultra fast for graphics work, keep it on a budget, and the gaming performance should be more than adequate for a casual player.

Again, sincere thanks for any advice. Cheers

Motherboard manual: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz5sGwvanWQQdTZoa1Q0YkZLWjg/view?usp=sharing

 

[carssuckjeepsrule]

The 1050 ti is a great choice for tighter budgets so not a bad choice at all.
To answer your RAM question: 8 Gigs is usually plenty. 12 or 16 is a nice luxury if you can swing it.
For your overclocking: http://www.overclock.net/t/538439/guide-to-overclocking-the-core-i7-920-or-930-to-4-0ghz
I have two of the Coolermaster 212s you mentioned. Huge, but quiet and cool. I like 'em.

Sorry in advance, but here's my unsolicited two cents: Consider moving to a 1150/1151 Intel or AMD A4 motherboard when the budget allows and move the whole system up to current performance. I'm not trying to pick on you or your system. It's fine, but if you want to run new/decent games and Photoshop, you'll be much happier in the long run bringing things up to date. I pushed and old AMD Phenom II 945 along for a long long time but it is outclassed in every way possible by the current i3 and Ryzen 3 budget processors.

My cheap dual core i3 4360 is about 15% faster than the 1st gen i7 930 you have and only uses 54 watts of power compared to the old i7 running at 130 watts. A Kaby Lake i3 7320 is 40 percent faster at only 51 watts. My sons i5 6600K clocks in at a whopping 73% faster..before overclocking. I've seen his rig go. It's more than a little impressive.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Intel-Core-i3-7320/Rating/3888

You could just leave the system the way it is while gathering parts for new rig and leave it intact for a spare/2d office system after the new one is complete. You could also consider a stop/gap approach and get a budget GT 1030 to bring your current system up to date a bit for light gaming or go right to the 1050 ti and move the card to a new motherboard later. Lot's of options. Sorry to ramble. Happy hunting!