[SOLVED] Upgrading motherboard and processor for HPZ820 case and peripherals

[John McMullin]

I'm an editor and graphic designer who has an HPZ820 and now I'm primarily using Adobe Premiere and After Effects as well as Davinci Resolve. Last year I gave the PC some more legs by putting in a 1080 graphics card and it seemed happy for a while, but now it's dropping frames playing back simple, rendered HD sequences. In fact it is dropping frames on sequences which my laptop isn't.

Specs are as follows:
Hewlett-Packard 158B motherboard
socketual LGA2011
Processor : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2640 0 @ 2.5GHz (2 processors)
RAM : 8 x 4GB Samsung RAM. 1600 speed. DDR3. DIMM

Looking at Premiere's latest system requirements, Premiere seems to require as a minimum an Intel® 6thGen or newer CPU – or AMD equivalent and prefers 7thGen. And so I'm thinking that I definitely need a CPU upgrade. I'm confident that my hard drives are fast enough, and 32Gb of RAM should be enough to play back HD.

I'm quite ignorant about system building, but I think I'm right in saying that I cannot put such a new CPU onto the LGA2011 motherboard. In which case, could I buy a new motherboard and put it into the case that I have. Would save me a bit of cash and the case is a thing of quality.

Many thanks for your help.

Best wishes,

John

 

[Eximo]

Not really at this point. DDR3 is no longer current, so any reasonable CPU upgrade would mean replacing that as well.

So CPU, Motherboard, RAM, PSU and Chassis would by my recommendation. Get off the OEM equipment so you have more options in the future.

Just depends on how much you have to spend.

I should add that AMD is launching new CPUs here shortly, so slightly older CPUs are going to drop in price or the new ones will be worth buying.

 

[tennis2]

Cases are $50-$100.
Looks like the HPZ820 has a somewhat specialized layout and non-ATX PSU.
I'm not saying it's impossible, but you might be better off getting a new case that's "standard"

What country are you shopping in?
What's your budget?

 

[John McMullin]

Thanks for you replies. Looks like I just need to buy a new PC.

Currently I've got 4 internal hard hard drives, the 1080 graphics card and a Blackmagic intensity pro card which I'll want to put in the new one. I guess a case with more room for hard drives wouldn't be a bad thing as they save me buying an expensive, external raid.

Generally I'm not too bothered about having the absolute fastest thing on the planet but I do need a system capable of editing and grading 4K and long GOP stuff without problems. I'll pay what I have to but I do try to avoid spending money unnecessarily. I'm happy to stay with the same GPU and upgrade in the future if necessary. I think that the 1080 is good for what I have to do.

I'm from the UK but these days I'm working remotely in Spain.

Thanks for the help.

John

 

[tennis2]

Budget? Very few actually have an unlimited budget, even if they say they do.

What capacity are your hard drives? Are they original to the current system (aka 8 years old)?

 

[John McMullin]

Thanks. I was thinking I should be able to do it for £2000 or a bit less. With an i7 or i9 processor and 64Gb or even 128Gb of RAM.

I swapped out the system drive for an 500Gb SSD about 4 years ago and a few months ago I striped two new internal 8TB drives to make a 16TB media drive. The Blackmagic disk speed test for that drive gives about 410 MB/s Write speed, 426 MB/s read speed for the stripe. I've got another 3TB internal drive that I use for dropbox and autosaves.

I usually edit in Premiere, graphics in After Effects and grade or edit in Davinci Resolve.

I'm estimating my price 'cause I can save a bit of money by not buying hard drives and the GPU. But could be a good idea to get a new system drive I guess.

John

 

[John McMullin]

I guess I'm asking for advice as to what bits (case, motherboard, CPU, power supply) I should buy. I've only ever bought pre-assembled computers before.

 

[tennis2]

Not sure if that meant you're shopping in Spain?.....I'll assume yes.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (€306.74 @ Electronicamente)
CPU Cooler: Lian Li GALAHAD AIO 240 RGB 69.17 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (€118.25 @ PC Componentes)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550M MORTAR WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (€144.90 @ Amazon Espana)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Predator 128 GB (4 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (€532.59 @ Amazon Espana)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€270.90 @ Alternate)
Case: Silverstone RL08BW-RGB MicroATX Mini Tower Case (€91.00 @ Amazon Espana)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€100.06 @ Amazon Espana)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit (€56.99 @ Amazon Espana)
Total: €1621.43
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-10-29 17:00 CET+0100



With your budget, I'd wait till November 6th to get a Ryzen 5000 series CPU.

 

[John McMullin]

That's awesome, thanks. I'll check through all this and make a decision. It's certainly an excellent price for what would be a fast machine.

Sometimes I shop from Amazon Spain, sometimes from Amazon.co.uk. I think the UK acts as a hub for electronics stuff around Europe and is often slightly cheaper and quicker. But I can do a comparison to see if there's much difference.

Will definitely wait until November if that's going to give me a speed boost.

Best wishes,

John

 

[tennis2]

One word of caution. If you're planning on NEEDING 128GB of RAM, I'd recommend buying a 4-stick kit straight away. Sticks of RAM that are sold together are tested by the manufacturer to work together. A 4 stick kit may cost more than two 2-stick kits, but with needing that much RAM, it's probably a worthwhile cost.

Also, the market in different countries will change the list both in price and availability. In Spain, component A might be the better choice. In UK, component B may be.

 

[John McMullin]

Yes. I'll definitely go with the 128GB so I won't have to worry about it later. I'll wait until November 5 for the Ryzen 7 5800X processor. A bit more expensive but I'm sure it'll make my life easier.

Thanks for all the help.

John