Need some advice on a short term upgrade to my system

5200north

I had planned on building my dream PC this year but like everyone else on earth my plans where changed due to the virus. I've had to be responsible and put a hold the new computer for now, however, the limitations on my current ancient PC are driving me insane. 

I love using this software but my current old PC is killing all my fun. I need some advise on some short term updates. I've read so much but I'm not sure what's the best option for me. 

Right now I have a Dell Inspirion 580 with a Intel Core i5 650 @ 3.20GHz,8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 on a Dell Inc. 033FF6 Motherboard, with a 300 watt power supply. I've updated it with a 931GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB and an ASUStek NVIDIA GeoForce GT 710 with 2 MB. The operating system is Windows 10 Home 64 bit.

Rendering times are terrible but i could live with overnight renders but what is so frustrating is i really like to use more than one character. All of you create such great work but I primarily see everyone one character. I much more interested in exploring narrative renders which means more than one character and a full set with props. Daz so often lock up or run so slow it's ridiculous . 

I have two short term hardware solutions that might be helpful. First , 2MB of GPU memory is bad. I could get a refurbished or off-brand 730 with 4MB of memory for around $50 . I know this GPU isn't a great card but would it be a inexpensive short term solution?

I've never paid much attention to the fans in the case – getting a couple stronger fans and maybe re-applying the thermal paste on the CPU make any difference?

The motherboard limits my memory to 8gb which is a problem but probably nothing I can solve with this PC.

I had expected to be in the middle of building my new PC with every high end part i could find and i was looking forward to showing off on this forum. I just want to have fun again with the Daz3D.

Thanks in advance to everyone. Sorry for such a lengthily posting but I really need some help.

 

 

kenshaw011267

Right now that PSU is going to make any upgrades pretty weak. Getting the 730 might be a little bit of help but it really won't be much. 

The 4Gb 730's use DDR3 rather than GDDR5. DDR3 is terrible RAM for a GPU while GDDR5 is optimized for it. That imposes a pretty severe performance penalty on those GPU's. You would get more scenes to fit in your VRAM but I'm unsure if you'd get any noticeable speed improvement.

If you're staying with that HW for more than a few months I'd, maybe, do it but if you're building the new system by fall I'd just wait.

Chumly

I'll vote for the "Just Wait" option. 
I know its gotta be killing you, but I am not sure that you can add anything now that will make that much of a difference and you can take with you to your new system.
I think that MB you have just has SATA II ports, so your are just running that at 3/Gbs for your SATA drive....

Realistically, when is your target now for the new system?

Going for the "glass is half full" approach, AMD will be coming out with their new Zen3 Architecture AND Nvidia will be dropping their RTX 3000 series stuff sometime this fall.

 

clivewil2

PJWhoopie said:

I know its gotta be killing you, but I am not sure that you can add anything now that will make that much of a difference and you can take with you to your new system.

agreed, an existing HD can be plugged into a new system as an extra drive but any other upgrade is likely to become a complete loss once the new system is built

one other factor is what you use your renders/animations for - if it's for business and slow renders are literally costing you money, then bite the bullet and do some (minor) upgrades to get you through. if it's for fun/non-profit, then i agree with waiting - whatever you *don't* spend right now means more to spend on the new system when you're ready to buy it

good luck with whichever path you choose.

cajhin

Agreed, I wouldn't spend money on a sinking ship. I'd consider only parts that you can use on the next PC.

One option might be, depending on what your dream parts are, to purchase the graphics card now. Something like an RTX 2060 Super should work with your 300W power supply, and it absolutely *slaughters* what you have now. You'll still be limited by 8GB main RAM, but what you can render will see a massive boost. And live Iray preview is nice, nice, nice.

New cards will show up in the future, as always, but it's still unknown how much better (and expensive) RTX 3* will be.

5200north

clivewil2 said:

PJWhoopie said:

I know its gotta be killing you, but I am not sure that you can add anything now that will make that much of a difference and you can take with you to your new system.

agreed, an existing HD can be plugged into a new system as an extra drive but any other upgrade is likely to become a complete loss once the new system is built

one other factor is what you use your renders/animations for - if it's for business and slow renders are literally costing you money, then bite the bullet and do some (minor) upgrades to get you through. if it's for fun/non-profit, then i agree with waiting - whatever you *don't* spend right now means more to spend on the new system when you're ready to buy it

good luck with whichever path you choose.

yeah, i think you guys are right. i'm stuck with what i have until i get my new rig. i was even thinking of using this time to learn blender, something i would like to learn and put daz3d on the back burner. 

my budge is around $2500 (more if i think its worth the extra money), i'm just holding off for now - there's too much uncertanty now and i can't justify spending the money. hopefully buy this fall i will start buying parts.

TheKD

Blender is a lof of fun! You can get lost for years learning about all that it can do lol. The new mantaflow stuff, there is a nice hair system, all kinds of fun stuff to play with.

TheMysteryIsThePoint

5200north said:

yeah, i think you guys are right. i'm stuck with what i have until i get my new rig. i was even thinking of using this time to learn blender, something i would like to learn and put daz3d on the back burner.

The two compliment each other extremely well. Unless you're a purist that actually *wants* to try modeling and rigging a character at the level of quality that Daz Studio users take for granted by just clicking buttons and moving sliders, Daz Studio (for what it excels at) is as amazing a tool as Blender. Why not use both?

JamesJAB

Here's my advice.  Star building your new PC one piece at a time, starting with parts that will fit into your old Dell.  
Assuming that your Dell is housed in a micro tower, the motherboard has the normal 24pin ATX power connector so...

1: Get the planned power supply and install it first. (This will not immediatley boost performance, but will set you up for success)
2: Double your RAM (2x4GB DDR3 is pretty cheap) (this will not be for your new machine but will allow your current setup to render using the new GPU without issue)
3. Save up for a Nvidia GPU with at least 8GB of VRAM.

After this step you will have much improved render times and have 2 parts of your new PC on hand.
4. Next will be your planned tower.  Transfer the entire computer into the new case for better airflow.
5. Motherboard + CPU + Cooling + RAM for your planned PC build
6. HDD + Wifi + other

This is probably your best spending plan with the smallest amount spent on items that do not transfer over to the new computer.