Best upgrade path?

[Seiphas]

I've got a workstation here with:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.0 GHz (stock cooler)
Asus P5K-E
8 gigs of Mushkin HP2-6400 RAM (5-4-4-12)
2x250 gig old Maxtor drives in RAID 0 (write speed - 120MB/sec)
ATi Radeon 4850 with stock cooler
Corsair TX-650 PSU
Antec P182 Case

I used to work at 1280x1024, but I upgraded my monitor to a Dell 2408WFP at 1920x1200. I mainly do Photoshop / Graphic Design work, but I also run stuff like PCSX2, and my machine isn't cutting it at 1920x1200x16AA.

What's the cheapest way to upgrade my machine to get more performance. I'm not interested in scrapping anything, but if there's something I can do to get a lot more power for a few hundred, count me in. The only thing I'm not interested in is upgrading the HDDs, unless there's some real reason to. I know Photoshop bottlenecks on the HDD, but I've solved that problem by running a huge RAM disk as a PS scratch disk. 4000MB/sec is plenty fast.

[tmpz]

Nothing really worth upgrading except maybe the hard drives. I hope you're backing stuff up especially with raid 0. New hard drives should hit faster speeds.

[Seiphas]

It's my work computer, so I don't really keep any data on it aside from the OS / installed programs.

I have all my files duplicated to a server in my basement, which is about to get RAID5 installed (just waiting for the final drive to arrive from WD).

[Silver Bullet]

I used to work at 1280x1024, but I upgraded my monitor to a Dell 2408WFP at 1920x1200. I mainly do Photoshop / Graphic Design work, but I also run stuff like PCSX2, and my machine isn't cutting it at 1920x1200x16AA.

Changing your screen rez for day to day apps won't make your computer slower, it really makes no difference at all. Gaming on the other hand of course that going to make it harder for the gfx card. This being your work machine though I won't worry about that. I think your computer is fine for what you use it for.

[Seiphas]

Perhaps I should rephrase what I mean by "work" computer.

It's the computer I work at, not where I do work. :lol:

Hence the PCSX2 usage.

Also, I know that changing resolutions won't affect day-to-day things. However, when I was at 1280x1024, I could easily run certain games at 16xAA, whereas now I can't due to the higher res.

[pace]

get a 4870 1g.

[maniacshopper]

seiphas,

I think your bottleneck is your hard drive. the graphics card looks ok for photoshop application, but if your editing at that resolution, I'd think the graphics card shouldn't be too much strain, not playing games, as its your work pc.

You may not have enough ram, you said you're using ramdisk to compensate. the hard disk is constantly running to manage it. It's your hard disk read/write speeds, the cache is too low on the hdd.

[sheepdogexpress]

With a new heatsink, you might be able to get 3.6 ghz stable. Thats 20 percent better performance(in best case scenario) for 40 dollars.

[Seiphas]

I do play the odd game, last thing I played was Mirror's Edge. I might get an Ultra 120 cooler, since I can always use more CPU power for PCSX2. Besides, it's 40 dollars, and worst case scenario, I get my computer running much cooler. I've never approached 3.6 with the stock cooler, although I have no doubts I could probably get it up to 4.0 (it's a G0)

Any other suggestions? Would something like an Accelero S1 help out?

[tmpz]

I'm pretty sure PCSX2 is still CPU bottleneck. You probably won't see any improvements, unless they update it.