Dell Precision Workstation

Looking to upgrade from Dell 390 workstation. Am a Adobe CS user. I have my eye on a Precision T5600 due to the dual cpu configuration. My question is where is the sweet spot on 4/6/8 core and speed. It can add up really quick and I think spending more than $3-4K on the cpu upgrade may be a bit over the top. I plan to use another source of memory to get 24 or 32G of ram and do my own thing with SSD and several hard drives internally. I have several 4 bay external storage devices for archives.
Anyone have ideas on dual cpu's and affordable (lol)core/speed selections?
Thanks,
GT
Old broadcast design engineer.

With a single CPU our tip is to look for a CPU under $500, only step up if the next level CPU is less then $200 more. If it's over $200, stay where you are, if it's less, consider stepping up.

With XEONs these figures get more expensive, but the same theory applies. Since you have 2 actual CPUs, we would say that if the step up is $1,000 or less for both CPUs, make the jump. If it's over $1K but less then $2k to jump to the next level CPU, consider it. If it's over $2k, you're going to far.

Hope this helps.

Gary

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I was thinking the T5600 with 2630 for $2400. Then add my own memory, HD's and video card 3800 or 4000 for a fraction of what Dell wants. Combination of corporate discounts and spares lying around.

[George Thompson] "I was thinking the T5600 with 2630 for $2400. Then add my own memory, HD's and video card 3800 or 4000 for a fraction of what Dell wants. Combination of corporate discounts and spares lying around."

Perfect - that's what I'd do as well.