Request
Recommendations please for a mobo and CPU combo that will meet my need below and replace the P5N32-SLI and Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz devices currently installed in my PC. Tactfully said, what I
don't want is photo processing "advice" such as not to shoot raw, or advice to replace the entire PC. Thank you.
Background
My six year old custom-build PC still does with ease everything that it was purchased to do, but the CPU struggles with two newly introduced tasks.
- It is caned relentlessly when converting photo files taken with a professional DSLR from raw to jpeg format. Files taken with my much inferior consumer DSLR would take from 5 to 10 seconds each to process with the CPU briefly spiking up to 100% in the process, whereas files taken with the new camera take from 45 to 60 seconds each, with the CPU running at 100% for the entire time.
- Authoring video from full HD source taken with my wife's camcorder likewise works the CPU flat out and takes much longer than SD; typically "five times real time" for HD versus "three quarters real time" for SD that she used until recently.
In neither case are the well housekept and load balanced HDDs an issue, and neither is 3GB RAM, usage of which never exceed 70%. It is pure CPU grunt that is the issue.
For completeness: The PC is never - and will never be by me - used for gaming (despite having a P5N32-SLI mobo today), and the replacement mobo needs to support at least 4 SATA and 2 eSATA HDDs. It also needs to support at last three PCI Express x16 cards. The Antec PSU has current handling capacity in spades. I intend to keep my current sound card (I don't use the P5N's onboard sound capability) and video card since they do what I need perfectly fine. The o/s is currently W7 x64 Professional SP1 and I use gigabit ethernet for connectivity to the home network.
Many thanks,
TLXV