i5 or i7

justintime2001 · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:04

As I’m not a gamer (other than online poker) and use my pc for the Net and Photoshop (several large picture files open at one time) and general office stuff. Would I see enough benefit between these processors to spend the extra £66? I will not be overclocking, so locked CPU isn’t an issue. The one thing I do want is files to open quickly.

Intel Core i5-2500 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail [BX80623I52500] @ £169.99

Intel Core i7-2600 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail [BX80623I72600] @ £235.99

Thanks

wakayoda · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:06

BaDBoY_uK · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:08

i5, overclock, bonus!

iamtheoneneo · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:10

he cant overclock its not the K versions hes after.

DragonQ · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:11

If you want lots of images to open quickly, get an SSD.

justintime2001 · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:12

SSD - Solid State Drive

Vtec9k · 15 Feb 2011 at 13:14

i5 will be fine for that unless your doing heavy video and image post processing.

But yea depending on your system an SSD might make a bigger difference!

kristmace · 15 Feb 2011 at 13:26

Have a look at this comparison and decide for yourself. The improvements look negligable to me.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287

NB. This comparison uses the K version of the processors, but they're not overclocked, so will be the same as the ones you linked to.

justintime2001 · 15 Feb 2011 at 13:31

Yes I agree they do look negligable. I had looked at the comparison prior to asking the question as although I can see the figures, they dont mean that much to me being none too technical

Its difficult for me to judge what the difference would be in the real world.

OCDStevo · 15 Feb 2011 at 13:46

Go for the i5-2500 and put the £ saved towards a SSD.

justintime2001 · 15 Feb 2011 at 13:49

Yes, the todays special SSD looks very tempting, just not sure how it will fit in my case, can you get brackets so they would fit a 3.5" drive bay?

the1gooner · 15 Feb 2011 at 13:52

justintime2001 said:
Yes, the todays special SSD looks very tempting, just not sure how it will fit in my case, can you get brackets so they would fit a 3.5" drive bay?

They are so light that you can stick it anywhere in your case with a bit of tape or velcro. I know people that have done that.

C.K · 15 Feb 2011 at 14:14

justintime2001 said:
Yes, the todays special SSD looks very tempting, just not sure how it will fit in my case, can you get brackets so they would fit a 3.5" drive bay?

Yes, my OCZ Vertex 2E SSD came with one.

realscot · 15 Feb 2011 at 14:16

the1gooner said:
They are so light that you can stick it anywhere in your case with a bit of tape or velcro. I know people that have done that.

yep mines just lying on top of a 3.5inch drive not even taped down and temps are only just above ambient. They are amazingly light probably around the weight of a 20 pack of smokes.

drifting · 15 Feb 2011 at 17:13

I don't think HT could bring much performance improvements. SSD is the way to go; however keep in mind that the performance of MLC degrades fast.

justintime2001 · 15 Feb 2011 at 17:19

Im really going to show my lack of knowledge now :confused:

What is HT and MLC please?

Davey_Pitch · 15 Feb 2011 at 17:43

HT = Hyper Threading. If you're a gamer you'll get no real benefit from this as I don't think any game uses it.

MLC = Multi-Level Cell, which is one of two ways solid state drives use to store data (the other being SLC - Single-Level Cell). SLC drives last longer, but MLC drives should still last you a good number of years unless you hammer it every day.

justintime2001 · 15 Feb 2011 at 17:47

Thanks for the info, thats very much appreciated.

zangetsu19 · 15 Feb 2011 at 17:57

Go for I5 and put money towards a SSD or monitor/tablet to get the best out of photoshop

mswimfish · 15 Feb 2011 at 18:04

id deffinatly go for the "k" version just for the resale value in the future

mike