i5 vs i7 amongst other things...

aeropars

aeropars

aeropars

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21 Jul 2006
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Location
Leicester , UK
Hi All,

The hard drive in my trusty q6600 PC has decided to start playing up so I was speculating as to whether I should also upgrade the other inners. I really don't have a budget as its a really wrong time to be buying. That said, I cant do without a PC and if I'm going to spend money on it I'm going to do it right.

I play the odd game but my main use is multimedia.. AVCHD (HD) video editing in large (1 hour plus) projects and also so pretty heavy photographic editing and imaging work.

So I looked at i5s and i6s but i dont really know if the extra cost for an i7 is justified. Can anyone convince me either way? I'll be reusing my case, optical drives and 500 watt PSU but thats pretty much it. If i need to i'll stick with the geforce 8800 as that seems to be doing alright for what i need but if i can get a reasonabl upgrade then great. I've been looking a perhaps the overclocked bundles but i really dont know what the benefits are.

So can anyone tell me what the best bang for buck system would be? I'm really concious of price but that said, if the i7 is that much better then i'm happy to dig deep.

Thanks in advance.
 
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If you are doing a lot of video editing, etc then the I7 would be the one to go for. It has hyperthreading which can be utilized in intensive task

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us...per-threading/hyper-threading-technology.html.

There are so many bundles to choose from , here is a couple of option . The z77 based system with the 3770k is the latest tech from intel.


YOUR BASKET
1 x "Krypton Z77 690i" Intel Core i7 3770K 3.50GHz @ 4.50GHz DDR3 Ivybridge Overclocked Bundle £603.98
1 x Workstation PRO Z68 Intel Core i7 2700K 3.50GHz @ 4.50GHz Overclocked Bundle - 16GB £549.98
Total : £1,167.47 (includes shipping : £11.25).

 
Tbh the benefit of buying a bundle isnt what it used to be, even if your a complete noob you can select the pre-sets and overclock without issue.
Had this board myself before i downsized, just pick 4.6Ghz from the menu and your off.
Putting it together is simple shape awareness, if it fits its in the right place.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £263.99
1 x Asus Z77 Maximus V Gene Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £154.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £49.98
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £23.59
Total : £503.95 (includes shipping : £9.50).




There are other boards which will do exactly the same and for less but i liked this one a lot and the sound quality and extras are great.

EDIT: If your doing a lot of video editing its worth the money if you do one a day and leave it running whilst you go to the shops then save the money and get a 3570k and a better GPU/bigger SSD
 
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Thanks for the replied chaps.

Is there much difference between the i5 and i7 then that would make it very noticeable or should I say, is the extra £80 justified?

If i was to get an i7 as well as a new GPU would I still be OK on my 500 watt Akasa PSU? The GPU would only be around £100 but I imagine its much better than my Geforce 8800GT!
 
Maybe... hyperthreading can add up to a 30% performance increase in a highly parallel workloads. I suggest you look for benchmarks for the applications you use to see if there is a tangible performance difference. As it stands there is probably little difference between an i7 and i5 at the same clock speed for even video editing applications as a lot of encoding work is still single threaded.
 
aeropars said:
If i was to get an i7 as well as a new GPU would I still be OK on my 500 watt Akasa PSU? The GPU would only be around £100 but I imagine its much better than my Geforce 8800GT!
Click to expand...

Mine runs fine on a 450W PSU, the I7 is still only 77W unlike the AMD beasts that run at 130W. At around £100 consider a 6850 or second hand 570 if you can find one.

As for if its worth it, quad core wasnt really worth it 4 years ago but the people with dual cores had to upgrade sooner, the software and games out today dont take full advantage but they will as the years pass. The question is do you want to pay big up front or upgrade sooner imho which is why i have the I7, its of no use to me over an I5 today but give it a year or two and it will still be holding its own.
 
Thanks Gav. If im going to spend I want to do it right so I thinki7 is the way to do. I canmake use of it right away with my video editing and, as you say its futureproof.

You mention in your earlier post about being able to go for a cheaper motherboard. If I was to do this what would I be losing? I've had a look and apart from the obvious usb ports and the like, I'm not really sure what the advantages are.

Many thanks for your help so far.
 
I've priced up the following which is getting me more close to what I can spend without getting a telling off fomr the misses :D

Intel Core i7-3770 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail Intel Core i7-3770 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £239.99
(£199.99) £239.99
(£199.99)
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 M Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ASRock Z77 Extreme4 M Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £101.99
(£84.99) £101.99
(£84.99)
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £72.98
(£60.82) £72.98
(£60.82)
GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £53.99
(£44.99) £53.99
(£44.99)
Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)

Thats coming in at £494 but i cant find a graphics card that you suggested. I've read some reviews and it seems that other cards around the £100 mark are no better than my Geforce 8800GT. Is that right??
 
aeropars said:
I've priced up the following which is getting me more close to what I can spend without getting a telling off fomr the misses :D

Intel Core i7-3770 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail Intel Core i7-3770 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £239.99
(£199.99) £239.99
(£199.99)
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 M Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ASRock Z77 Extreme4 M Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £101.99
(£84.99) £101.99
(£84.99)
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £72.98
(£60.82) £72.98
(£60.82)
GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £53.99
(£44.99) £53.99
(£44.99)
Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)

Thats coming in at £494 but i cant find a graphics card that you suggested. I've read some reviews and it seems that other cards around the £100 mark are no better than my Geforce 8800GT. Is that right??
Click to expand...

Yeh OCuk don't seem to be stocking the 6850 at the moment, could try asking them to get one in or google an alternate vendor.

the 7770 is more powerfull than your card but for the same money the 6850 is a lot better you just have to hunt a bit for it.

The mobo i linked is an enthusiast board and has things like a better ethernet controller, an msata and wifi combo slot and great audio, it also has support for plugging in your laptop to play with the OC settings whilst the PC is running though i never used that, oh and better xfire/SLI support as bothe x16 slots run at x8 in sli as apposed to some that run x16 + x4.

90% of the stuff on it you wouldn't miss, the audio was great but not really worth the pennies if your not using it to the full.

I think the board you linked will be fine but this will do all you need it to for a few quid less.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
Total : £94.88 (includes shipping : £8.25).

 
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