Help deciding between i3 and i5

[Scottland]

Hi Guys,

Putting together a little ITX box to replace my ageing C2D setup. Not interested in overclocking this time, so I'll likely be using a H67 board.

I was thinking of an i3 2100 - but I've recently been thinking of an i5 instead.

The power draws aren't hugely increased with the i5, but what about heat and performance?

Is an i5 2400 much of a step up over an i3 2100? I'm mainly concerned about Photoshop work, and video encoding.
Heat is an issue in as far as it will needed to be cooled by a cooler that will fit inside an ITX case - and I would like to keep it relatively silent.


Cheers

 

[Scottland]

if your gonna encode video, definitively go for the i5 2400, I was faced with a similar questions, and ended up buying a 2100, not being happy with it when encoding blu-rays and then went and bought a 2400, and was much much happier

What was the real world difference between the 2 then (total encoding time)?

i.e. 3 hours vs 5 hours etc?