Some general 'new tech' questions

ajf · 29 Aug 2012 at 23:47

I am getting slightly confused with some of the latest technology.

Firstly, what exactly is the difference between an i5 and an i7?
I'll use the 3570 and 3770 as the example as they appear on paper to be the same in terms of clock speed.

Also, where does qud channel memory fit in and does it really make any obvious performanxe difference?
It doesn't seem any of the current Ivybridge CPUs support it?

On a more simple note, is there much real world difference between sata 6gbps drives and older sata II drives?

mickyflinn · 29 Aug 2012 at 23:54

The diffrence between the I5 3570k and I7 3770k is hyperthreading which is pointless in gaming but beneficial when video editing ,etc. Both the above are on z77 boards with dual channel memory

Quad channel memory is only available on x79 boards.

There is a real diffrence between sata 2 and sata 3 the later has twice the bandwith which means higher transfer of data.

wkingsnorth · 29 Aug 2012 at 23:58

The Sata III drives are newer and faster than Sata II, you'll notice the difference if the drive has faster speeds than ~375MB/s technically

ajf · 30 Aug 2012 at 00:00

Thanks.
So for video editing and photo editing an i7 maybe be beneficial?
Would it be better to go socket 2011 and get qud channel memory or go for the newer Ivybridge and accept dual channel?

wkingsnorth · 30 Aug 2012 at 00:02

It's not really worth it unless you're going to get a hex-core i7 and you will actually use those extra two cores. And yes, an i7 is useful for photo and video editing

eddyr · 30 Aug 2012 at 00:14

It might be beneficial in vdeo/photo editing but is definitely not necessary and an i5 will still be capable. If you are using the hyperthreading consistantly then that certainly will help in mentally justifying the extra cost. One of those things where you'l have to honestly factor in usage, benefit of speed up, types of applications you will use, or whether you dont mind splashing some cash on hardware.

Surveyor · 30 Aug 2012 at 00:55

If you're talking about Solid State Drives then there's a noticeable difference (at least in benchmarks) between SATA 2 (3Gbps) and SATA 3 (6Gbps).

If you're talking about Hard Disk Drives then you won't see any difference between SATA 2 and SATA 3.

SATA 3 HDDs may be faster but that'll be because they have higher density platters etc. compared to older disks. The interface is really irrelevant.