Core i5-2500k or i7-2600k ?

[sdsumike619]

I decided not to buy a pre-built system so I'm pricing parts, trying to get the best bang for the buck.

I pulled up a comparison between the Core i5-2500k or i7-2600k. Not a big difference between these CPUs, except for the price.. What's recommended for encoding with Sony Vegas 10 and On2 Flix Pro?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007671&IsNodeI d=1&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemLis t=343|19-115-072^19-115-072-TS%2C19-115-070^19-115-070-TS

Also, which ASUS motherboard should I purchase? And video card? I don't do any 3D rendering.

[jagabo]

The i7 2600k is hyperthreaded. It runs 8 threads vs the i5 2500k's 4 threads. There are also a few other instruction set difference. The i7 2600k supports a few obscure special purpose instructions that the i5 2500k doesn't.

[sdsumike619]

Oh, I see, didn't realize that was important, I'll go with the i7 in that case. Isn't there some rule of thumb to follow for choosing memory configuration, size, speed, etc?

[usually_quiet]

There is a bigger difference than the clock speeds would indicate. The i7 uses Hyper-Threading and can serve 8 threads at the same time, and has 8MB of cache. An i5 can can only serve 4 threads at the same time and has 6MG of cache.

[jagabo]

Oh, I see, didn't realize that was important, I'll go with the i7 in that case. Isn't there some rule of thumb to follow for choosing memory configuration, size, speed, etc?

Bigger and faster are better. But a good compromise is 8 GB at 1600 MHz. Going faster than that gets very minimal increases in execution speed (far less than 1 percent in most cases). Few applications need more than 4 GB.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3/5

[sdsumike619]

How am I doing so far?

$314 - Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K

$215 - ASUS P8P67 DELUXE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

$51.00 - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

$39.00 - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKX 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Now I need a video card....

[jagabo]

Remember you need a 64 bit OS to access more tha 4 GB. I'd shoot for a graphics card in the US$75 to $150 range. Over that and you're just talking about gaming cards. I'd spend a bit more on the boot drive. An old 320 GB drive will be slower than a new 1 or 2 TB drive. Even if you don't need the extra space.

I'm currently running an i5 2500K and a motherboard that costs about half as much as the one you're looking at. I was more budget constrained.

[sdsumike619]

I just went on newegg and sorted by best rating... Yes, I'll be running Windows 7 64bit for sure. No gaming whatsoever on this machine. Just light photoshop work and encoding with Vegas and Flix Pro.. The size of the drive doesn't dictate the speed, this is SATA 6gb/s It should be very fast, no?? Which board are you using?

[wulf109]

Every review I've read say there's almost no increase in speed by going from 3 to 6 SATA. Video transcoding and encoding are CPU dependant. If you buying a new HD I guess buying 6 Sata makes sense but I doubt you'll see any measurable speed increase. Hard drive size is more important,the larger the better. 2 physical HD are better for transcoding,transcoding is fast and separate read and write drives will increase speed by 10-15%

[oldfart13]

Most new systems I see people building are using solid state drives as the boot drive. How would using one of those affect the final outcome of his system?

Also, with the new AMD Bulldozer chips out, how would that affect encoding speed? Haven't seen any benchmarks or comparisons yet, so I don't know offhand...

[wulf109]

I think SSD's are still too expensive,2-10 times what a conventional HD costs for the same size. Reviews I've read indicate they boot faster and are faster on apps that have a lot of repetitive read/writes,but video apps don't fall into that category.

[sdsumike619]

No, I wouldn't be using that drive for my encoding, that would be just the system drive. So you think I should go SATA 3 instead of 6? Even though the mobo supports 6?

[SandyB]

I decided not to buy a pre-built system so I'm pricing parts, trying to get the best bang for the buck.

I pulled up a comparison between the Core i5-2500k or i7-2600k. Not a big difference between these CPUs, except for the price.. What's recommended for encoding with Sony Vegas 10 and On2 Flix Pro?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007671&IsNodeI d=1&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemLis t=343|19-115-072^19-115-072-TS%2C19-115-070^19-115-070-TS

Also, which ASUS motherboard should I purchase? And video card? I don't do any 3D rendering.

i7-2600k/Asus P8P67 .....but not without a water cooler. Encodes H264 at 4000fps, but the CPU temp hits 85c with the stock fan. 45c with a Hydro H50

[jagabo]

The size of the drive doesn't dictate the speed

It does when the larger drive is using higher density platters than the small drive (other things being equal). More bits pass under the read head during a rotation of the platters. That's why newer, bigger, drives have higher transfer rates. If you created a 320 GB partition on the outer portion of 2 TB drive you'd would be using only the fastest part of the drive. And the heads would only have to seek 1/6 as far on random accesses.

The largest drives have only recently been able to exceed the transfer rate of 3 Gb/s SATA.

[sdsumike619]

SandyB,, does it have to be WATER cooled, or can it just be a better aftermarket fan/heatsink than the stock one? I don't really want to get into dealing with watercooled systems.

[johns0]

Just buy a better hsf,i got my 2600k clocked to 4.1 ghz with no heating issues or any other issues at all,rock solid stable.My hsf is a cooler master hyper 212 plus.

[sdsumike619]

Isn't it very difficult to do the overclocking? I heard you can really mess things up if you don't know what you're doing.. If CPUs can be overclocked, why don't the manufacturers just make them faster to begin with?

[johns0]

It's very easy to oc the 2600k,just set the multiplier to 41 and save bios,as long as you got good cooling it's as easy as that.

[jagabo]

SandyB,, does it have to be WATER cooled, or can it just be a better aftermarket fan/heatsink than the stock one? I don't really want to get into dealing with watercooled systems.

The stock cooler works just fine. Intel isn't stupid. If you want a little more cooling, a quieter cooler, or want to overclock, get a bigger cooler. I'm using a Coolermaster Hyper 212+ on my i5 2500K.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

Got it for about $15 on sale.

[sdsumike619]

Don't you also have to do something with the memory, some settings there too?

[jagabo]

Memory and CPU are clocked separately now.

[deadrats]

you could also wait another month or so and see what "bulldozer" brings to the table, in terms of price/performance ratio.

[sdsumike619]

Na, waiting is out of the question, have to get a new system set up fairly soon here...

[pepegot1]

Get the Asus P68 MB instead of the P67. You loose Quick Sync, for video processing, if you add a video card to the P67 board. This does not happen with the P68. It has more advantages than the P67.

[budz]

I wouldn't wait for Bulldozer.....Just get the Sandy Bridge 2500k or 2600k.....overclocking that sucker is easy from what I've read....if you want help with overclocking just check out overclock.net. My next build will be with a Sandy Bridge 2500k.....I have the Cooler Master Hyper 212 + heatsinks on my overclocked AMD Quad & Intel Q9550.....I have 2 fans on each of them.....scythe sflex F & G fans in a push/pull configuration.....best bang for the buck the CM 212 + heatsink!

[sdsumike619]

I don't see a P68 motherboard at newegg? Is that the full model number?

[jagabo]

Z68, not P68. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627%20600158412&IsNo...me=Intel%20Z68

[sdsumike619]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131730 ?
The reviews aren't all that great overall.. Are you sure?

[jagabo]

I see 4 stars for that motherboard. I don't know if it's the one he was suggesting. But he definitely meant Z68, not P68. The Z68 chipset lets you use Quick Sync even if you are using another graphics card. It also allows overclocking the "K" chips.

I'm using one of these with my i5 2500K:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157252
Inexpensive, has what I need.

[sdsumike619]

Ok, now how is the system looking? If the mobo has 4 slots, do they all need to be full? Or can I use 2 4GB sticks?


$314 - Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K

$199 ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

$51.99 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRLDual Channel

$49.99 Western Digital Caviar Blue WDBAAX3200ENC-NRSN 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive