Curious about opinions of i5 2500k vs i7 2600k

[oliverredfox]

For a while now I’ve wanted to put together a virtual pinball machine and I’m starting to rev up to actually do it.  As such, I figured I’d bump up my primary machine and play the handme down game across my other setups.  For reference, my main rig is only using a Q6600 w/4gb of ram.  I do my ripping/re-encoding on it and then move it across the network for the media devices to access.  It doesn’t do any recording, that all gets handled on another machine.  It mainly gets used for day-to-day basic programs, video games, occasional rips/re-encodes.

From looking around, I’m generally leaning towards getting an i5 2500k (no plan to ever over-clock, but for $15 more than the i5 2500 might as well give myself the option).  Even with it’s 3+ years of age, the Q6600 still doesn’t feel long in the tooth to me.  Figured I’d ask around here if anyone had any compelling reasons why the i7 2600(k) would be worth the extra $100.

[swoon]

It depends how much you value that extra speed. It sounds like the application you could benefit most from is video encoding. Will it matter to you if your job gets finished a little bit faster? If you’re doing it a lot, then it probably is worth it. This is all of course if you are not using Quick Sync to perform the transcode.

Your gaming may also benefit a bit depending on the game and whether it is CPU bound.

It sounds like you are pretty satisfied with the Q6600 performance so in that case, save the $100.

[mikinho]

I’ve got 1 of each at the moment if you are interested in any metrics or comparision.  The 2100K, 2100S and 2600K.  I would have liked to get the 2600S but I couldn’t justify the cost.

[oliverredfox]

From what I’d read, I don’t think I can use Quick Sync with my separate video card installed.  I’m under the impression that the onboard GPU turns off when using a PCI-E video card.  Unless the article I read about that was outdated and a work-around exists (would be awesome).

I think you’re right, I’m probably fine with slightly lower speeds I’d get off the i5 given my satisfaction with the Q6600.  I have a voice in the back of my head that makes me ponder pushing tech as far as I can when I buy new stuff.  Just wanted to make certain I wasn’t going to have a DUH moment in week from now for not buying the i7.

Thanks for the replies from both of you =)

[mikinho]

There is a software that allows you to utilize QuickSync in conjuction with a discrete GPU, see Lucidlogix Virtu.  It still has a few bugs to work out but overall it is very impressive.  You can setup profiles for what programs you want to use QuickSync versus CUDA, OpenCL, Stream, etc.

[oliverredfox]

That’s pretty cool.  I’ll have to muck around with that.

[DavidStein]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested

 

obviously we could come up with some other applications where the difference would be more noticable, but for gaming the max difference between the 2500k and the 2600k is about 6-7% in fallout 3, with the median being more of a 1-3% increase.

 

I myself will be buying a 2500k in june, and probably pairing it with a 6950 (most likely to pair it with the firmware upgrade to make it a 6970). 

 

i am interested in seeing the z68 chipset motherboards come out as well, mainly for the SSD caching, though we will have to wait for the reviews to come out to see if works as advertised. though to be fair, i say this as someone who has a 60GB vertex2 as my boot drive on my main machine currently, so its more or less the perfect size to use as a cache.

[oliverredfox]

I’m running a 60gb Vertex2 too.  Adding that in was a night and day difference with my day-to-day operations.

I feel so out of the loop on chipsets these days.  Used to keep track of everything and read articles on upcoming products like my life depended on it.  Now I barely pay attention to it.  While looking up the z68, I came across this: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Intel-Z68-Chipset-to-Launch-on-May-8-194075.shtml  Seems that the Quick Sync only works if you’ve got an H67 chipset (even with the lucidlogix workaround).  I was narrowing down between two P67 motherboards to order later today.  Now I think I’m going to have to dig around and look into the z68 when it comes out in a few weeks (Thanks, you just saved me $150 on what would’ve been a semi-gimped motherboard in the long run).

[DavidStein]

moving to an SSD was easily the most valuable upgrade I have ever purchased for a computer. and while my win7 partition is really only using 28GB with all of my programs and files installed, so i could make a 60GB partition work even with installing a game or two at a time, I think it would be just much easier to combine it with a 1-2TB platter drive and let the motherboard/OS do all the work of figuring out what files needed to be stored on the SSD without me having to think about it. but of course only time will tell if it actually works as well well as it could.

 

and here is hoping for your sake that the z68 boards do start rolling out in the first week of may. i have to wait til june regardless so i have a month’s buffer, but it could be kind of tough waiting on a delay if you are ready to purchase today.

[oliverredfox]

Starting to prep so I don’t have to redo all the computers at once.  Is MCE Backuptool still the go to software for moving over recording schedules?  I assume it is, but it’s been a while since I’ve needed to use it and it’s possible something else has come along.

[swoon]

There’s also this tool.

[oliverredfox]

Thanks =)

[swoon]

If you try it, let us know how it works. I haven’t actually used it.

[oliverredfox]

The tool worked fine.  No issues with moving the schedule data to a new system.  It felt like a lite version of MCEbackup.

[swoon]

Thanks, I’ll be sure to give it a try.

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