i3 vs i5 vs i7

D

Dr Who

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Hi All

Ye Olde faithful has finally gone the way of Eskom, on the brink of collapse, so I think its time to take the plunge and upgrade it. ( My home PC).

This PC is mainly a internet/media server/basic games ( nothing new of FPS ). Its more to be used for work, browsing and a little basic GoPro editing.

When looking at the options the prices go up considerably between i3 to i7. Is it worth it or should I put the extra cash into a graphics card or Ram?

Thanks
 
For video editing processing power is important.. Go i7
 
internet/media server/basic games - i3 should suffice but the i5/i7 will make Go Pro editing quicker.

I brought my younger brother an i3 with 4gig ram small SSD and my old GTX580 - it plays any game @ 1080p BF4 gets 60fps on high.
 
I have been reading up up the i-series and will def do and i5 or i7. Like the bigger cache and additional cores. Seems there is a big jump from i3 to i5.



Thanks
 
It does depend on your budget, I would go for a lower end i5. Should be more than adequate.
 
Define budget/upgrade.

Also what CPU do you have atm, and how long does GoPro currently take.

For example I'm still stuck on a e6600 2.4Ghz, but I know the G3258 duo core will give me double the processing power. And that's a R825. Most games up until now have been running on two cores, so it's essentially doing the job of a Q6600, just with 90% more games actually benefiting. Also it's an easy overclock so it can destroy most i3 for two times less the price.

If you mention basic games, then I assume that ignores the new PS4 horrible ports trying to use 4-8 cores in which case you'd need to start looking at R2500+ graphics cards and CPUs which already shoots the price up to R5000 just for the two parts.

Your gonna be needing a budget.

Just to put in perspective
G3258 -> 4000 (R800)
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Pentium+G3258+@+3.20GHz

AMD FX-6300 -> 6354 (R1600)
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-6300+Six-Core

i5 -> 7250 (R2500)
http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-4590+@+3.30GHz&id=2234

The next step up would be i7, but they around the R4000 mark.
 
Drifter said:
i5-3750K
Click to expand...

Does the 3750k stand for 3rd gen.
Getting them second hand is always an option, but yeah everything evolves around the budget. Here's one of the cheapest new i5 mobos one can build.

Here's an i5 for R2300
http://www.kalahari.com/Technology/Intel-Core-i5-4460-3-2Ghz-6MB-Cache-SKT-1150_p_49222501

MSI-H81-P33
R628
http://www.kalahari.com/Technology/MSI-H81-P33-1150-Intel-Motherboard_p_49769717

R550w 80% efficiency
R550
http://www.rebeltech.co.za/5027-gig...04w-eps12v-atx12v-v23-80-plus-bronze-cer.html

R507 Ram
http://www.kalahari.com/Technology/ADATA-4GB-DDR3-1600Mhz-Desktop-Memory_p_49212591

Everything else if thrown into the graphics card up to a R9 270x
 
If it wasn't for the basic GoPro editing an i3 would be fine for your needs, but what would help that the most is a decent i5 or better an i7.

Memory/SSD does not help with speeding that up, doubt video card would help so throw the most money at the CPU

I still have a old i7 2600 and it maxes out all threads for a few minutes when transforming a 8Gb video. Same video takes almost 15 minutes on an i5 here at work, both have 8Gb memory and 240Gb ssd's in. So CPU does make a huge difference
 
I upgraded from an i5 3750 to an i7 4770. Can't notice the difference mostly because I don't need the processing power.
 
If you can not heavy into editing you can get a way to use intel quick sync and then use the i3. but i7 is the way to go for editing. If it's pure gaming the i3 should be enough. For editing you must also make sure you have enough ram so that you can convert faster. Video editing/converting takes a lot of memory.
 
Dr Who said:
Hi All

Ye Olde faithful has finally gone the way of Eskom, on the brink of collapse, so I think its time to take the plunge and upgrade it. ( My home PC).

This PC is mainly a internet/media server/basic games ( nothing new of FPS ). Its more to be used for work, browsing and a little basic GoPro editing.

When looking at the options the prices go up considerably between i3 to i7. Is it worth it or should I put the extra cash into a graphics card or Ram?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Intel's Core i3-4160 is more than good enough for what you want to do and not too hard on the wallet either. You can move to a i5 or i7, but then it'd only be jusitified if what you do with it requires that kind of horsepower. And for most people, that's not the case.

And then if you don't want to add in the graphics card to the mix (a separate purchase) you can look at some benchmarks of the AMD A8-7600. The integrated graphics is enough to power most modern games at low-medium settings at 720p and its a very versatile chip for the price. By contrast, not much gaming will be going on in the integrated graphics on the i3-4160.

Decent and inexpensive motherboards are available for both options.
 
Last edited:
Agreed with Wesley. Occasional GoPro video editing should be OK on an i3.

If you're serious about video editing, you would be looking at a proper GPU in any case.
 
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