Intel i7-2600k or Intel i5-2500K ?

[ethermaster125]

Hi Guys,

I'm in the process of specing up a new PC for myself as a xmas present, I was wondering if you guys could help me choose a new CPU as I can't choose myself between the I5 and I7

Computer is mainly used for gaming, photoshop, dreamweaver and HD video Editing.

Please help !!!

[Darkmere]

I would go with an AMD. AMD tends to be a little cheaper and built for gaming. I use 3d Studio Max which is very heavy when set to max setting for post production prints and it adores the AMD. Doesnt like my Intel too much

[ethermaster125]

which AMD are you running ? all the benchmarks I have seen point to the Intel I5 or I7 chipsets, the AMD 3 core bulldozer doesn't even seem to touch the Intel chips atm based on them.

[ballyweg52]

Doing a lot of HD video editing requires a lot of CPU power. I'm glad I went for the i7 870 instead of i7 860, when I build mine. Even now, After Effects etc. tend to max out the CPU power, so if you're in to these areas, I'd definitively recommend you to go with the i7 2600 (and not AMD, I've tried AMD once, never again).

[unlimitedphoenix23]

Honestly, I would pick the i7-2600k. It's definitely a lot better and I've seemed to get better performance with Intel rather than AMD.

[ethermaster125]

I have an i7 2600k already as my main computer was thinking a second build for gaming, having read all the reviews I think im going to wait for the Intel Sandy Bridge - E to drop in price :P Asus Ramage IV anyone ?

[sluthra]

2600K if you need hyperthreading, 2500k if you don't. Benefits of the 2600k include multi-threaded apps like video encoding. If you're gaming or doing basic stuff, i5-2500k.

[Darkmere]

which AMD are you running ? all the benchmarks I have seen point to the Intel I5 or I7 chipsets, the AMD 3 core bulldozer doesn't even seem to touch the Intel chips atm based on them.

I am using a AMD FX Black 6 core CPU I want to upgrade to the 8 core

[wongers]

I vote for: Intel i7-2600k

AMD is for poor people. like me haha.

[captaindata]

I don't know if I agree with many of the other posters. The only thing that Core i7 does better than Core i5 is drain your wallet faster. It's a lot more money for not that much more performance. Unless you do a very large amount of high-end work like 3-d rendering or transcoding video, Core i5 has a better price/performance ratio. Hyperthreading is an Intel technology that makes each physical processor core appear as 2 virtual cores. It does this by having 2 execution units (registers and ALU) share one instruction/data pipeline. For the most part, a 2-core processor with hyperthreading is just as fast as a 4-core processor without it.

The new Core i processors also have built-in graphics that meet or exceed the specifications of all but the high-end gaming graphics cards, so you don't have to add a video card. Nice thing about the built-in graphics is that it can be used as a vector processor for CPU-intensive non-graphics tasks like video/audio transcoding. Spend a little more and get the Intel processor, as opposed to the AMD processor, it's more capable. Intel chips also run cooler, which will prolong the life of your system, since most hardware failures are heat-related.