Intel Core i5 and Core i7 - the difference?

Xelebes · Aug 15, 2011

My computer is getting long in the tooth with some components as old as seven years old. Most parts I have figured out - the only one is the CPU. I just need to know what the differences are. There are two packages I am looking at.

One has the Intel Core i5 2500K Quad Core @3.30 GHz.

The other has an Intel Core i7 2600K Quad Core @3.40 GHz.

Apart from the raw processing speed, what are the differences?

I'm basically looking for pretty powerful speed, but the processor must run a bit cool. I chose a Intel Duo "Wolfram" because it ran cool and I have had no complaints from it. General functions I'm intending to use it for are music production, typing, spreadsheets and so forth. Not gaming or too video intensive.

alleycat · Aug 15, 2011

I can't tell you a lot, but the i5 is one of Intel's latest processor, and it considered a good choice for many users who need high performance, but not the high end. The i7, as might be guessed, is one of the high end processor. There are different versions of the i5. The main difference is the i7 uses hyper-threading, which is a fancy way of saying that to the computer it acts like it has more cores than it actually does.

Someone who's a gamer, or a high-performance user, would probably choose the i7. I don't think the price difference is that much. If someone is more of an ordinary user, who still wants higher level performance, the i5 should be fine.

It sounds like the i5 would work well for you. The only thing that might make me suggest the i7 is your music production. I'm just not familiar with now processor intensive that is. For the other things you listed the i5 would be dandy.

kuwisdelu · Aug 16, 2011

The Ars 2011 System Guide had this to say:

Intel's long-awaited Sandy Bridge chips have had a bit of a rough introduction. They came out big, but a bug in their supporting chipset quickly crashed the party.

Fortunately, a revised chipset was released in short order, and Sandy Bridge is back on the market. As multiple reviews show, the top two Sandy Bridge chips for enthusiasts, the Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2600K, deliver nearly the performance of the much more expensive Core i7-990X Extreme for a quarter of the price. It's impressive, and to be honest, AMD has nothing to compete with.

This makes the CPU choice easy: the Core i5-2500K is the unlocked, overclocking-friendly version of Sandy Bridge in more-modest Core i5 form, so at 3.3ghz base clock and 6MB L3 cache without Hyperthreading, it's a tad bit slower and a good bit more affordable than the higher-end Core i7-2600K. Of course, if you're overclocking, the slightly faster clocks of the i7-2600K may not matter much to you.

So yeah, looks like mostly hyper threading and clock speed. I'd guess it depends how parallelized your music production software is, and if it'd work better at a higher clock speed. Has CPU ever been a bottleneck for you there? My guess would be memory is more important for music production.

ejket · Aug 16, 2011

On my recent Thinkpad, I went with the i7 because it wasn't much more money, and even though my processing needs are fairly modest -- at worst occasional video transcoding -- I'd rather be a bit overpowered and run cool.

Xelebes · Aug 16, 2011

kuwisdelu said:
Has CPU ever been a bottleneck for you there? My guess would be memory is more important for music production.

Sometimes. Quite a few softsynths are CPU intensive, especially the ones with expansive modulation matrices (re: FM, additive and some other forms of synthesis.) If I'm using a lot of samples, then it will be memory that will be crucial. The system I'm looking at has 8 GB of RAM with capacity to double.

kuwisdelu · Aug 16, 2011

Xelebes said:
Sometimes. Quite a few softsynths are CPU intensive, especially the ones with expansive modulation matrices (re: FM, additive and some other forms of synthesis.)

If you deal with that often enough, then the i7 may be worth it.

IMO, if you used your old system for seven years and plan to do the same with this one, then might as well get the best you can afford, unless you have your eye on any particular improvements Intel may add down the line.

alleycat · Aug 16, 2011

kuwisdelu makes a good point about "stretching" just a little if you plan on keeping the new computer for a long time. Although, if it were me, I might stretch on the RAM.

Are the two systems you're looking at made by the same manufacturer? What's the price differential?

Xelebes · Aug 16, 2011

alleycat said:
kuwisdelu makes a good point about "stretching" just a little if you plan on keeping the new computer for a long time. Although, if it were me, I might stretch on the RAM.

Are the two systems you're looking at made by the same manufacturer? What's the price differential?

They're from BCOM, a local computer warehouse that hasn't failed me when it comes to quality parts.

Computer A (i5) is 850 dollars. Computer B is 1100 dollars. Computer B has an extra TB of HD, extra 100 W in the power supply and two less USB ports

alleycat · Aug 16, 2011

Just a casual comment. I wouldn't let the extra HD space play a big part in the decision (assuming computer A has a large HD as it is, and assuming you don't download hundreds of videos). If you find you need additional storage you can get a large external drive for a reasonable price these days (less than $100).

The extra USB ports would be a major point for me.

CircusOfCrows · Aug 23, 2011

The difference in real world computer of the i5 2500k vs the i7 2600k is negligible in most cases for general processing. Here's a benchmark: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287

It comes down to your budget and your needs. If you need this to last as long as possible, and budget really isn't too much of a concern (not pinching pennies), then the i7 will give you a slightly faster computer. If I was going to build a computer right now, I'd probably pick up the i5 2500k - and this is coming from someone who already has an i7.

Intel Core i5 and Core i7 - the difference?

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