I5 2500 vs i7 2600?

[wyocory]

I'm building my 1st computer, woo hoo go me! LOL

Having said that i dont know TOO much about CPU's and what not. Here is my predicament. I have 2 processors picked out, the i5 2500 and the i7 2600.

What are the differences? Is it really worth the extra $100 bucks to get the i7 over the i5?

Here are the links to em:

i7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115071

i5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115073

~Cory

 

[55Range]

Well, it depends on what you would be using your pc primarily.? The I5 is a great performer and will be good for gaming.

 

[wyocory]

I'm going to be using the computer for nothing but gaming, maybe a little video editing here and there.

 

[55Range]

Then in my opinion you won't be needing an I7, the I5 is just fine, well priced performance/price ratio.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

The difference between the Intel® Core™ i5-2500 and the Intel Core i7-2600 comes down to 3 things. they are...

Intel Core i7-2600 has
-hyper-threading
-100MHz faster clock speed
-2MB more cache

In games these differences would make little difference but in some video edit you will see better performance with Intel Core i7-2600. Now unless you are looking for VT-d support you might want to think about getting a "K" processor to take advantage of its unlocked feature in the future.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[wyocory]

Alright cool What is the i7 used for more? If not gaming that is. What is the real difference between the i7 and the i5 besides the .1 ghz more speed?

 

[wyocory]

Thank you very much for all the quick reponses

 

[13thmonkey]

for highly threaded work the i7 would be better, a quad is good for a while (3+ yrs?) in gaming circles. Consider a Z68 board and the 2500K, and apply a simple (and generally safe) overclock by raising the multiplier, and hopefully end up at around 4.2+Ghz