Processor for a Multimedia PC

silvertooth07

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Jan 19, 2011
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Hello,

I'm planning to build a PC specifically for photo editing, video editing, animations. stuffs like that. I would also use it for watching a lot of movies and videos and surfing the Internet. I'm having a hard time choosing the right CPU. I'm not really into games and I don't know how to OC.

What motherboard can you recommend? Is Gigabyte better than MSI?

Thanks~


---Alexis
 

jj463rd

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Apr 9, 2008
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Alexis I think that these new Intel CPU's are just right up your alley.
Be sure to read the article.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandy-bridge-core-i7-2600k-core-i5-2500k,2833.html

Especially look at the Quick Sync section and the Media Encoding section.
You will need a LGA 1155 motherboard for this especially a H67 chipset type that uses the onboard graphics capabilities of the Sandybridge CPU's so that you can take advantage of Quick Sync.

Overclocking is apparently very easy on the K models of those new CPU's but if you have no intent on doing so a 2600 or 2500 would be fine (the i5-2500 is especially inexpensive and a great bang per buck).
To note you won't want a H67 type board if you intend to overclock.

In my opinion I prefer Gigabyte over MSI myself as to quality,long lifetime although ASUS or even Asrock is fine too.

You just hit the right perfect timing for such a build with those preferences
 

jerry6

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Jan 21, 2009
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I just put together a comp with AMD 1100t , a Gigabyte 890 MB with 8 gb of ram and converting /encoding video is blazing fast , photoshop works exceptionally fast as well , nothing taxes this processor . Converting a 1 hour video takes 3 minutes or less , used to take over 12 with a dual core .
Gigabyte boards are very good , have always used Asus in the past .
I can convert video , watch a movie , have 20 tabs open and be downloading and nothing slows down , just amazing . And the cpu runs cool , 27-29c at idle 47-49c when running 6 cores at 100% .
 

kinth

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Jan 16, 2011
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if you have the money get a sandy bridge it excels at these sort of thing.
i do alot of art in photoshop cs5 myself, and have had no trouble with it it runs really nice and quick on my quad. just make sure you have a fair bit of ram when it comes to PS also a good GPU will help.
i do some work in flash for animations and some action script and its also smooth compiling a flash animation is less than a second. boot up times for these programs will come down to your hard drive but they still load fairly quick on my old sata drive.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/sandy-bridge-efficienct-32-nm,review-32091-5.html

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/sandy-bridge-efficienct-32-nm,review-32091-6.html

couple of comparison one with a gpu one without.

you can get the unlocked i5 for around the same price as the 1100t and i would go for the i5 all the way intel just make better chips.