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Buyer's Remorse?

post #1 of 58
5/3/12 at 5:37pm
Thread Starter 
Hi, I think I'm having buyers remorse. I just purchased the i3-2100 to go along with an ASrock z77 and 8gb of G.Skill Ram. I will be using an existing Crucial M4 as the OS drive and run Win 7.

Before I ordered the i3 I was eyeing the i5-2500k. But after reading so many comments in there about overkill, i decided to save myself $100 and go with the i3. I'm sure it will handle any HTPC video just fine without a separate graphics card. My only concern is in the video rendering. I plan on ripping Bluray discs and converting them to MKV. I also plan on editing HD video by using Adobe Premiere.

I'm currently using an E6550 chip and it takes hours to render video or 20 minutes to unrar files. Realistically how much of a difference will this make i3 vs i5? Should I call up Newegg and cancel my order, and replace the i3 with the i5?
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post #2 of 58
5/3/12 at 5:44pm
For rendering and unraring large files you might see a 10% to 15% increase in performance. It can depend on the health of the file. Some take a few minutes and some take up to an hour using my i5 650 with 4gb.
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post #3 of 58
5/3/12 at 5:44pm
The i5 is going to be significantly faster at renedering over an i3.

It depends on the software you are using.
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post #4 of 58
5/3/12 at 5:47pm
Thread Starter 
Is it worth the $100?
Will I see a big difference in rendering and unraring with the i3 compared to my E6550?
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post #5 of 58
5/3/12 at 5:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James_stewart View Post

Hi, I think I'm having buyers remorse. I just purchased the i3-2100 to go along with an ASrock z77 and 8gb of G.Skill Ram. I will be using an existing Crucial M4 as the OS drive and run Win 7.

Before I ordered the i3 I was eyeing the i5-2500k. But after reading so many comments in there about overkill, i decided to save myself $100 and go with the i3. I'm sure it will handle any HTPC video just fine without a separate graphics card. My only concern is in the video rendering. I plan on ripping Bluray discs and converting them to MKV. I also plan on editing HD video by using Adobe Premiere.

I'm currently using an E6550 chip and it takes hours to render video or 20 minutes to unrar files. Realistically how much of a difference will this make i3 vs i5? Should I call up Newegg and cancel my order, and replace the i3 with the i5?

How much rendering? That is the key.

If only once a month or so then the i5 will be faster but maybe not worth the extra cost. If everyday the i5 will be faster and likely worth the extra cost.

If ripping to straight MKV the slowest step will be the speed of your optical drive --- not the CPU at all.
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post #6 of 58
5/3/12 at 5:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James_stewart View Post

Is it worth the $100?
Will I see a big difference in rendering and unraring with the i3 compared to my E6550?

Compare for yourself here: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/61?vs=289
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post #7 of 58
5/3/12 at 5:54pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

Compare for yourself here: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/61?vs=289

ick. the i5 is leaps over the E6550, while the i3 is only bump up in some areas. I'm thinking I bought the wrong chip
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post #8 of 58
5/3/12 at 6:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James_stewart View Post

ick. the i5 is leaps over the E6550, while the i3 is only bump up in some areas. I'm thinking I bought the wrong chip

How often are you going to need to render video? Once a week? Month?
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post #9 of 58
5/3/12 at 6:14pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

How often are you going to need to render video? Once a week? Month?

Probably a few times a week. The video editing and rendering is going to consume a lot of my time on this pc. I want it to be lighting quick when it comes to loading video off an SDHC card and onto Premiere. No lag.
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post #10 of 58
5/3/12 at 6:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James_stewart View Post

Probably a few times a week. The video editing and rendering is going to consume a lot of my time on this pc. I want it to be lighting quick when it comes to loading video off an SDHC card and onto Premiere. No lag.

Then you need an i5 Quad Core to maximize your time away from your PC.
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post #11 of 58
5/3/12 at 7:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post


Then you need an i5 Quad Core to maximize your time away from your PC.

+1
I have the i5 2500k in my transcoding rig and OMG what a beast! Completely outperforms even my Phenom II 955 X4 BE when it comes to anything related video manipulating.
For just basic watching and daily use, the i3 2100 is rock solid, though.
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post #12 of 58
5/3/12 at 7:07pm
If you do get the i3 you might have a look at BadaBoom! or some of the Mirillis stuff. They use Quick Sync (GPU based) encoders. On my i7 2600 BadaBoom! is just as quick as HandBrake but HandBrake uses every CPU cycle it can (nearly 100%) of all eight threads and BadaBoom! uses only about 20% of one core. The Mirillis encoders are pretty much as quick and low CPU. This is what Intel says about it: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/...o-general.html
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post #13 of 58
5/3/12 at 7:18pm
i3 is a total beast for HTPC. You will not be disappointed at all.

But if your a serious gamer or doing significant rendering the i5 is a better choice.

Z77 huh? Will you overclock?

On Z77 you should hit 4.5ghz on an i5 with decent cooling. It would be no contest at rendering vs an i3

I have every sandy CPU from Celeron to Pentium, i3, i5, and i7.

For basic PC stuff there's not much difference with any of them. But at rendering and gaming the 2500k is leaps and bounds better. The i7 is only marginally better- and probably not worth the extra $100 they charge for it.
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post #14 of 58
5/3/12 at 7:56pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mfusick View Post

i3 is a total beast for HTPC. You will not be disappointed at all.

But if your a serious gamer or doing significant rendering the i5 is a better choice.

Z77 huh? Will you overclock?

On Z77 you should hit 4.5ghz on an i5 with decent cooling. It would be no contest at rendering vs an i3

I have every sandy CPU from Celeron to Pentium, i3, i5, and i7.

For basic PC stuff there's not much difference with any of them. But at rendering and gaming the 2500k is leaps and bounds better. The i7 is only marginally better- and probably not worth the extra $100 they charge for it.

No I don't plan on overclocking. I went with the Asrock z77 because it was only $20 more than the z68s and it had 4 usb 3.0 and 4 sata3 ports. That's really it, nothing more. I plan on expanding to more internal drives and want the fastest transfer speeds for large files.
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post #15 of 58
5/3/12 at 8:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James_stewart View Post

No I don't plan on overclocking. I went with the Asrock z77 because it was only $20 more than the z68s and it had 4 usb 3.0 and 4 sata3 ports. That's really it, nothing more. I plan on expanding to more internal drives and want the fastest transfer speeds for large files.

A hard drive can't saturate SATAII let alone SATAIII speeds.
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post #16 of 58
5/3/12 at 8:24pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

A hard drive can't saturate SATAII let alone SATAIII speeds.

You're telling me I'll get the same performance out of my SSD drives on a SATA2 connection as I will on a SATA3 connection?
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post #17 of 58
5/3/12 at 8:26pm
If you want fastest encoding possible, almost nothing beats a more powerful CPU. Your best bet is an Core i7, then i5, then i3.

Pick the most important thing to you and buy your CPU based on that. You can play HD movies with your Core2 Duo Intel or any number of other chips.

My point is, quit worrying about i3 vs i5. If encode speed is what you need, don't stop at the i5. A current gen i7 will do my encoding in about half the time that it takes my current AMD Phenom II 955BE X4 (which is a good bit faster than your current cpu). If you can't return or exchange your i3, sell it - and buy an i7.

~Whip
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post #18 of 58
5/3/12 at 8:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James_stewart View Post

You're telling me I'll get the same performance out of my SSD drives on a SATA2 connection as I will on a SATA3 connection?

No. I am talking about mechanical hard drives. When you said "large files" I assumed these would be on hard drives.

Yes, a SATAIII SSD will be faster on SATAIII than SATAII. But most people don't really need more than 1 or maybe at the most 2 SATAIII ports at this point.

But its nice to have a few extra. Just don't expect your hard drives to be faster on one vs the other.
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post #19 of 58
5/3/12 at 8:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James_stewart View Post

You're telling me I'll get the same performance out of my SSD drives on a SATA2 connection as I will on a SATA3 connection?

The performance will be very similar - pending optimization of drivers and related software. You won't see a significant increase in performance - but there should be a difference.
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post #20 of 58
5/3/12 at 8:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James_stewart View Post

ick. the i5 is leaps over the E6550, while the i3 is only bump up in some areas.

Not correct. The i3 is s huge jump up across the board. As a good indiction:

Passmark scores:
E6550 - 1453
i3-2100 - 3851
i5-2500K - 6743

The jump in processing power from your 6550 to a 2100 is enormous. Indeed, you'll probably notice more difference than you will the jump from the 2100 to the 2500K. Plus it has Quick Sync if you take advantage of it. But the 2500K is a lot more processor than the 2100 too. Whether it's worth it is a personal choice. There's no chance you need an i7. A 2500K or 3570K is a monster.

Quote:
Originally Posted by James_stewart View Post

You're telling me I'll get the same performance out of my SSD drives on a SATA2 connection as I will on a SATA3 connection?

No he's telling you you'll get the same performance out of your hard drives on a SATA II connection as you will on a SATA III connection, regardless of whether they are SATA II or III hard drives. How many SATA III SSDs are you going to have? That's all the SATA III ports you need. And frankly, as one who uses both, you won't notice in the real world any real difference between SATA II and III SSDs either. You can see it in benchmarks, but you won't see it in real life.
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post #21 of 58
5/3/12 at 8:46pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zon2020 View Post

Not correct. The i3 is s huge jump up across the board. As a good indiction:

Passmark scores:
E6550 - 1453
i3-2100 - 3851
i5-2500K - 6743

The jump in processing power from your 6550 to a 2100 is enormous. Indeed, you'll probably notice more difference than you will the jump from the 2100 to the 2500K. Plus it has Quick Sync if you take advantage of it. But the 2500K is a lot more processor than the 2100 too. Whether it's worth it is a personal choice. There's no chance you need an i7. A 2500K or 3570K is a monster.



No he's telling you you'll get the same performance out of your hard drives on a SATA II connection as you will on a SATA III connection, regardless of whether they are SATA II or III hard drives. How many SATA III SSDs are you going to have? That's all the SATA III ports you need. And frankly, as one who uses both, you won't notice in the real world any real difference between SATA II and III SSDs either. You can see it in benchmarks, but you won't see it in real life.

You're right. All of the SATA3 connections will probably not get used. But when I narrowed down what I wanted in a board this one was just slightly more than the one below it. Here are my search results: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=1&srchInDesc=
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post #22 of 58
5/3/12 at 8:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James_stewart View Post

You're right. All of the SATA3 connections will probably not get used. But when I narrowed down what I wanted in a board this one was just slightly more than the one below it. Here are my search results: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=1&srchInDesc=

Are you overclocking?

If not you could have gotten a H77 board for $100 or less with 8 SATA ports.
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post #23 of 58
5/3/12 at 8:54pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

Are you overclocking?

If not you could have gotten a H77 board for $100 or less with 8 SATA ports.

No not overclocking. $100 less? where? This board was only $140. Many of the cheaper boards lacked the expansion slots I wanted. Once I started getting into the 2pci, 3pciex1 boards it got to around $100. The 4 usb 3.0 ports are going to come in really handy as well.
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post #24 of 58
5/3/12 at 8:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James_stewart View Post

You're right. All of the SATA3 connections will probably not get used. But when I narrowed down what I wanted in a board this one was just slightly more than the one below it. Here are my search results: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=1&srchInDesc=

Which ASrock are you getting? Did you consider the ASRock Z77 Pro4? It may have everything you wanted and costs less.
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post #25 of 58
5/3/12 at 8:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James_stewart View Post

No not overclocking. $100 less? where? This board was only $140. Many of the cheaper boards lacked the expansion slots I wanted. Once I started getting into the 2pci, 3pciex1 boards it got to around $100. The 4 usb 3.0 ports are going to come in really handy as well.

$100 or less.
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post #26 of 58
5/3/12 at 8:57pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zon2020 View Post

Which ASrock are you getting? Did you consider the ASRock Z77 Pro4? It may have everything you wanted and costs less.

no it's $20 more
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post #27 of 58
5/3/12 at 9:01pm
why did you get a z77 board and a sandy cpu? if i was you id have gotten a 3550k as it has a better iGPU(assuming you'll use it since you didnt say what gpu you're using) the i3 has the 2000 while the new ivy chip has the new HD4000; but agian if you are using a discrete gpu than my point is moot and enjoy
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post #28 of 58
5/3/12 at 9:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James_stewart View Post

no it's $20 more

Now I'm confused. The Z77 Pro4 is $119.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157296
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post #29 of 58
5/3/12 at 9:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by swarm87 View Post

why did you get a z77 board and a sandy cpu? if i was you id have gotten a 3550k as it has a better iGPU(assuming you'll use it since you didnt say what gpu you're using) the i3 has the 2000 while the new ivy chip has the new HD4000; but agian if you are using a discrete gpu than my point is moot and enjoy

Not everyone will benefit from a "better iGPU". There is nothing wrong with the current iGPUs for many/most people.
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post #30 of 58
5/3/12 at 9:06pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zon2020 View Post

Now I'm confused. The Z77 Pro4 is $119.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157296

sorry i looked that wrong one. Yeah I looked at that board. It only has one pciex1 slot and 2 usb 3.0. For $20 I figured it was worth it.
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