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Geek Culture / An i5? or faster i3?

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Phaelax
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Posted: 26th Feb 2012 00:34
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I'm looking at two different CPUs but can't decide which would be the better choice. An i5 is supposedly the better CPU, but would a significantly faster clock speed on an i3 provide better performance?

Intel Core i3-2125 3.3GHz

Intel Core i5-2405S 2.5GHz

"You're not going crazy. You're going sane in a crazy world!" ~Tick
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heyufool1
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Posted: 26th Feb 2012 00:38
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Going by http://www.cpubenchmark.net/ the i5 performs better but has a lower value. In terms of performance vs. price the i3 is a better choice, but the i5 is the better of the two in general. As usual it comes down to how much you are willing to spend.

"So hold your head up high and know, it's not the end of the road"

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Phaelax
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Posted: 26th Feb 2012 00:47
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Thanks for the link. I thought an extra 800MHz on the i3 would've made more of a difference in comparison to the i5.

"You're not going crazy. You're going sane in a crazy world!" ~Tick
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 26th Feb 2012 00:59
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I have the i5 2500k, which is basically an i7 2600k without the hyper threading. Cost me £175, well worth it, I can play BF3 on full settings with no problem. That also depends on what gfx card you have, I bought a 6970 2GB Sapphire.
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Phaelax
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Posted: 26th Feb 2012 01:07 Edited at: 26th Feb 2012 01:08
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My requirement calls for a 65w tdp processor, otherwise I won't have enough juice for a graphics card. All the K-series are 95w.

This is the power supply I have to work with: http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=10#picoPSU-160-XT

"You're not going crazy. You're going sane in a crazy world!" ~Tick
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 26th Feb 2012 02:18
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Serious? 160 Watts? For almost £50? God, you can get at least 500 Watts for that much, or am I missing some thing, is this a Laptop you have?
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Phaelax
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Posted: 26th Feb 2012 02:21
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Yea you're missing a big thing (actually its a small thing ), mini-itx system and a custom built case. There's no room for an internal power supply.

"You're not going crazy. You're going sane in a crazy world!" ~Tick
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 26th Feb 2012 02:25
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Never seen an external PSU for a PC, nor ever seen or used ITX, always been ATX or MiniATX. Is 160Watt the highest you can go?
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Phaelax
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Posted: 26th Feb 2012 03:09
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That's the highest I've been able to find. And really it should be more than enough. The only tricky part is finding the proper low-profile graphics card.

"You're not going crazy. You're going sane in a crazy world!" ~Tick
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 26th Feb 2012 03:52
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This might be what your after then.
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charger bandit
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Posted: 26th Feb 2012 18:15
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Go for something like i3 + Geforce GT430.


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Phaelax
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Posted: 26th Feb 2012 18:59 Edited at: 26th Feb 2012 19:00
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Nice card spydaniel, I just have to figure out its power requirements. It'd be a tight fit, but I believe that card would fit in my case design. The size of the heatsink makes me question it though.

Btw, my other model I'm designing is even smaller, using an Atom cpu and ION2 graphics.

"You're not going crazy. You're going sane in a crazy world!" ~Tick
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bitJericho
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Posted: 27th Feb 2012 10:41 Edited at: 27th Feb 2012 13:16
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Is this for a car? Even if not, if you need a dc to dc converter, here's some really nice ones:

http://store.mp3car.com/Power_Products_s/2.htm

http://store.mp3car.com/M4_ATX_HV_250W_Intelligent_DC_DC_PSU_Power_Supply_p/pwr-042.htm

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 28th Feb 2012 00:06
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Im wondering, what are the differences between the i3, i5, and i7 that make them low, medium, and high range processors respectively? Does an i7 have more cache, or what is it? Just curious!

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Brendy boy
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Posted: 28th Feb 2012 00:34
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Quote: "i3, i5,"

have 2 real cores
i3 - has 3 logical cores
i5 - has 5 logical cores

Quote: "i7"

has 4 real cores and 7 logical ones

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 28th Feb 2012 00:41
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Oh i see! Makes sense! As i understand it a logical core is a thread?

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Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 28th Feb 2012 01:53
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Quote: "have 2 real cores
i3 - has 3 logical cores
i5 - has 5 logical cores

Quote: "i7"
has 4 real cores and 7 logical ones"

I'm pretty sure that's not how it works...

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/65861.aspx

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 28th Feb 2012 02:15
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Ah, makes so much more sense now! The 1st explanation didnt seem quite right...

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Oolite
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Posted: 28th Feb 2012 06:47
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I made this choice about a month ago. I ended up going for the 3.3ghz i3 rather than the i5 purely because of price and I haven't looked back.
It's also coupled with a decent graphics card and I have no trouble running anything, BF3/RAGE included.
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bitJericho
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Posted: 28th Feb 2012 11:53
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http://ark.intel.com/products/59080

http://ark.intel.com/products/55446/Intel-Core-i5-2405S-Processor-(6M-Cache-2_50-GHz)

The i5 is better because it has 4 cores instead of 2. The i3 has 2 cores each with hyperthreading, but the i5 has 4 real cores. The i5 also has a few extra features (at the bottom)

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Brendy boy
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Posted: 29th Feb 2012 22:14
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Quote: "I'm pretty sure that's not how it works..."

what did i say wrong?

Quote: "The i5 is better because it has 4 cores instead of 2. "

It depends on the model. I have core i5 430M and i believe it has only 2 real cores

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BiggAdd
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Posted: 29th Feb 2012 22:19
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Quote: "It depends on the model. I have core i5 430M and i believe it has only 2 real cores"


Thats a mobile i5, as far as I'm aware, all desktop i5s have 4 cores, all mobile i5s have 2 cores.
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