IVY i5 vs i7

[mgriffen]

Hi, I am selling my Alienware and building a new system. I am going to get either the i5 3570k or the i7 3770k.
I want to overclock and I am going to eventually install water cooling for CPU, GPU and probably a RAM block for looks.

Is it worth spending the extra 100 bucks for the i7?
Can you really overclock the i7 much more than the i5?

p.s. please don't make this a discussion about how water cooling is unnecessary, I just like the way it looks.

 

[nekulturny]

Depends on what you're doing with the computer. If you're gaming, no the i7 isn't necessary, nor justifiable for the cost to performance ratio. Even if you're going to be doing heavily threaded stuff like occasional video editing, even then the i5 is powerful enough to handle that quite fine. The i7 really is better considered for professionals who heavily use such programs on a daily basis.

 

[mgriffen]

Yeah, main usage will be for gaming...
But what I am really asking is how much better is the i7 for overclocking compared to the i5.

Is one "easier" to OC than the other?
Has anyone got the ivy i5 up to stable 5GHz without liquid nitrogen?

 

[nekulturny]

Good question, in theory the i7 might be a higher binned chip which *might* net you a higher overclock. But honestly probably not. Making CPU dies is sort of like making cookies, you know how some turn out just perfect in every way, and some, while still very tasty might not be exactly round?

I know its a silly analogy, but thats sort of how it works, at least thats my understanding of it anyway. The ones that turn out the best will go into the higher line, the ones that aren't quite as perfect will have features disabled (like HyperThreading in i7s), or they'll lock the multiplier and use it as a non-K i5, or cores disabled and be used for i3s, etc.


But even so, since the i5-3570K is meant to be overclocked, its probably going to be one of the best. So no, I don't think an i7 is really going to have any better potential to OC. But even so I'm more of a conservative overclocker, I wouldn't push a CPU as far as it can go to the red line for a daily OC. 4.5GHZ is a hell of an overclock for a 3570K, and if you made it there, I'd leave it be. Keep in mind, you're only guaranteed to get stock speeds. Individual results will vary from chip to chip.

And no, I don't think one is easier than the other to OC.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

The difference between the Intel® Core™ i5-3570K and the Intel Core i7-3770K really comes down to one thing... Hyper-threading. Based on what you are doing with the computer will answer if you are going to get any real value from it. If you are doing general usage or gaming you are going to find that the Intel Core i5-3570K is the best processor for you. However if you are doing some heavy video, audio or other encoding work you may find that the Intel Core i7-3770K is the better processor for you.

 

[Guest]

And the 100mhz clock speed and embedded options available?

 

[mgriffen]

Best answer selected by mgriffen.