magicpastry

Honorable
Nov 27, 2012
8
0
10,510
Hello there, I've been having trouble with choosing a CPU for my first build. The research has been done, but I can't make a decision. Hopefully somebody else knows what I should do :??:
My choices are between the i5-3570k, the i7-3770k, and the i7-3820, and my budget for the whole system excluding the monitor and sound card is 1280 USD.
I'll be using the PC for gaming, mostly, but also for video encoding/editing on a non-professional level, as well as music production with FL Studio, again on a non-professional level.
From what I understand, the 3820 would afford me more PCIe lanes so that I could have a video card or two in addition to a sound card without experiencing bottlenecks. However, I am not sure if video cards or sound cards can USE all those lanes at this point in time. From what I see, the LGA 2011 platform is super expensive, and perhaps putting that money towards a nice video card will be best.
If that is ruled out, I'm left with the i5-3570k and the i73770k. I'll probably overclock, so there will probably be no visible difference in single-threaded applications, but the video encoding/editing will most likely use all those threads that the i7s have. Since the encoding/editing is definitely NOT going to be professional grade, the extra threads might not help at all.
So I need the public to help solve my argument with myself. Hopefully I can get a quick response, as this PC needs to be built within a couple weeks for private reasons. Thank you very much!
 
Solution
the extra cores always help with encoding the question is how much of a hurry are you in when you encode? can you walk away or start it while doing something else? If so then the i5 will be fine. If not then get the i7-3930k (hehehe)
The HT cores wont make a difference in most, if any, games.

the extra pcie lanes come into play with running sli/crossfire which you haven't explicitly stated you would or not. Keep in mind dual x16 lane GPU's is not much faster than the same cards in dual x8 config. Only a few percent improvement if I remember right.

popatim

Titan
Moderator
the extra cores always help with encoding the question is how much of a hurry are you in when you encode? can you walk away or start it while doing something else? If so then the i5 will be fine. If not then get the i7-3930k (hehehe)
The HT cores wont make a difference in most, if any, games.

the extra pcie lanes come into play with running sli/crossfire which you haven't explicitly stated you would or not. Keep in mind dual x16 lane GPU's is not much faster than the same cards in dual x8 config. Only a few percent improvement if I remember right.
 
Solution

magicpastry

Honorable
Nov 27, 2012
8
0
10,510


If extra PCIe lanes won't benefit me much then I guess that rules out LGA 2011.

Would the extra threads also help while multitasking? I've been using 2005-era machines for a while and the inability to do anything but what's in front of me frustrates me a ton.
The most usual situation I would probably be in for this would be having a word processor, encoding software, and a web browser running all at once.
 

popatim

Titan
Moderator
I would say yes. I'm running a 6 core and things slow down for me when encoding which is expected as encoding will try to use it all (cpu, ram, hdd access). When I encode the only thing I plan on doing is web surfing or cooking dinner.

Be sure to setup your disks drives properly for encoding. Its very typical for most software to want a seperate source, scratch and destination drive. Many even recommend a seperate OS drive. Make sure they are 7200 rpm or faster for maximun encoding performance. I have 2 128gb SSD's and two fast raid 0's arrays.
 

magicpastry

Honorable
Nov 27, 2012
8
0
10,510
So from the look of things, the 3570k seems to be the best option for me.
Thank you so much for helping a newbie like myself!

Edit: Oh yeah, I chose your first response as the best answer since it was the most helpful out of the two.