Can't decide between two Intel i5 processors... Worth the diff in price or not?

[NumbaOneStunna]

Originally Posted by Vancha

Source?

To me the ~5% IPC improvement of IB does not outweigh the increased overclocking headroom of the 2500k.

Not saying that IB is bad though, both IB and SB are amazing.

[Goku]

Lets be nice now.

[Vancha]

Oh, that's disappointing...For Goku to have to edit it, it must have been fairly inflammatory. We're all here to learn and expand our knowledge of tech, so please don't be offended by questions.

I'm not sure who I'm answering now, but from looking around, 2500ks seem to be able to reach 4.7/4.8ghz as standard, 4.9/5.0ghz if you're lucky and anything higher is exceptional. Stock 3570ks seem to bring 4.5/4.6ghz as standard and 4.7/4.8ghz if you're lucky, with anything higher being exceptional.

Now most people put the improved speed of Ivy to be equivalent to around 0.2-0.3Ghz, which makes it roughly equal to the 2500k, but then you have lower power consumption and a superior IGP in the event your GPU kicks the bucket and you need something to tide you over 'till the next one, plus you have the rest of the Ivy Bridge-specific features, which may or may not be of benefit to a person.

[DownloadFailed]

Thanks for all the great feedback guys. I suppose now the toss-up is between the SB 2500K and the IB 3570. I need only determine whether or not overclocking is relevant to me. I've read many reviews for the 2500K and people say that the stock heatsink is pretty awful, so I would probably have to drop another $25-$30 for a decent replacement. Now, the 3570 seems to have had a bit more success with its stock heatsink. Seems to me that I should buy the 3570 and forget the aftermarket cooler...

Btw, I'm planning on purchasing this motherboard. I believe I read somewhere that Ivy Bridge is backwards compatible with Sandy Bridge in that mobos that supported SB can also support IB. Is this true?

[Rbstr]

Yeah you can put an IB in that but why P67?

You can get a full ATX Z77 for $5 less?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157293
(or a lot less http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157297)

[DownloadFailed]

Originally Posted by Rbstr

Yeah you can put an IB in that but why P67?

You can get a full ATX Z77 for $5 less?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157293
(or a lot less http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157297)

Seems like the biggest difference between these three mobos (besides price) is the number of USBs provided, the number of 6 GB/s SATAs there are, and the number of PCI expresses... And I have no idea what a PCI express is/does. Generally speaking, the P67 offers more of all three of those things, albeit marginally compared to the Z77 Extreme4.

[Vancha]

If he isn't planning on overclocking, he might as well get the Z75 Pro3 and save himself another $17 ($10 less + free shipping). It seems to be the best deal going right now. It'd be more than good enough for his needs and still be capable of OCing if he changes his mind in the future...

And with that said, I suggest getting the 3570k over the regular 3570. You'll still be able to overclock it slightly with the stock cooler, and should you decide to invest in an aftermarket cooler in the future (you won't need anything hugely expensive), you could push it that much further.

Edit: 6 GB/s SATA is for SSDs...Are you planning on having more than two SSDs? PCI-E is used for GPUs. You don't need more than one PCI-E x16 slot unless you're planning on using multiple GPUs at once, which might be worth considering, but it comes with higher temperatures, higher power requirements (your PSU might not be good enough), additional software issues etc. As for the USB slots, do you need more than 6 (in addition to the ones on your computer case)?

Get the P67 if you need the extra SATA, PCI-E and USB ports, but unless you know why you need more than this, you probably don't.

Oh, and on the off-chance you're being allured by aesthetics...It's really not worth the premium.

[Rbstr]

Right, but do you need more of those things?

SATA 6gb/s only matters for SSD's, so do you have more than two of them?
You actually get 2 more USB 3.0 with the Extreme4 and the same # of SATA6 (though you lose two USB2.0)
Besides the Z77 is a better chipset (you get Lucid Virtu and sweet SB/IB video capabilities, IIRC the P67 doesn't support the on-board graphics at all, you need a Z68 at least for those features)...and $5 cheaper (and you get a $15 giftcard!)

EDIT: Vancha posted in the meantime, I haven't read his post yet.

[NumbaOneStunna]

Originally Posted by DownloadFailed

Thanks for all the great feedback guys. I suppose now the toss-up is between the SB 2500K and the IB 3570. I need only determine whether or not overclocking is relevant to me. I've read many reviews for the 2500K and people say that the stock heatsink is pretty awful, so I would probably have to drop another $25-$30 for a decent replacement. Now, the 3570 seems to have had a bit more success with its stock heatsink. Seems to me that I should buy the 3570 and forget the aftermarket cooler...

Btw, I'm planning on purchasing this motherboard. I believe I read somewhere that Ivy Bridge is backwards compatible with Sandy Bridge in that mobos that supported SB can also support IB. Is this true?

SB and IB stock coolers are the same.

[DownloadFailed]

Yeah, SSDs don't rank well on my price-to-usefulness ratio, so that's not a big deal. And I'll only be needing 1 PCI Express port. 1 GPU is quite enough for me. The 3570K is nice, though it's another $15 from the 3570. I know that I'll be spending hundreds of dollars on all these parts and $15 more isn't much, but if I seriously wanted to overclock, I'd probably just go with the 2500K. It's $10 cheaper and is only .1 GHz less powerful than the 3570K.

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by DownloadFailed

The 3570K is nice, though it's another $15 from the 3570. I know that I'll be spending hundreds of dollars on all these parts and $15 more isn't much, but if I seriously wanted to overclock, I'd probably just go with the 2500K. It's $10 cheaper and is only .1 GHz less powerful than the 3570K.

Well I figured you'd just saved $50 on the motherboard, but fair enough.

Also GHz aren't everything. A 3570 at 3.4GHz will be faster than a 2500k overclocked to 3.4GHz, though, granted, not hugely.

[Rbstr]

Originally Posted by DownloadFailed

is only .1 GHz less powerful than the 3570K.

Well...each ghz on an IB is more powerful than one on the SB. I'd take the saved money on a cheaper motherboard and go with the 3570k.

[Pancake]

Go with the 3570K so you can OC.