Intel i5 2500k or i7 2600k

jangoux

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May 9, 2006
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Hey guys

I currently have a Q6600 (running at stock speed) with 4gb of DDR2 Ram (had 8gb before, but my mobo died, and the only one I could get supported only 4gb). The system has been running strongly since before my older daughter was born but lately it has been crapping out even on my not-so-bigger mixes. I was planning on buying a i7 2600k but had to spend a good part of the money I had for it, so now I am deciding if I :

1) wait around 3 months (maybe a little more) and get a i7 2600k with 8gb of ram (maybe 12gb).

2) buy in up to one month from now a i5 2500k (with either 8gb or 12gb, depending on the money).

The price difference in Brazil is really big (I can get 2 i5s for the price of one i7) so it would be WAY easier to get it soon. I am having lots of delaying on my work due to the performance issues and constant need to freeze and bounce stuff - not even mentioning the constant crashes on bigger projects, when the full 4gb of memory is used.

I've read a lot of reviews and forums saying the only area where the i5 really loses is the absence of Hyper Threadings, so apps that really need it may not work as fast as on a 2600k. BUT I've also read on Steinberg forum that it is recommended to disable HT when using Cubase 6.

And btw...anyone has experiences with the 2500k and overclocking?

Btw, running a Hackintosh in here.

Ivan

EDIT: Some Steinberg employee said at their forums something like "our software does not support HT and the difference in performance between a i5 and i7 is minimal w/o it". More confusion..
 
Get an i5 2500k or 2500 only difference is over clocking possibility I believe, not sure. I built a PC with this one recently.(asrock z 68 pro, 8 gb Ram, 1TB smasung hd). I tried to overload it by inserting 40 altiverbs.... nothing. Projects(30-40 audio channels average with 50 or so plugins in total) that would usually overload my old cpu, are on 8-15 % of cpu usage.
Still trying to install mac os but with no success.
 
I just bought an i7 2700k with 16GB of RAM, it's great. Overclocked to 5ghz if I want, but it doesn't really need it. On my old dual core I'd run out of power after running two instances of decapitator, now I can run over 30 lol Not that I'd need too. Also having a 450mb/s SSD means 5 second start up :).
 
id go 2600k but its a bit of a toss up , id actually probably wait another 3 months for ivy bridge 3770k its supposed to be 20% faster for the same price and with a q6600 you should beable to hold off a bit