i5 or i7 for basic video editing?

mobile73

Hi

I am looking to buy a new desktop, and on top of the usual internet and office stuff I need to be able to edit the footage from my HD camcorder (Panasonic SD90) to produce home DVD's etc.

Is an i7 processor needed or over the top for this kind of thing?

Ideally don't want to spend more than around £700, but prepared to spend more if necessary. (would prefer to spend less though if possible!).

Have always bought Dell in the past.

Any advice welcome.

Thanks.

Cisco001

I don't think i7 is necessary.
i5 should be fine.
May be something like this if you are not overclocking.
http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/Mass-Effect-i5-3450-94p1369.htm

fwor

I guess it depends how much extra you are prepared to pay to save a bit of time.

Encoding and transcoding are both CPU-intensive tasks, so provided whatever software you are using can spread the load over multiple cores (the only one that I've ever tested - Avidemux - does) then an i7 with more cores should always be quicker than an i5, all other things (such as clock rate) being equal.

demystified

64bit OS's are faster encoding x264...

other than that get an i5 and overclock it if you encode a lot.

spannerzone

I've just got a Dell XPS8500 with an i5 3450 and it seems to transcode HD video at least twice / three times as quickly as my older 3Ghz core2duo CPU (both with 4GB ram) - so video editing on the i5 is certainly going to be a lot quicker and easier for me now.

When saving an AVCHD lite video the 3GHz core2duo would show 100% CPU usage on both cores, on the i5 it varies between 75% - 95% on all 4 cores (I think the nVidia graphics card I have in the new Dell XPS also increases AVC processing)

I'm using Sony Vegas movie studio 11 software (Amazon @ £35) which is very stable software compared to my old Pinnacle flaky studio software!

I got mine on Dell Outlet (where they sell off their cancelled orders stock for often quite a lot cheaper than regular Dell main website) although stock varies day to day. I saved about £240 compared to the same item as new (mine has very minor cosmetic marks here and there)

Some will say build your own but I could not have bought the items for the price I paid let alone add Windows 7 software.

mobile73

Thanks for the advice.

Can anyone advise the difference between Dell Vostro and XPS?

Was looking at this which seems a lot better value than the XPS but seemingly the same features. Is the Vostro suitable for home use?

(Tried to post link to Dell Vostro but am not allowed!)

spannerzone

mobile73 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice.

Can anyone advise the difference between Dell Vostro and XPS?

Was looking at this which seems a lot better value than the XPS but seemingly the same features. Is the Vostro suitable for home use?

(Tried to post link to Dell Vostro but am not allowed!)

Vostro are from the Dell business section and aimed at that sort of user, XPS is aimed at home users who want a slightly better than average PC. Vostro are shown excluding VAT usually.

Now I've had several Vostro desktops and ordered several for family and there's nothing wrong with them at all. You can order from Dell small business section but have to enter 'Home User' as your business name when purchasing, this apparently gives you the home distant seller protection afforded to home purchases online.

Traditionally the Vostro's have been nearly identical in every respect to the Inspiron desktops available in the home user section, so roughly speaking:

Vostro 260 is an Insprion 620 (2nd generation Sandy Bridge CPU, low to medium sort of user)
Vostro 470 is an Inspiron 660 (3rd Generation Ivy Bridge CPU and USB3 support, medium/heavier user)

The XPS seems slightly more feature packed than the Vostro 470, up to 16GB ram (possibly 32 but uncertain) whereas the V470 is 8GB limit. However for most users either should do very well, gamers excepted.

Looking at the V470 I reckon it might use a very similar motherboard to the XPS.

If the V470 had the specs and the price was better than the XPS then I'd go for Vostro for sure. If you want a slightly more stylish and slightly higher specced options then XPS8500.

I've had one of the first Vostro desktops (V200 from 2008 and it's been totally reliable as have several others and newer Vostro/inspirons that I've purchased) - this XPS8500 is the first higher specced Dell I've bought and the build quality is good but not much different to the old V200 I've got.

I always use DMXDimension to check the latest deals and discount codes, there are some coupons for the V470 at the moment so worth a look.

mobile73

How did you get the XPS8500 from the Outlet? I can only see a heading for 8300 and even that has no stock?

robmar0se

I would always go for the best cpu you can afford as it will have relatively more power going forward in time. With desktops you can relatively easily upgrade the RAM/ hdd & graphics card, whereas it is more often as not, more problematic to upgrade the CPU.

spannerzone

mobile73 wrote: »

How did you get the XPS8500 from the Outlet? I can only see a heading for 8300 and even that has no stock?

First go to Dell Outlet, then ignore ALL the pictures of different models as they're all pretty much discontinued models!

Next, click on either Outlet Desktops or Outlet Laptops the click on Check Availability & Pricing for all Desktops or Check Availability & Pricing for all Laptops (again ignore all the onscreen ads showing different models to choose from, almost none exist now - note Dell update your site!!!)

All Dell outlet desktops (or laptops) are then listed either by popularity or price, you can fine tune the search by model, CPU etc but sometimes this misses out models so I just sort by price and look at all models, there's only a few pages to check so it's pretty quick.

If you're interested add the item to your cart and this reserves it for you for 15 mins giving you time to check other models for comparison (while it's in your cart it's no longer displayed for others to see) - when you've found the one you want remove any others from your cart and buy!

At the moment there are no XPS8500's to buy so you may have to keep checking every day until another batch comes in, they seem to do batches at a time and suddenly there's a number of them, the best priced ones go very quickly.

My XPS8500 was found when they had around 15 various models for sale (1 month back) and they were all from around £440 upwards with the latest i7's for still only £540 compared to £799 new.... but I spotted one a £359 so grabbed it quick.

Mine is scratch and dent so a little marked, most are usually brand new but cancelled orders. Mine popped up, I saw it first and stuck it in the cart, double checked the specs vs a brand new version and got it for £359 instead of £599. When I got the confirmation email it stated the service tag number, I checked this on Dell support and could see when it was originally sold (3 weeks before I got it) so was confident it should be in fair condition, the tag also gave all the original specs so I could double check those. Once I received the machine Dell wipe the service tag history and now the warranty starts from when I got it and all previous sale info is removed.

spannerzone

You might also want to check Dell Outlet Business as the Vostro 470 isn't too far short of features compared to the XPS (just more plain looking)