i3-3225 vs i5-3570

[Neflhiem]

Ok , so i think after reading Assissins guides and a few others and poking around, im gonna go with an Ivy Bridge CPU. At first i was going with the I5-3570, simply because I like to stay ahead of the curve when starting new. However after some reading Im thinking the I3-3225 should work fine.

Im building (obiviously) a HTPC. I want to watch Live tv and replace my DVR, i want the box to have BR player/burner. I also want to be able to reasonably quickly convert movies from one format to another. I am hoping not to have to use this, but I seem to always need that ability for one reason or another. That last part i think is why I was leaning to the I5. However im betting either will be a dramatic upgrade from my laptop.

The rest of my proposed components are:

• Samsung 840 Series 2.5 inch 120GB SATA III internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7TD120BW
• ASRock DDR3 2400 Intel - LGA 1155 Motherboards (Z77 EXTREME4-M)
• Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe - 4-channel Internal Cable TV Tuner Card for CableCARD
• SilverStone Strider Plus ST50F-P 500W ATX 12V v2.3/EPS 12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified 100 % Modular Active PFC Power Supply (Black)
  
• Samsung Spinpoint F4EG 2 TB SATA2 5400rpm 32 MB Hard Drive HD204UI/Z4
  

Not picked out a case or ram yet, still feeling out the major components.

Anyone have a pick of the I5 or I3? it'd be nice to save the $100, but i dont want to end up needing to swap in a few months or having to wait for ever to convert a funky download.

thanks

[tracerbullet]

I killed my HTPC when I got a Tivo, so I've been out of it for a while and don't have a direct answer. But things to think about, if it helps:

Will one run hotter or cooler than the other?
Will you have a separate video card or do you plan to use what's built into the chip
Is there any difference in one chips ability over the other to handle video crunching (# cores, threads, cache size etc.)

Maybe something to look at until you get a better answer.

[evident]

my pick goes to the i3-3225. you can see my build in a thread that i made in this forum. but it does the infinitv thing just fine, plays movies and in general all around smooth with a ssd. however, I dont do any movie format conversion on my htpc. that's what my main computer/nas combo with an i7 2600k does. i don't see why the i3 wouldn't be able to do this task well and in a reasonable amount of time.

[pkscout]

The i3 should be fine, but it will depend on what your definition of "reasonably quickly" when it comes to format conversions. I have one of the first generation i3s (about three years old), and it takes over an hour to convert a 1 hour MPEG2 720p file to an H.264 480p file. The newer i3s should be faster, and an i5 will obviously be faster than an i3 for the conversions.

[AkumaX]

4 cores + HD 2500 or 2 cores + HD 4000 graphics. your choice?

[evident]

or get the i5 and a radeon 7750!

[Mfusick]

3570k = 4 cores and HD4000. Microcenter $169. Get another $40 off your Asrock Mobo making the CPU real cost about $129.

[dagamer34]

If there's ever any chance you'll want to use the HTPC to live transcode stuff using Plex to watch video on your smartphone or tablet, then go with the quad core.

In fact, just go with the quad core anyway. It's only a few bucks more and it's impossible to predict what you'll want in the future.

[Neflhiem]

Ok thanks...I thought both chips had the 4000 inputs though...it was basically a quad core vs dual core question I think....thanks for all the input..it helps a lot !

[Neflhiem]

Originally Posted by Mfusick

3570k = 4 cores and HD4000. Microcenter $169. Get another $40 off your Asrock Mobo making the CPU real cost about $129.

Think that's exactly what I'll do....thanks man