Intels Broadwell NUCs and Turbo Boost Technology

[TheDarkKnight]

There is a $90 price gap between Intels two very latest Broadwell NUC offerings. And the only difference I have been able to detect from comparing the specs side by side, is mainly, one has Turbo Boost Technology and one does not. Does this feature alone seriously warrant the price premium that Intel is asking at the moment?

The i3-5010U versus the i5-5250U are the two CPUs I am talking about.

What would make me pay an extra $90 for the Turbo Boost. Is it it worth it?

I always thought i3=dual core and i5=quad core but it seems I was wrong.

 

[jaydee]

In the ULV realm, i3 = dual core, no turbo, i5 = dual core, w/turbo.

Standard mobile parts (37W TDP) are the same I believe.

Desktop parts, the i3's are dual core (no turbo) and i5's are quad-core (with turbo). The lack of a turbo in these i3's don't make a difference because they are clocked pretty high to begin with.

In your situation, between the i3 and i5... I would get the i5 for $90 more. It will make a decent difference and it's impossible to make up for it down the road (you can't upgrade the CPU in these things). Middle ground, you can get a Haswell i5 NUC right between the price points for Broadwell i3 and i5. It's close to the speed of the Broadwell i5 (in some cases it's faster), and there's really not much benefit in terms of features or power consumption. That would be my recommendation.

 

[Essence_of_War]

What would make me pay an extra $90 for the Turbo Boost. Is it it worth it?

I always thought i3=dual core and i5=quad core but it seems I was wrong.

On desktop, and I think in mobile, i3 is dual-core, and i5 is quad-core. In ULV everything is dual-core. But I don't think i3's have turbo boost at any market segment.

http://ark.intel.com/compare/84984,84697

i5 base is 1.6 GHz, turbos up to 2.7 GHz, the i3 is base at 2.1 GHz. Whether or not turbo boost is valuable depends on how often you're seeing single-thread bottle-necks.

What are you planning on using the NUC for?

 

[TheDarkKnight]

On desktop, and I think in mobile, i3 is dual-core, and i5 is quad-core. In ULV everything is dual-core. But I don't think i3's have turbo boost at any market segment.

http://ark.intel.com/compare/84984,84697

i5 base is 1.6 GHz, turbos up to 2.7 GHz, the i3 is base at 2.1 GHz. Whether or not turbo boost is valuable depends on how often you're seeing single-thread bottle-necks.

What are you planning on using the NUC for?

You mean this question can only be answered by me and no one else? Come on now.

I use my PC for everything a PC can be used for. Just like people do with their cellphones these days. If my PC can do it, then I probably do it.

What cases justify spending the $90 extra dollars....what that include watching Blu-Ray and the upcoming 4k movies on this mini-PC?

 

[Essence_of_War]

You mean this question can only be answered by me and no one else? Come on now.

I use my PC for everything a PC can be used for. Just like people do with their cellphones these days. If my PC can do it, then I probably do it.

What cases justify spending the $90 extra dollars....what that include watching Blu-Ray and the upcoming 4k movies on this mini-PC?

I didn't mean to imply that, I was just trying to say that it's hard to say if something is worth X dollars if we don't know what you want it to do.

It looks like the broadwell NUCs support GPU accelerated decoding of encoded media even up to 4k, so I think you're fine either way for media playback.

My personal opinion would be to get the i5 IF the extra money spent on that and your own budget constraints don't cause you to also get either less than 8 GB of RAM or a smaller than 256 GB SSD.

 

[TheDarkKnight]

I didn't mean to imply that, I was just trying to say that it's hard to say if something is worth X dollars if we don't know what you want it to do.

It looks like the broadwell NUCs support GPU accelerated decoding of encoded media even up to 4k, so I think you're fine either way for media playback.

My personal opinion would be to get the i5 IF the extra money spent on that and your own budget constraints don't cause you to also get either less than 8 GB of RAM or a smaller than 256 GB SSD.

It's not about constraints. It's about bang for buck. It's about whether or not it's all marketing hype. It's all about whether it is much ado about nothing.

Your selling the i5 to me like it's insurance but giving me no solid data to act on. But your not my mother so there is no penalty for such treatment.

 

[jaydee]

If you're looking for bang-for-buck, get the Haswell i5 NUC for $340, it's the best performance/price ratio.