Better to go with i5 or i7 for video editing?

[ellindale]

Choosing between an Intel Core i5-2400 Processor (3.10GHz), with a Radeon HD 6450 Graphics card with 512 MB DDR3 dedicated memory,

and an Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor (2.4 GHz), with a Mobile Intel® HD graphics with 64MB-1696MB shared graphics memory,

Which is better for video/photo editing?

The i5 with its 3.10GHz and dedicated graphics card, or the i7 (2.4 GHz) with its hyper-threading capabilities (and integrated graphics card).

The i5 is a desktop, the i7 is a laptop. I will gladly trade mobility for a better graphic editing set up. Both have 6GB memory.

 

[Draven35]

What software will you be using for editing?

 

[kenrivers]

As someone who edits video as a hobby using Premiere Pro CS6 I agree that a custom build is the way to go. Some cases on the off the shelf computers are not great if you decide to upgrade later. I had a prebuilt HP and it was a nightmare to upgrade. A second (scratch) drive for video files is recommended as well. Personally, I like to know the components inside.

 

[Sunius]

I'm pretty sure the desktop i5 would render stuff twice as fast as the laptop: My friend has exact same CPU in his laptop, and with intel burn test he gets ~30 GFlops, as I with my 2500k @ stock setting without turbo enabled (3.3 GHz) get 75 GFlops.

 

[wildwell]

Looks like someone has resurrected an older thread, but if anyone is looking to build an editing rig;

I'd comment that Premiere CS6 and the other current/new professional NLEs run in 64bit and take advantage of hyper-threading.
When comparing CPUs, be sure to compare the number of processors and cores.
Also note that the bulk of video rendering will be done on the GPU(s), so don't go crazy over the CPU(s) at the expense of your GPU(s).

 

[toyftw]

The only game I'm likely to play is Sims2 (and maybe Sims3), and solitaire.

It would be nice to have the portability of the laptop, but not necessary. I've discovered that when I travel someone has a computer if I really need to use one. My biggest concern with the laptop and video editing is that laptops run hotter, esp. with video editing. (this is a big problem with my current laptop)

Hi - if it matters - I went to a PC from my laptop just for photo editing(albeit large files) as the laptop got too hot
after a few min and wouldn't keep up, ie mouse would drag, screen twitch, etc.
I'd have to let it cool down, then resume. And, screen size isn't really suitable for photo work, so I'm
with the other posters, build a PC.

Tom

 

[ellindale]

Best answer selected by ellindale.