Will a core i7 2600 suffice?

Hi all,

I recently stopped gaming on my PC and have been on my consoles, but I'm really starting to use my PC for video editing now. I've been using windows movie maker, doing basic stuff.

I notice my i5 2400 takes a bit long to process a 1080p vid which is understanding. My question is that if I upgrade to a core i7 2600, will I see a fairly big difference in processing time, or should I just get another system?

If another system, what CPU do you recommend for windows movie maker? Thank you.

P.S. I might wanna do 4k vids soon, is that possible without a monitor that's 4k?

A i7 is faster than a i5. The problem is to find one. And I don't know if it worth the change.
I see you have 12 G of memory. Is it 4+2 on channel 1 and 4+2 on channel 2 ?
Image editing requires a lot of memory. May be a a memory increase will bring more results than a CPU change.
Install this hardware monitor (in fact, extract it to C:\Program Files (x86) and execute).
It will show max and min free memory, temp etc
Downloads - Open Hardware Monitor
Editing 4k doesn't require a 4k monitor

A new system will be faster but I think you'll be disappointed. And will cost around US$ 1200 (with monitor)

Megahertz07 said:

A i7 is faster than a i5. The problem is to find one. And I don't know if it worth the change.
I see you have 12 G of memory. Is it 4+2 on channel 1 and 4+2 on channel 2 ?
Image editing requires a lot of memory. May be a a memory increase will bring more results than a CPU change.
Install this hardware monitor (in fact, extract it to C:\Program Files (x86) and execute).
It will show max and min free memory, temp etc
Downloads - Open Hardware Monitor
Editing 4k doesn't require a 4k monitor

A new system will be faster but I think you'll be disappointed. And will cost around US$ 1200 (with monitor)

Hi,

My memory I have is 3, 4gb sticks.

I see that when using windows movie maker, it uses about 80-95% of my cpu constantly, but I have google chrome open too with a few other programs I like to use.

My RAM however is not fully used. Perhaps this will change when I use 4k video? Not sure if my current system or RAM could handle it.

My PC can only go to a max of 16gb of RAM, I have one free slot left.

Yes, I've seen a new system is quite a bit. I rather not get a new one yet as of now after seeing the prices.

I see a few good options for core i7 2600 on ebay

core i7 2600 | eBay

Here's a comparison of i5-2400, i7-2600 and a more recent i7-7700K. The scores give a good indication of processing power ie a cpu with a score of 10,000 will render a movie in around half the time of a cpu that scores 5,000 - switching to a 2600 would be a 39% boost.

I use a 2600K as my main workstation for Cinema 4D which involves quite a bit of rendering. The K variant of those old 2nd gen chips overclock easily (mine's at 4.4GHz), although the newer chips run at those kind of speeds by default.

3 RAM 4gb sticks don't run as dual channel. One channel has (4+4) and the other 4. You must have same amount, same speed and same latency on each channel.
As you have a win 7 Pro, I would take out one 4 g stick and add 8+8 to have 8+4 and 8+4.

fireberd said:

The 2600 is an "old" (2nd or 3rd generation) version and if CPU power is what you want I would avoid that.

I just bought a new 7th generation Dell Laptop (Inspiron 15 5577) and it has a 7th generation i5 laptop CPU. It is peppy and loads and runs as fast (visually) as my i7 6700K desktop. I use it in my recording studio and even under relatively heavy loads it doesn't slowdown.

Hmm well I don't want to use the latest cpu's out there due to windows 10 being the only supported OS.

Now that I see you have a 6th gen intel cpu.. I happen to have a laptop I never use that has an intel core i7 6th gen, but it's only the dual core version with the "u" at the end, but it has an nvidia geforce 900m series gpu too.

Instead of going for the new desktop, would this be better performing compared to my i5 2400? even though it's only dual core?

badcrc said:

Here's a comparison of i5-2400, i7-2600 and a more recent i7-7700K. The scores give a good indication of processing power ie a cpu with a score of 10,000 will render a movie in around half the time of a cpu that scores 5,000 - switching to a 2600 would be a 39% boost.

I use a 2600K as my main workstation for Cinema 4D which involves quite a bit of rendering. The K variant of those old 2nd gen chips overclock easily (mine's at 4.4GHz), although the newer chips run at those kind of speeds by default.

Yeah, I can't overclock mine so I'm kinda stuck and screwed...

Megahertz07 said:

3 RAM 4gb sticks don't run as dual channel. One channel has (4+4) and the other 4. You must have same amount, same speed and same latency on each channel.
As you have a win 7 Pro, I would take out one 4 g stick and add 8+8 to have 8+4 and 8+4.

That's weird because it says I have dual channel here

Okay so I've tested my laptop with the i7 6500u and it doesn't perform as well compared to my i5 2400. I also see prices of newer i7's and such and I don't want to pay that kind of money.
I know the i7 2600 is an old generation, but I'd imagine it will be better than an i5 2400. I also seen the benchmark badcrc linked me and it looks pretty pleasing. I can also grab an i7 2600 for a bit over $100 on ebay. I'd pay less though because I plan on selling my i5 2400 after.

Thanks all for the help, much appreciated. -Logo