Core i3 or i5 - Adobe Premiere Elements

I

Inprogress

Well-known member
I need to upgrade my laptop (either desktop or laptop - which ever works out better this side) from my Intel Core Duo T2300 1.6Ghz with stupid integrated graphics card (945GM something) cause I'm getting dejected with my editing which isn't happening due to old hardware.

However, budget is very tight - won't go into specifics cause I live in South Africa, however I do need some specific hardware advice.

Firstly, I do not intend to edit in HD, it'll be nice but I just do not have the budget for it. I'll also be using Adobe Premiere Elements (probably 10 cause locally there is a good deal on it supposedly - plus even 11 is affordable and gives me color grading options). I'll also start to experiment with some visual effects but mostly, for the lack of a better description, turn-key effects within software, not make my own, not yet anyway.


However, the three things I'm unclear on is the CPU, RAM and how the CPU affects graphics card choice.

I'll be going for 4Gig at the least.

So, Core i3 and up RAM and Graphics?
or...
Core i5 and higher RAM and lower graphics?

In other words, which is more important? Better CPU and good GPU with as much RAM as you can afford? Or OK CPU, better GPU and as much RAM as you can afford?

Most posts and advice I've research all come from the HD editing side it seems...it seems. Ultimately I suppose any low level, dedicated GPU will be better than my current setup.

Oh, and Windows 7....which one? Ultimate is best cause its Ultimate, but which one is good enough - keep in mind "tight budget".

I shoot with a GH2 however I intend to transcode since I create proxy clips, thus I can transcode to an "easier" codec, however I'll probably need to up my storage space then.

I thank thee all for thy kind wisdom and hope to repay said favor in future by means of kindness onto my fellow man :Drogar-Happy(DBG):

EDIT: P.S. I'm open to AMD as well, have always liked them but please no arguments about which is better, I'm just looking for good enough in a tight budget.

Researching some local deals brings this question, an onboard ATI graphics card, waste of time compared to the onboard Intel setups?
For example I found a Open Box deal for this:

​
- AMD A6 3420m QUAD CORE APU 2.4GHZ TurboCore
- 4GB DDR3 RAM
- True-to-Life RADEON HD6520G with Up to 3GB HyperMemory
- Windows 7 Home Basic 64 Bit
- 15.6" HD LED
- Lenovo​
 
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The CPU is the most important thing. If you can stretch to an i7 it will be worth it. Video editing is one of the only things that actually utilises all 8 virtual cores. If you can't then at least get an i5. An i3 is going to be a false economy. You can get away without a GPU or add one later. The CPU can do all the rendering.

For RAM you ideally want 2GB per core. For an i5 8GB will be best bang for buck. For an i7 I'd aim for 8GB and get it as 2x4GB DDR3 modules. That way you can upgrade later with another 2x4GB modules for 16GB. Don't worry about latency on RAM. It won't make a difference that you will notice. Get the cheaper options of a reputable brandname, G.Skill, Corsair, Kingston, Geil.

GPU would be my final decision. If you get an Ivy Bridge CPU (recommend i5-3550 or i7-3770), you will be surprised by the onboard graphics. It one of the areas all the work on the latest chipset went on. You can probably get away with upgrading to a GPU later (I have an i7-3770, so far I'm only using onboard graphics and I can play Deus Ex on medium-high settings, and render HD videos). When you do upgrade, the computer will utilise both GPU and the onboard graphics together if you have Ivy Bridge, assigning tasks to each for optimal performance. Get an nVidia GTX card. A GTX 560 Ti will be excellent bang for buck. If you can stretch to it a GTX 570.

Windows 7 Professional has everything you need. Ultimate doesn't offer much extra of value, mainly additional language sets (english is enough for me) and some minor optimisations. Professional will let you run 32-bit programs in legacy mode which is the main useful feature. You'd be surprised how useful this feature is. It also gives you better access to your operating system than the basic one. It will be just fine for video editing out of the box. The raft of optimisations XP required is far less important in Win7.

Don't go AMD. AMD gave up the high end a long time ago to focus on mid-range CPUs for gaming. Intel is the preferred choice for video editing. Likewise nVidia is preferred GPU. ATi graphics cards are gaming optimised but don't perform as well for workstation tasks.
 
i7...there goes my budget. If I convert my budget into US Dollars, no more than $500. I'm thinking used or refurbished considering - or an Open Box deal which the AMD is. I can get the above specs AMD in a laptop for about $400. Again, considering my current laptop, will the AMD setup above really be that bad? It even has an eSATA port which I understand is acceptable for the footage storage and working hard drive leaving the OS and apps harddrive alone. Just asking since I'm not looking for WOW performance and HD editing, merely being able to edit and scroll video in the editor and apply some color grading etc without having to wait 45 seconds for a preview snap shot, never mind scrolling. Thus far my local research proves a laptop is more bang for my buck than an entire desktop setup - unless again I go the used route.

Thank you for the comments Egg Born Sun, I am listening and scouring my options based on your post.
 
On that budget buy a second hand computer. Every day young gamers buy computers they can't afford and find themselves in trouble. You might be able to get a first generation i7 or a decent lower end sandy bridge i5 for that. Go look at one asking for around 650, offer 450 and come up to 500. I'm not sure how much more expensive things are in South Africa compared to US but I imagine the markup will be similar to Australia (about +50% to what americans pay). New you might be able to get an okay offbrand motherboard, intel CPU and RAM but the case and storage will add up. Win7 alone is going to set you back $150 here. So your best option is to take advantage of someone else's misery and buy the computer that they couldn't afford.

If the prices are similar to here, if you can stretch to $700 you should be able to get a 2yr old beast of a gaming machine. Cashed up gamers upgrade every year or two and sell on their fully tricked machines. I've seen a few i7-960 based computers going for about that price in the classifieds over here before eventually saving up for a new, top-of-the-line latest generation computer (total cost A$1350, inc. monitor but no GPU), a saving of about $1000 by building it myself. Again, intel and nVidia are your best options but if you can get a highend spec AMD second hand at your price it could perform adequately. I wouldn't bother with any brand new AMD system you can get for $500. I looked briefly looked at the $400-500 systems briefly here, I reckon they'd struggle with a word processor! Second hand is your best bet. The more patient you can be the better a deal you can hang out for. Good luck!
 
@ Egg Born Son

Thanks again. I'll have to read up a bit on the Intel generations so that I have an idea what I am looking at, "i7-960" currently means nothing to me - especially when I read ads for Core i7 Dual Core - I have no idea if it's a lie or the poster just doesn't know the difference. Back when I knew something about pc's people still talked about Pentium 4 and AMD Athlon 64.

It is not so much price here, but choice. Markups are low, but us South Africans pretty much don't trust anything unless some USA magazine says its good, and unfortunately the market reflects that.

Bye for now.
 
Here is an example of a laptop that is within your budget range that would be more than adequate for what you want, including being able to edit HD in real time with PE. PE is not Cuda enabled so it does not require an Nvidia card to perform well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215403&name=Laptops-Notebooks
It has a USB-3 port so fast external expansion drives for video editing are possible too.
I run PE7 on a 4 year old 1.8GHZ core2 duo w/4GB ram and a 256MB ATI graphics chipset with no issues editing DV footage realtime. I also run Lightworks on this laptop with realtime performance. I use it to playback HD movies without issues. It will even play Red .r3d clips at 1/4 resolution realtime in redcine-x. For simple editing with one or two video tracks and up to four audio tracks, current gen I3-3x series processors is adequate. An I3 dual core laptop would be more than twice as fast as mine and capable of handling AVCHD pretty well too. I5 would be better though. 4GB of ram is bare minimum you need. 6 or 8 GB is better. The on chip HD graphics of the newest I3/I5/I7-3x Intel processors are more than adequate for your needs.
 
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