Advice on 21.5 vs Refresh

[iMacdude313]

Well I knew that. Hmm, I'm still on the fence between i5 and i7. The i5 would probably suit my needs but i7 would better future proof the computer....

 

[gelie]

I was afraid of that. The main reason I'm upgrading from my PowerBook G4 is because of the painfully slow Handbreak transfers!

 

[iMacdude313]

Also, HellHammer or TMRaven, typically how long would it take to encode a 10 minute h.264 video to Youtube using the i5 and i7 respectfully?

 

[TMRaven]

That highly depends on the amount of advanced h264/x264 features you use, and the bitrate. I'll just be simple though, to encode a high profile x264 with average settings, you're looking at around 5-10 minutes. The same was around 16 hours on my old G5 iMac-- so good.

 

[iMacdude313]

Hmm well that doesn't sound bad at all, from some of the Youtubers I've heard from, they say it can take them up to a few hours... So not bad, I think I'm going to go ahead and get the i5.

 

[Hellhammer]

Takes me ~15mins to encode an episode of CSI (file size is ~250MB) and I have C2D so that's 5mins with i7 and ~8mins with i5. Both are very fast and unless you do a lot encoding, i5 is more than fine

 

[iMacdude313]

Thanks HellHammer, that was a little more informative then TMRavens post. I appreciate both of your help, especially Ravens. Thanks for the speedy replies and helping me out.

 

[TMRaven]

If you want to know exact comparisons between the i7 iMac and your current computer, you can give me a sample video and tell me what program to use and what settings. I'd be glad to do it