What processor for compression/vid conversion?

[sparky3009]

My laptop has been having charging issues ever since I got to Iraq. My power cable died after the first week, got a universal one to replace it, that died after the 2nd week, and now I'm using one I got from a buddy. The problem now is, the charging port must have a loose solder joint or something and I'm looking to replace it.

I am looking for a new laptop, but have some questions about processors. I've been out of the PC loop since early '09 when I joined the Army. I mainly just watch movies, convert haji DVD's to MP4, and play whatever games my laptop will let me play. I'm using a Acer with an Athlon x2 tk-57 (1.9GHz, and 2x256k L2 cache) and a fresh Windows 7 install, and converting DVD quality video to 700ish MB mp4 takes a good 4-7 hours.

I was looking at the Core i7 740QM. From what I understand, it's one of the better laptop processors out there, but I don't know anything about them and can't find any benchmarks on compression or video conversion. I was wondering what you guys think would be a good setup for that, and if Intel would be the way to go. I'm not looking at spending much more than $1,000 on a laptop (Army pay is crap), so like a 820qm proc would be out of the question since I can't find any laptops with that CPU for under $2,000. Also, would DDR3 1333 memory reduce conversion speeds compared to DDR 1066?

Thanks in advance, I will continue to search to try to answer my question, but I think you [H] guys would know more than me.

 

[bkiserx7]

As of right now I think that quad core would be your best bet in your budget. As far as the slower memory, I don't think it will effect conversion much if at all. What are you using to convert? Handbrake?

 

[bkiserx7]

Nice chart from PCMag comparing several laptops with different processors and Handbrake is on there http://www.pcmag.com/image_popup/0,1871,iid=271504,00.asp

 

[investinwaffles]

Looking at that chart makes me think that handbrake prefers clockspeed over core count (notice how the i7 is just barely faster than the i3 proc's?)

So maybe a higher clocked dual core would be the best option? My mom has an i5 540m in her Vaio CW series, and it is fast as fuck for a laptop (but she doesnt do anything really demanding).

 

[Joe Average]

HandBrake prefers whatever CPU and RAM you can give it, so if that i7 in the PCMag chart were running 800 MHz faster (matching the 2.53 GHz of the i5 that had the lowest time) you can rest assured the i7 encoding speed would be much lower.

But in the long run we're talking about a few seconds I suppose. For video encoding, I would always choose cores over raw processor speed so an i7 would be the only choice for me. I'm not a gamer, mind you, so raw clockspeed is of no concern to me at all. There are just too many variables and not enough info in that chart to definitively say that dual core i5 is a better processor for video encoding compared to that i7 that's listed - the CPU, the RAM, the timings, it all plays into it.

Also, I doubt they were using the nightly builds of HandBrake which are far more advanced and take advantage of newer capabilities in those processors which potentially could offer an advantage to the i7 including better multithreading to take better advantage of the 4 cores/8 threads, etc.

Video encoding ain't all about the CPU - the RAM and the timings are a big part of it as well. Finding a laptop that allows customization of the timings can make a big difference so, I would seriously keep that in mind when making a choice of which one to buy. Check out the manuals for any given laptop and if the BIOS is "locked up" and doesn't allow for manual configuration on that level, I'd probably pass on it myself.

It's a black art, practically, but anyone that's truly serious - or even mildly I suppose - would probably choose the i7 and the 4 cores/8 threads for video encoding work.

Good luck...