Intel i5 3570k @ 3.6GHz (stock):1:33
Intel i5 3570K @ 4GHz: 1:18. 4GHz is pretty easy overclock these days.
Asus P8Z77-V PRO, 2x8GB 1600MHz RAM, AMD HD7850 GPU. I used a 2GB RAM disk (
6GB/s+ Read speeds, woohoo!) because for temporary files, it's actually useful.
If I'm actually using my hard drives, I usually use 2 physically seperate drives to source and write to. I don't run raid nor have very fast bulk drives, so that works best for me.
Also used Handbrake 0.9.8. Does it use QuickSync from Intel? It should be quicker than AMD or Nvidia GPU acceleration.
I think I did read that Intel would work together with Handbrake to incorporate this, but I dunno whether it's released yet.
A Intel i7 3770K has 8 threads (instead of 4) but is ~50% more expensive. For me, spending 50% extra for more threads sounds useless, because I rarely encode lots of video.
AMD make better bang per buck chips, but I am uncertain about their raw performance, especially for video encoding.
Moreover.. notice how Marmad's system (i7 950) that's a couple of years old still beats this system. Though, not sure if I can use Quicksync, maybe that's a lot faster.
I personally don't see any benefit of a Mac. I believe in the past a Mac Pro workstation would cost a fortune and was a power house. Nowadays I think it's only the 'user experience' that would set things apart, and that's user preference. I personally find Mac on a technical environment 'limiting', think about toolchains for ARM, your favorite design CAD tool, etc. Installign Dual-boot or VM with Windows? Then it defeats the purpose of having a Mac.. also, every program you can get for Mac is available for Windows. In more or less frustration free packaging.
Moreover, the Mac hardware these days is the same Intel platform. "But they are optimized for Mac OSX". That's suggesting Intel deliberately write slower drivers (like chipset, MEI, etc.) for Windows than for Mac. I call it BS.
Even better, my motherboard (Asus P8Z77-V PRO with UEFI) comes with a shiny "Performance" button which overclocks the CPU to 4.4GHz. Not with the best settings (70C temp full load with case fans off) but ~800MHz boost which is 20% theoretical performance for free (given you run a good CPU cooler, which I would anyway for silent computing).
If Mac would have any advantage, I am pretty sure this takes it back with a bit of margin.
Also, upgrades for a desktop machine are so much cheaper.. For e.g.: 250GB Samsung 840 SSD: ~140 euro's (200$). A 512GB SSD in a Mac Pro costs 750$.
Or.. 16GB RAM upgrade would cost me about 80 euro's. For a Mac, chances are they don't upgrade it after your purchased. Or they charge you 600$ for hardware that costs 100 dollar .
Absolutely insane pricing scheme.