My old laptop just died mid-render and I am honestly freaking out because I have a project due Friday. I saw people suggesting the i5-13600K but others say go i7 for workstation stuff. My budget is like 350 max for the chip. Which one should I actually buy?
Man, losing a laptop during a render is literally my worst nightmare. Honestly, go with the Intel Core i5-13600K 14-Core 5.1GHz and don't look back! I built a workstation for my side projects using that same chip and the performance is just insane for the price. It crushes rendering tasks thanks to those extra E-cores. Here is why it works:
Building on the earlier suggestion, I would suggest being super careful about the cooling setup. I fried a motherboard back in the day by cheaping out on the cooler while running an Intel Core i5-13600K 14-Core 5.1GHz at full tilt. If you go this route, definitely make sure you pair it with a solid cooler so you dont throttle during that Friday deadline. Honestly, just dont skimp on the thermal paste either.
Ugh, that sucks so much. Honestly, I had issues with thermal throttling on my last build and it totally ruined my workflow. Are you doing 3D renders or just video editing?