Hi,

I'm looking to finally upgrade from my intel i7 3770 - this has been rock solid for the last 3 years or so & I have just updated it to Unraid 7.14 after an uptime over 500 days.

this system is just getting a bit slow with my newer usage

Main Unraid use is for an Emby server & the usual stack of 'arrs' docker containers etc -I am also getting into VMs far more lately.

With Emby I have an Nvidia Shield so 4k HDR is an easy direct play even from the 3770 locally but remotely 1080p using intel quicksync is possible but no 4k - it's simply to old.

This is the first time I've ever picked new hardware for a unraid build I like I'm sure many do have previously used old hardware for older systems that I had on hand.

Since my upgrade to unraid 7 I finally have everything available remotely using Tailscale (love it) so am using the system for more than a media server/download box now.

I want Intel Quicksync still so no AMD & am not really a fan of used parts.

I am basically looking at the :-

I7 14700 or the Core Ultra 7 265 (non K for both for TDP heat etc)

the 14700 (14th gen) has had issues but if new & bios updates/power levels sorted should be ok I think

has UHD 770 should be widely supported for hardware encoding & 20 cores/28 threads good for VMs etc

the Core Ultra 7 265 is newer but might have some compatibility issues? especially with the QSV hardware encoding plus not many people seem to use this with unraid.

Would be 64GB ram in either I pick & future upgrades i.e. CPU are not important as will be a long term system & full replace when unsuitable.

Any help or opinions about these two CPUs would be great - thanks in advance!

On 10/29/2025 at 4:20 PM, ThumperZ said:

I want Intel Quicksync still so no AMD & am not really a fan of used parts.

I had this CPU too - i recommend an intel 9 series or newer, like the 12 series, but not 13 or 14 series 👍

Transcoding from 4k to 1080p/10Mbit is working fine. This old 9 series can transcode up to 5 streams, so the newer 12th should handle up to 6 or 7 streams at transcode.

Edited November 4, 2025Nov 4 by Zonediver

I went with the 14700 in the end.

Thx for the advice Zonediver but I really wanted new parts & the 12th gen chips are in my opinion way expensive new for the age of the CPUs i.e. 12700 about £25 less than the 14700 on scan

The 14700 is working great - the Quicksync hardware encoding in Emby worked straight away - I guess its the same setup as my old chip.

I got the bios updated on the new motherboard (at store) before I even put the new CPU in & have checked the power level settings etc so I hope that I'll be ok 14th gen problems etc

The VM performance difference is way more than I expected even If I don't pass on many cores or use the Ecores.

Unraid is amazing for the fact that I upgraded 11 generations of CPU & changed every part except for the NVME/HDD +USB boot drive & everything works on first boot..gotta love that!

the old system didn't even have any m.2 slots on it - I had to use a pcie adapter card..