Anyone use the i7 2600s low tdp CPU?

Was thinking about building a headless encoding rig around an i7 2600s... like the fact that it runs at 65w... I haven't built a computer in ages and am still using my q6600 rig which takes 10 hours to re-encode a 2 hour 1080p video.. or should I go with the 2600k? I plan on installing Debian server on it then slapping it in a corner to crunch video all day

if "headless" you mean no monitor then you are cheating yourself out of quick sync which is the best advantage of using a sandy bridge cpu to encode . . . it needs a monitor plugged in to enable it.

i stole this from:
http://homeservershow.com/forums/i [...] ia-server/

Since you are virtualizing CPU's in a VM machine, the software does not have direct access to the hardware and therefore will not use Quicksync.

1st page toward the bottom.

if the goal of your plan was to lower your power consumption than a pentium G850 would help. it doesn't have quick sync and give a simular performance to a q6600 according to:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=404

i was pretty shocked myself. but if you really wanted to decrease your encoding time, sorry maybe someone else would have a better suggestion.

Also, keep in mind that quick sync is not supported on Linux, you will need to find a copy of windows. Also, you can get a "dummy" DVI or VGA dongle that will fool the computer into thinking there is a monitor attached.