EA-5 vs Core5

[paneristinewb]

Hi everyone, 

I am new to the forum and home automation in general, so excited to be part of the community.  I am in the process of a new home build and we are now at the stage of selecting our automation system, so needed some advice.  Since I made initial selections prior to the pandemic, the controller in my home system is the EA-5, which recently got installed.  Thereafter, the Core 5 was announced, and while I assumed that the EA-5 would be EOL and replaced by the Core 5, I currently have an EA-5 sitting in my rack.  My question is if it is worth it at this point to ask to have a Core5 swapped out for the EA-5.  Is there a "noticeable" improvement in the new controller - like the improved processor actually leads to visibly improved performance/speed?  Or is it just a spec bump on paper?  I cannot find anywhere on Control4/SnapAV site the actual processor difference in the two products - both spec sheets saying that it's multicore (though the Core 5 supposedly has more RAM, which is always a good thing). OR am I just overthinking it and just leave as is.... meaning that in most residential installs, they will both work about the same?

 

My home has Control4 automated lighting, shades, 1 home theater, 2 other media rooms, and 12 rooms with centralized audio (running thru a Triad Matrix).  

 

Thanks so much for any advice/input!! 

[chopedogg88]

I would just stick with the ea5 unless your dealer is willing to swap it out for free for you. 

[paneristinewb]

I would just stick with the ea5 unless your dealer is willing to swap it out for free for you. 

Let’s say it does get swapped out, even if I have to pay the fee hundred dollars, any experience on what the actual difference is? I do have to admit they seem very similar/close on paper. But I also don’t feel right installing a 7 year old controller to run my system. Hmmm…


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[eggzlot]

Use the EA5 until it dies or C4 does some updates that are not supported and you need those features.  You should be able to get several more years out of the EA5, if not longer, and then if it becomes obsolete there is always a market in EBay to salvage a few dollars.

Your summary of your house isnt all that different than mine and I have some complex programming involved and I have an EA5 and an EA1 and it works fine.  The Core has a little speed bump I think and a few features geared towards higher resolution audio, but as far as running a house like yours, it’s fine.  If you needed more performance you’d look at a CA10 (which is going to be overkill I think)

[chopedogg88]

If it's only a hundred or couple hundred to swap out to a core 5 so that you are starting with a current gen controller, if it were me I would do it.  But I don't think you will necessarily notice a big difference in performance. 

Edited August 6, 2023 by chopedogg88

[South Africa C4 user]

1 minute ago, chopedogg88 said:

If it's only a hundred or couple hundred to swap out to a core 5 so that you are starting with a current gen controller, if it were me I would do it.  But I don't think you will necessarily notice a big difference in performance. 

This is my view.  For a few hundred dollars, I would do it… otherwise - “no”.  The EA5 is a great controller. If you had needed a performance enhancement (massive system) your dealer would have spec’d a CA10 (which has been around for a while and is noticeably faster than an EA5 and a Core5).

Speed is unlikely to be a noticeable advantage of moving to a Core 5.  Real advantages include:

1. 4K OSD as opposed to a 1080P OSD; and,

2. More concurrent audio streams.

Apart from these 2 points, the only “real / noticeable” advantage in my view is (as you allude to) the fact that the EA5 will probably go EOL long before the Core5.

[cnicholson]

I started with EA5, then added a Core5, then added a CA10.   Speed bump from EA5 to Core5 was noticeable but not dramatic.   Speed bump from Core5 to CA10 was MUCH more noticeable but, if I'm honest, not dramatic for common user functions.   The reality is that, most of the time, your system will be idling and there won't be any human perceptible reduction in response time / "latency" for simple things like "turn on light."   It's all instant.   Things where you notice speed are "batch mode" things like switching rooms on T4, bringing up screen of lots of security camera feeds, etc.   If you tinker with Composer, you do see MAJOR speed bumps from  stuff like refreshing navigators, making backups, rebooting, etc.--- but these are kind of "developer" improvements and not "user" improvements.

To put it in perspective, when trying to "benchmark" different hardware, I run a script that does an action 10,000 times as fast as it can--- not a real world thing that you would do.

Since you asked the "forget about money, what is best?" type question, the answer (today) is Core5 + CA10 (keeping in mind that the CA10 is just a brain box and you still need a Core or EA box for media and I/O).

Edit: 100% agree with other comments: if you can upgrade for "few hundred,"  Do it.  No brainer.  But if the plan is to EBay the EA5 and pay MSRP for Core5, you're prob looking at few thousand, so not a no brainer for most people/projects

.   

[Time2Jet]

Let’s say it does get swapped out, even if I have to pay the fee hundred dollars, any experience on what the actual difference is? I do have to admit they seem very similar/close on paper. But I also don’t feel right installing a 7 year old controller to run my system. Hmmm…


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To be honest, I don’t think any dealer would swap it out for a Core5 for a few hundred dollars. But even at $1500 it’s a good swap based on the residual value of the EA5 versus the latest price of the Core5.

On your case, you wouldn’t see a remarkable difference in processing performance and at this time I don’t think you’d need zwave control. One benefit for you might be that you do get 5 simultaneous unique audio outputs “plus” the HDMI out versus 4 plus the HDMI. The OSD is now 4K, but I don’t see a use-case for that in your project. I’d ride out the EA5 until there is a real benefit to you. They open up something new quite often lately.

I’m a dealer and obviously make money on upgrades. But we don’t push the Core series controllers with clients on EA series controllers at this time. Just seems like frivolous. A potential better upgrade
right now would be adding a CA-10. But again, your project is perfectly fine with an EA5.


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[bballjn64]

My dealer originally installed a EA3 for my system, and eventually I was able to get my hands on a reasonably priced EA5. The speed difference was massive on both the C4 app and the touchscreen on the wall. The interface speed with the EA3 was so slow that my wife and I rarely (if ever) use the C4 app on our phones, but now we use it all the time. I'm curious if you'd see a comparable speed difference with the new Core 5 controller. But agreed that it likely isn't worth upgrading just for the sake of upgrading.

[chopedogg88]

If you want to see a major speed difference I would get a ca-10 to run your project and keep the ea-5 for I/O.