Compare the specs for (non-K) 12th Generation i5-12400 and (non-K) 12th Generation i7-12700 here. They both have same TDP (65W) but i7 has twice as many cores, and 20 threads vs 12 for i5, etc. You can compare their side-by-side performance here and here, etc.
[If it seems like I've been posting a lot lately, it's because I haven't purchased a desktop PC in 13 years. No need. My circa 2009 Studio XPS 8100 that I bought in 2010 runs Windows 10 and all my software really well and quickly! TBH, I've replaced everything inside the case except for the motherboard and the CPU. Many times I have been tempted by the allure of new hardware, but had no use case for it. And with computing increasingly moving to the cloud, you need a good reason to buy powerful hardware these days. In the end, it was Windows 11 that pushed me off the fence. It's currently running in a virtual machine on the 8100, and I want it to run on hardware.] Sorry for the long introduction. I've spec-ed out the XPS desktop that I'm looking for, and only need to decide between the i5 and the i7 (both non-K.) For my current use cases, the i5 is perfectly good. But going into retirement, and with new hardware, who knows what new interests I'll discover?  That's why I'm leaning toward the i7 - because it gives me processing headroom for the future (for only $100 more.) OTOH, the i7 draws more power than the i5, even at idle. I wonder if the i7 will make the tower ("Advanced") cooler work harder than the i5 at idle or under low loads. I'd like my new PC to be as quiet as possible. So I think my choice is between more processing power (i7) vs. more quiet (i5.) But maybe I'm wrong about that. Therefore, my question: With the "Advanced" cooler, are the i5 and the i7 likely to be equally quiet/noisy at idle and under low-to-medium load? As always, thanks for your advice.
Deciding Between Core i5 and Core i7