2 x XEON 3,8 GHz vs i7 940 - Which one will be better

[kimkimenedemis]

I had a chance to buy a system with:

2x XEON 3,8 GHz CPU
1GB GTX260 Nvidia Graphic Card
1 x 73GB SCSI 15K HDD sor Sysytem
1 x 1TB HDD for Storage
10 GB 3200Mhz DDR2 RAM

Or

1x i7 940 CPU
2x Crossfire 1GB ATI HD 4650 Graphic
1x 160 GB 7200 Rpm HDD for System
1x 1TB HDD for Storage
6 GB PC12800 1600Mhz DDR3 Ram
X58 Main board

The price range is almost same so I need to decide asap.
Thanks for help.

 

[festerovic]

Newer tech is always a better proposition. But I can see reasons why one would be better than the other, but they are limited. Overall, the i7 rig is much better.

 

[cjl]

Xeon 3.8s are almost definitely P4 based. The i7 will be much faster.

 

[jedimasterben]

Neither will be good as a gaming rig, if that's what you want it for. A pair of 4650's can match around a 4770, maybe a 4850 at the right resolution. You'll have to change the GPU in the i7 system and would have to change pretty much everything from the other. The first system is based on, as cjl said, the OLD Pentium 4's on the 90nm process, so they'll be SLOW and run HOT! Plus, it may have 10GB of RAM, but it is ECC RAM, not for gaming use.

 

[amdfangirl]

Xeon 3.8s are almost definitely P4 based. The i7 will be much faster.

Model numbers would help, alot!

 

[jedimasterben]

Model numbers would help, alot!

Only two Xeons were ever released at 3.8GHz, and the only difference between them was the stepping.

http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL8P2
http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL7ZB

 

[amdfangirl]

Good point.

i7 for you buddy.

 

[kimkimenedemis]

Thankls for all answers I will go with i7

 

[jitpublisher]

Agree, i7 hands down is much, much better.
If you are gaming, you could do better than crossfired 4650's. Someone has made the classic mistake of thinking 2 slow cards in Crossfire are as good a high end card.
But, you have a lot more to work with, and better upgrade potential, and just simply a much faster rig all around with the i7 build.