CPU Options

lee5i3

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Dec 3, 2010
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I am building a workstation used for programming..
I will not be playing any games, perhaps I'll do some XNA but I don't care about game performance.


I'm trying to decide over i7-2700k and Intel Xeon E3-1275

I'd read the Xeon would give great performance in Visual Studio but not sure how it would compare against the i7 2700k

Since according to cpubenchmarks.net, i7-2700k gets a higher rank

As this would be a machine I don't want to upgrade for another 3-4 years, I want to get the most out of it.
 

arunphilip

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Oct 16, 2011
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18,710
If I'm not mistaken, Xeon also mandates the use of more expensive ECC RAM.
As the others have said, go with the i7, it gives you much more flexibility in terms of parts selection (mobo, RAM).
 

mattyg_nz

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Oct 10, 2011
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The i7-2700k may have a 100MHz clock advantage over the 2600K, but seeing as they both have an unlocked multiplier, there is no practical difference (just increase the 2600K by 1x). Get the 2600K and save some money. Pair it up with some 1600MHz RAM and you should be good for the 4 years.