New workstations: dual Xeon or single i7?

[tricky]

I'm looking at options for new workstation. What is likely to be the best for a workstation, a dual Xeon or a single i7 (as I don't think dual i7 boards exist). Obviously cost is important, so a bang-for-your-buck opinion is really what I am after.

[RE:FORM_STUDIOS]

Non-scientific comparison :
£5k dual 6-core xeon rendering 2k image = ~7:45 per frame
£1k 2600k same images = ~11:00
Not a fair comparison as the xeon system has a workstation gfx card compared with the i7 system which is only a rendernode, but in terms of render speed, you don't get a huge increase in bang for your buck with the xeons, ie you could afford a decent workstation + 3 nodes for the same cost.

[tricky]

A useful indicator though. Thanks.

I'm looking at a system as follows - care to comment?

Intel i7 2700k
ASRock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 Intel Z68 Socket 1155 Motherboard
Corsair Memory Vengeance Black 16GB DDR3 2000 Mhz CAS 10 XMP Triple Channel (board has 4 slots, so I guess a 4GB dim in each, though I thought DDR3 worked best as multiples of 3 - weird)
120GB SSD Corsair Force Series GT SATA III
Coolermaster RSA00-80GAD3-UK Silent Pro Gold 1000W PSU

As far as graphics cards, we will try moving over are middle-of-the-road GTX480 cards. These could be upgraded quite easily in the future. I must admit I'm slightly confused as to the memory set up. The board above has 4 slots suggesting memory modules should be installed as pairs, but the board supports DDR3 which I thought should be installed in multiples of 3.

[beestee]

Double check your RAM, I am pretty sure you need Dual Channel as opposed to Triple Channel for the 1155 socket sandy bridge processors.

Memory
Number of Memory Slots...4×240pin
Memory Standard...DDR3 2133(OC) / 1866(OC) / 1600 / 1333 / 1066
Maximum Memory Supported...32GB
Channel Supported...Dual Channel

[tricky]

i7-990 Extreme (6 core) or i7-2600k???

So many options!

[flino2004]

depending of your studio, how often you replace equipment...I usually buy new computers every 2 years(workstations) or so., before I use to buy those HP workstations but today I build them so the investment factor is like 1/3 to 1/4 what I use to pay....if you have the budget I would go i7 and a killer laptop to work anywhere and maybe you are almost the same than a single high-end workstation with dual xeon proccessors.

Fernando

[tricky]

We have decided to build an experimental rig based on a i7-2700k, 16GB RAM, Z68 chipset with an onboard SSD drive to run Intel SRT, a main/os/app drive which is SSD and a basic storage drive. Initially, we will be using out GTX480 and see how we get on.