I7 vs. Xeon for .Net Developer Workstation

Question

Who will have the faster Visual Studio compilation time and NUnit runtime, and everything else regarding hardware?

I am developing a machine for updating my .Net workstations. My group of system administrators recommends workstations with dual-core quad-core x 2.5 GHz processors.

This machine will have a ton of horse power due to all the cores and may work just fine for something like video rendering, but I'm not sure if this is the best for development.

The i7 series is available at significantly higher clock speeds (~ 3.8 GHz). I am wondering if you intend to work with fewer cores, but a higher clock speed would be better for the development machine.

There is a ton of i7 versus Xeon posts on the Internet. I am asking for performance information here, as it uses compilation and testing of .Net code.

Answer 1

Sorry, this is the wrong place for this question.

However, if you can find a dual-core quad-core Xeon processor that works with fast @ 3.8GHz (which may or may not exist), then go for them because Xeon has a larger L3 cache and a few other tidbits. This suggests that you really need 8 real cores. If you cannot find a fast Xeon system, then you get one quad core i7.

Also, try an SSD to speed up compilation if you want a different hardware solution.