Dual Xeon vs 6 Core i7 980x & Mobo Choice
 

Well, I was planning on ordering a HP Z800 with dual E5520's (2.26GHz quads) but Intel is releasing their new 6 core next week which runs at 3.33GHz and can be easily overclocked. Just by reading the benchmarks of the new i7 980x, I can see that it is faster than dual E5520's and probably even faster than dual E5550's (2.66GHz) when overclocked. The main benchmark I am looking at is Cinebench. Unless there is a very compelling reason, I plan on getting the i7-980x.

So, the motherboards I am looking at are:
$350 Asus P6T6 WS Revolution Newegg.com - ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution with NF200 3xPCIe true x16 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
or
$450 Asus P6T7 WS Supercomputer Newegg.com - ASUS P6T7 WS Supercomputer "Ultimate Gamer" choose 3Way SLI + PhysX at Real X16 X58 CEB Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

The only problem I can see with the P6T6 is lack of firewire headers/ports (P6T7 has 1). I will be adding a FW 800/400 card but I have read about very poor compatibility problems with add-on FW cards and firewire MIDI controllers (M-Audio most likely). Comments anyone?

Besides the P6T7 having more PCI-E lanes (which doesn't matter to me), anything other differences I am missing?
Any user experiences with either board?

Here is a list of what will be used:
Quadro FX3800 + Elemental Accelerator
24GB 1333 or 1600 ram
Lian-Li PC-B70 (most likely)
Intel X25 80GB; 8 1TB Seagate or Samsung; LSI 9260-8i or Areca 1680
Future: Aja Xena

Thanks

check out this system!
 

The new x58 chipset mobo's are really changing the game plan. This evga board sr-2 looks to be the
hot new system with the latest bells and horns!
EVGA | Articles | EVGA Classified Super Record 2
enjoy!