Quote Originally Posted by LUCI5R View Post
In other words, for the same price, I can either go for a single Interlagos with 16 cores at considerably lower core speeds and no HT or dual sandy bridge e's giving me 12 cores at considerably higher core speeds & HT.

I could jib on the GPU to contain the dual socket sb-e motherboard cost; bringing the total cost of the 2 systems to about the same. This is where my personal war begins - I have no idea which of these 2 systems will perform better. Most people I've talked to say Intel ... but with no having either of the chips on hand for benches ... I don't know!
Just to offer a thought on the above - and as a disclaimer I'll just point out that it's not a technical one really, and that my experienc with 2p systems is limited:

The comparison above seems intuitive and interesting, but I suggest you think more about future proofing as well, especially since you already touched upon it. If you get a dual SB with 12 cores, that obviously fills up all your sockets. If you get the single interlagos you can expand your system by simply getting another CPU. The difference is likely to not be insignificant.

So with that in mind if I was you I'd think about what my intended use was, and set a realistic time frame. Suppose you make money off of this system, will you benefit more by getting the SB system now, or getting the AMD and then taking some of your income from the system and upgrading it with another CPU later?

Will you end up with a lower price/performance down the road with the Interlagos? Will that generate a higher future income?

Or could you invest some of that in something else that makes your work easier (new monitor, input devices etc)?

I'm not sure how the above comes out, but I think you should think about it seriously.