Workstation Build Advice - $2000 Budget with Dual Monitors Included - Xeon or i7 K series?

[tDames]

So, I'm building a computer for a friend/client. He got introduced through my buddy I do music with and I want to build a Workstation computer for him. He does video editing and has a Intel Core2Duo with a 8000 Series GS graphics card 🙂ouch lol and I've been doing my research on Xeons and i7 K's but haven't come to a conclusion to which one.

 

[Hellfire13]

if his editing involves high octane graphical multitasking usage, then go for xeon...else i7 will suffice...
http://www.velocitymicro.com/blog/xeon-vs-i7i5-whats-difference/

 

[synphul]

I'd opt for an i7. Hyperthreading can help but clock speed improves performance and xeons aren't as fast as the i7. The cost savings aren't all that huge when considering the budget. The gains are more noticeable if the i7 6700k is overclocked.

Here's a rough comparison, it's between the i7 6700 and 6700k stock. The xeon e3 1240 v5 (skylake) is only 100mhz slower so this is a best case for a xeon vs the i7 6700k. The skylake xeon that compares evenly with a 6700 is the e3 1275 v5 and it costs $30 more than the 6700 while the 1245v5 is around $30 less than the 6700.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1543?vs=1554

At stock the 6700k processed 604 fps in handbrake while the 6700/1275v5/1240v5 (all about the same performance) scored 505 fps. When you overclock the 6700k to 4.6ghz it raises the score to 637 fps further increasing the gap.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1549?vs=1554

That's just an example, different software can behave differently. Either would be a significant improvement over the core 2 duo for sure. If going with the i7 k series it would best be paired with a z170 motherboard and will require a cooler since it doesn't come with one. If going with the xeons be sure the motherboard is compatible with it, something like a c236 or x150. It's not the same as haswell (4th gen intel) where the xeons were compatible with all the same boards as the i3's, i5's and i7's. A skylake xeon won't run on the standard z170, h170, b150 etc.