oMP: Which would be better, 6-core 2.66 or 4 core 3.33?

So I'm looking to upgrade my Mac Pro to a better processor. Either of these processors would make a word of difference to my Mac Pro. Question is, do I go for the higher clock speed, or the hex-core processor? Here are the options:

Nehalem, 4-core, 3.33GHz, 8MB of L3 Cache (W3580)

OR

Westmere, 6-core, 2.66GHz, 12MB of L3 Cache (X5650)

Currently, I have:

Nehalem, 4-core, 2.66GHz 8MB of L3 Cache (W3520)

Basically, it comes down to the clock speed and cache. Right now, I this is my main machine and I hope to use it for video editing and rendering in the future with Final Cut X. Right now all I use is iMovie, and a few other apps such as Safari, iTunes, etc. Basic Mac stuff.

I'm still transitioning from iMovie '09 to X, but I mainly use iMovie X now. Now, I know iMovie is multi-core aware, but will it use all 6 cores? And at that point, would the clock speed mean more then the amount of cores?

h9826790 said:

Anyway, is there any reason for you not consider the W36xx series?

Click to expand...

Price. I'm looking on the used market, and the W3580 can be bought for ~$200 and the X5650 for ~$100. The W3670 is going for about $400 which is out of my budget right now.

Thanks for your input! I think I'm going to go with the X5650!