Xilinx KC705 (Kintex) or ZC706 (Zynq)

Hi guys

I have been working mostly with Spartan 3 FPGAs and I am now looking at something a bit more powerful for some designs coming up which will most likely require mid-range FPGA technology. So I am looking at Kintex FPGA and Zynq SoC and trying to figure out which direction to take

Just looking for some comments for those with more experience in mid-range FPGAs so I can make a more informed decision on whether to get a Kintex Kit (KC705) or a Zynq Kit (ZC706)... mostly for experimenting at this point...

I am definitely interested in exploring PCIe interfacing which both cards provide
The fact that the Zynq provides ARM cpus is quite interesting since I often add microblaze cores to my designs. Which I guess I wouldn't have to if I get a Zynq. And since it looks like the logic resources available on the Zynq XC7Z045 (included in the ZC706 kit) seem to be more or less equivalent to the resources in the XCE7K325T (included in the KC705 kit) I am kind of in the middle of the bridge in terms of deciding which way to go. But maye I am missing some key differentiating aspects there so please do fell free to correct me.

The reason I am pending more towards the KC705 is because a couple of companies that provide some interesting IP cores that I have talked to recently already provide out of the box designs ready for evaluation targeted at the KC705... other than that, it looks like the Zynq would provide more stuff to experiment with, mostly due to the ARM cores...

anyway, any feedback/suggestions/comments would be most welcome!
thanks

It looks as you have done some research allready.

I think you'll need to list the requirements off your design a check it off with the specifications of both zynq and Kintex. Have you checked availability of both devices for production quantities.
Having IP available for the Kintex seems important for you. Try to qualify this importance: suppose you want to use the Zynq, how will you implement your design, how long will it take, how many engineering resources will you need to assign, ...

Yep. I did some research trying to put together key differentiating points and get some idea of direction in general terms. But maybe there is not that much more to be considered in generic criteria... I probably need to do what you suggest and go into the specifics of a couple of designs and consider the details.
thanks!

What I've experienced so far with Kintex is the available support is very little in the internet and from sales representatives...

If your requirement is to learn something new, that's a good option... if you need to implement something quickly, think a little bit more....

cheers,
per_lube