would these LED's be the same

[Ron99]

I've had pretty good luck with Deal Extreme. The Cree LEDs I have purchased from them have been excellent and plenty bright. The main difference between the two will be the star board PCB. The DE ones are cheaper lower quality ones. That will most likely not be a problem but I have had the odd cheap one delaminate. And you always pay a premium when buying in North America vs. Asia so that accounts for some of the price difference.

But as stated above, Nano Tuners has a great deal on XR-Es right now if you want the better PCBs.