Elegance vs. Performance

So /prog/, what would you choose between these two snippets of C code...


int *arr[3];
arr[0] = 1;
arr[1] = 2;
arr[2] = 3;

or...


int i;
int *arr[3];
for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
  arr[i] = i+1;

The second one is more elegant, but requires more operations.

1.
mov edi, [esp]
xor eax, eax
inc eax
stosd
inc eax
stosd
inc eax
stosd
10 bytes

2.
mov edi, [esp]
mov ecx, 3
:derp
xor eax, eax
inc eax
stosd
loop :derp
11 bytes

So hardly a difference for a compiler that can think.