1In [210]: %%timeit
2 .....: l = []
3 .....: for i in xrange(1000):
4 .....: l.append([3*i+1,3*i+2,3*i+3])
5 .....: l = np.asarray(l)
6 .....:
71000 loops, best of 3: 1.18 ms per loop
8
9In [211]: %%timeit
10 .....: a = np.empty((0,3), int)
11 .....: for i in xrange(1000):
12 .....: a = np.append(a, 3*i+np.array([[1,2,3]]), 0)
13 .....:
14100 loops, best of 3: 18.5 ms per loop
15
16In [214]: np.allclose(a, l)
17Out[214]: True