ignore unique violation OR check row exists

I want to insert a bunch of records and not do anything if the record already
exists. So the 2 options I considered are 1) check if row exists or insert
and 2) ignore the unique violation on insert if row exists. 
Any opinions on whether it is faster to INSERT and then catch the UNIQUE
VIOLATION exception and ignore it in plpgsql  versus check if row exists and
INSERT if it doesn't. 
I can't seem to ignore the UNIQUE VIOLATION exception via php, since it is a
plpgsql command, so if I have to do the check and insert, alternatively i
have a function that tries to insert and then ignores the violation. I was
wondering if one way was better than the other.
Thanks

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