> >> I am getting ready to build a pc can someone tell me the benifet
> >> of having two cpu over haveing one thank Rick
> >
> >        Pretty much none unless you run the types of apps that
> benifit from that
> >sort of stuff. TTYL
>
> Not true at all. If you consider that a system running any modern OS like
> Windows (NT, 2000, or XP Pro for SMP support), Unix, etc actually consists
> of many process and threads all running, then 2 CPU's can have a
> noticeable
> advantage. Take for example, the ability to run a CD burner or
> other processing
> program in the background, while you continue to use an application
> interactively, like photoshop or similar. The OS will utilize both CPU's
> to allow both processes to run with less slowdown.

        Actually dual processor won't help you much in that example since CD
burning is not a CPU intensive task,, bandwidth to the HD will be the
limiting factor (for the record I do that now with my single 1.2GHz
Thunderbird). There are very few cases of NORMAL computer use that would
benefit from two CPUs versus the extra speed you'd get from spending the
extra money on a better single processor. Now there are of course users that
would benefit tremendously from dual processors: people working with digital
video for example. One could envision one processor being used to encode the
video in say MPG2 while the person works on something with the other
processor, but how many people actually do this regularly? On top of that HD
bandwidth will AGAIN come into play, you can have 200 processors and it will
be no use to you if your HD is chugging.

        I stand by my original recomendation: if you have the money for a second
processor I recommend you spend it on a faster single rpocessor, or more
memory. Both will benefit most way more then a dual processor system would,
UNLESS you specifically will be doing something that would benefit emensly
from dual processors. TTYL

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