Question : Problem: MSACCESS and CPU data processing

This is a copy of the question that was placed in the CPU section - however I thought that database experts may also have an opinion, with MSACCESS and sometimes detailed and complex sqls which processer would you expect to handle the sql processing the quickest, or is it just trial and error to find the answer.
The question was
I was after some general adivce for about a CPU  for fast processing for single applications. The server at our clinic is likely to be doing a small number of database queries through the day, the facts are that these are sometimes very complex queries that will take a lot of the CPU resources.
I would like to know the role of the dual core processers in this case. I would think that one of the cores would be sitting idle while the processing is being done, is this the case?
Perhaps more could be achieved with a single core processer that is more powerful like a 3.6G pentium 4 rather than a 3.2G duo pentium 4.
For those of you that are used to running servers what do you think, what would you do if the function of your server was to run a few very complex sqls through the day rather than several applications, and you wanted the data from the sql delivered fast.

Answer : Problem: MSACCESS and CPU data processing

<<I would like to know the role of the dual core processers in this case. I would think that one of the cores would be sitting idle while the processing is being done, is this the case?>>

  I believe dual core would be faster as JET (if your using that as the database engine) as it is multi-threaded.  The default number of threads is three, but you can rasie that.

  However do remember that "Access" is made up of three pieces; a UI (User Interface), a database engine (usually JET), and VBA.

  So your mileage may vary as there may be different choke points.   It's not clear either what JET actually does with each execution thread.  If it always processes a SQL statement with a single thread and uses the other thread for background tasks (like maintaining the cache), they I doubt you'd see much of a difference with a dual core and a faster single core.

  I think you would actually need to test (and I've never seen any to date) before you could say which might be faster.

My .02 worth
JimD