Question : Problem: Dual Proc vs Dual Core (and more....)

I’m interested in learning more about the latest CPU’s and their strengths.

I work in an environment where we run Market Data applications (Bloomberg / Reuters) and use them to feed Excel spreadsheets (using DDE). Currently we run HP desktops with P4 2.4ghz processors, which are approx 3 years old (no Hyper threading). For some of our power users, these machines are starting to struggle (specifically the CPU) to handle the larger spreadsheets with real-time links and real-time calculations.

I’ve been looking at HP’s latest desktop offerings and I’m struggling to identify what will best suit our requirements. Running Windows XP and Office XP (or 2003) will I make full use of Dual Processor / Dual Core functionality?

Will Hyper Threading make a big difference for the type of application I mentioned above?

AMD vs Intel? Who is leading the way in this arena?

How about the Win XP 64 Bit, should I be looking at this?

Answer : Problem: Dual Proc vs Dual Core (and more....)

To answer your question, YES -- you will definitely see better performance with a dual core vs hyperthreading.   Hyperthreading lets the OS "think" it has 2 CPU's -- and gives notable performance gains for muti-threaded apps and/or mutiple apps that the OS can assign to different threads; but there are still plenty of times when resource conflicts (e.g. both need the CPU) cause one thread to wait.   With a dual core, both threads can run all the time.

Of course the EE editions of the dual core CPU's (very pricey!!) give you the best of both worlds -- dual core CPU's with hyperthreading (so it "looks" like 4 CPUs).