Dual Processor vs. Dual Core: What's It All About?

If you haven't diligently stayed on top of the hoary tech news over the last 12 months, you probably didn't quite catch what all the dual core/dual CPU kerfuffle was all about. But if you go shopping for a new PC today, you'll have to decide how many processors—or what kind of single processor—you want in your PC.

This is not a simple decision to make.

Finally, someone has explained the whole duality issue in layman's terms. Oddly enough it's from a custom computer builder, not some online expert, but the advice is sound. If you don't want to read the entire article, which is full of benchmarks, specs, history, and advice, I'll spare you the gory details and jump straight to the conclusion: "As you can see, the move to dual-core is definitely a win for consumers. Since they are more affordable than dual processor systems, but offer the same or better performance, they are becoming the standard for modern computer systems."

Almost everyone will benefit from a dual core machine, and for very little additional money over a single core machine. Leave the dual processors for the extreme gamers and the web servers.