I would think that you should stick to dual. Not much software is configured (who knows how long it will be until more are) for a quad. hell, i've noticed that sometimes some programs arent even well written for a dual core.

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Originally posted by _Nut_ I would think that you should stick to dual. Not much software is configured (who knows how long it will be until more are) for a quad. hell, i've noticed that sometimes some programs arent even well written for a dual core.

+1 ... unless you are planning on keeping this machine for more than 3 years. In that case, you might as well deck it out now for long term use.

Dual Core all the way, AMD Athalon 64 X2 CPUs are what I am looking at Getting although I hear Intel does a really good job at letting users overclock certain dual core cpus. One of my buddies overclocked an Intel 2Xcore 2.00Ghz to 2.99Ghz per core.

Past that the new quad core technologies will drop the prices in dual cores. Also computers now days don't need super fast CPU power unless you are

A) Rendering Graphics (Maya, PoV-Ray)
B) Superfluidity computational modeling
C) Magnetohydrodynamic Modeling of the Earth

Stuff like that, which I doubt as a regular user you'd be doing any of them except maybe A.