This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use

Intel began shipping its quad core line of desktop processors late last year, starting with the Core 2 Extreme QX6700. Later, the company shipped the mainstream Core 2 Quad Q6600. Today, Intel has three current products with four cores in its product line, the Core 2 Extreme QX6850, the Core 2 Quad Q6700 (essentially a QX6700 with a locked core multiplier) and the aforementioned Q6600, which can now be found for well under $300.

Now that we have a dual-core CPU, the Core 2 E6850 running at the same clock frequency and front side bus speed as the QX6850, it’s worth revisiting the issue of whether or not users need four cores.

Part of this was prompted by an interesting comment made by AMD Chief Technical Officer Phil Hester in our podcast interview with Phil in our last podcast. Phil suggested that a dual core CPU with a carefully tuned cache structure might be better for end users of office applications than a quad core CPU.

Do you really need four cores in your PC? Certainly, we’ve seen a lot of new PCs ship with quad core CPUs, aimed at a variety of users. These range from flagship gaming rigs from the likes of Falcon Northwest and Voodoo PC ship, to HP’s mainstream Pavilion m8120n home PC, which can be found as low as $1,150.

Let’s see if we can find a few answers. Continued…