Roughly 4 years ago I purchased a dual slot1 motherboard. Originally it was equiped with a single 350MHz pentium and 128MB of PC100 RAM. After about 2 years of good use, I upgraded it to dual 550MHz processors and uped the RAM to 256MB. I am now pricing a replacement system, but this box will be upgraded to 512MB and moved to act as an Exchange server, which function it will preferm admirably for years to come.

The point is the overall value of this extended upgrade path. With minimal disruption and cost, I was able to extend the life of my workstation to over four years, with excellent performance compared to the market norms. Also, I purchased processors that were a step behind the bleeding edge, always getting a much better price/performance ratio.

As other have commented, I believe my dual 550MHz machine significantly outperforms comparable single processor boxes. Admittedly, I am in the PowerUser category with the habit of using many apps simultaneuiosly, not to mention the big graphics apps that take full advantage of all resources. I definitely felt a major boost in upgrading from a single 350MHz chip to two 550MHz chips.

Jaime ;-}