CPU: single, quad or dual quad?
I am currently using a pentium 4, 3.8 GHz cpu. This is a single processor. I see there are quad and dual quads. One has 4, the other 8 processors. I want better efx and less latency glitches, etc, etc. My needs are efx for live mixdown, soft synths, with latency and speed secondary. Will I see plenty of improvement going to the quad, or is the dual quad far better? I could use 64 bit, but that isn't a concern. My real concern: is dual quad overkill? Will a single quad be a major jump from the pentium 4? The other factor is the cpu of the dual quad is $150 per cpu (the Intel Xeon e5010 cpu). That is $300 that could be spent on a single cpu, say, the 7i. Which cpu set up is a better value? Will a single quad, or dual quad with 1.5GHz cpu's run faster than a pentium 4 with 3.8GHz? Will a single quad run efx software nearly as well as the dual quad?
thanks,
wadrum