Yeah, agreed I'm probably over-thinking the CPU thing but given I have the CHOICE I'd like to make the wise one. I just don't know enough about multi-core nor how Sonar will react to it. For example, would it be correct to assume that, unless the Quad actually exceeded the processing demand of the Duo, the Quad would not really consume much more power? It would only consume more (up to 35W more) once the Quad began to process beyond the limit of the Duo? If that is the case, then the question becomes mostly moot if we assume I probably would never hit the limit of even the Duo. I however don't know if that is a wise assumption or not seeing as I'm already hitting the red-zone on a P4 2.4. I'm looking for 30%, preferably 50%, increase in CPU headroom so I don't have to worry about running out of processing power.
Anyway, here is something I just found in case it helps anybody else in the future:
https://www.cakewalk.com/...processor-Optimization Although it still doesn't really indicate if Sonar 5 would actually make proper use a Quad. Again, found quite a bit of commentary on the forum as of S8.x showing clear indication of good core-distribution, but nothing much prior to that time period.