Quad Core computer for teachers and admin users?

[reggiep]

I am currently trying to replace about 60 computers and not sure what to replace them with!
I have been looking at all in ones but also quite liked the Lenovo - ThinkCentre A58.
The problem seems to be that most "Business" computers are still only dual core when surely a quad core would be a better future proof investment?

Has anyone recently bought, or about to buy something similar? Any suggestions?

Thanks

[irsprint84]

I think I got quoted £30 extra per machine a few moths back

[reggiep]

I think I got quoted £30 extra per machine a few moths back

Was that for a lenovo?

[Arthur]

The problem seems to be that most "Business" computers are still only dual core when surely a quad core would be a better future proof investment?

Have you considered a dual core processor which has hyper-threading, like the new Core i3 and i5's? These will be faster than a Core 2 Duo, although not as fast as some of the higher-end Core i5's (and Core i7's) which are proper quad core processors.

[Geoff]

Have you considered a dual core processor which has hyper-threading, like the new Core i3 and i5's? These will be faster than a Core 2 Duo, although not as fast as some of the higher-end Core i5's (and Core i7's) which are proper quad core processors.

i7's (well at least the 920 I'm typing with here) have 4 cores with hyper threading. So they actually appear to the OS as an 8 core CPU. I would also question the usefulness of Hyper threading (though that's worthy of another thread).

[SYNACK]

Hyperthreading used to be junk but it is much better now, its previous junkiness was also due in a large part to the primative way that XP dealt with the virtual cores. Anything Vista or above will actually get much more benifit from even the old HT technology than XP ever did.

Quad core will probably be useful for longer but will also burn a much larger chunk of power in most circumstances than a comparable dual core part. At this time for Office work unless you are use lots of different apps simultaniously or are doing some design focused work a dual core will probably do just fine. Newer tech will hopefully make better use of the cores in future though so if your not to concerned about power smd it is not that much more it is probably worth going with it. You will get a lot more out of them on a modern OS also so it may not be worth it if they are likely to run XP for the restf their usable lifespan.