www.virtualacorn.co.uk/forum

Hi.
I'm wanting to upgrade the processor on my pc to one that will run VA as fast as possible. Looking in FAQ page it seems to indicate a E6600 core 2 duo is the best one to install. Is this processor still the best or have things moved on.
Regards
John Vann

Any Intel Core 2 Duo processor will provide good results. If the main concern is running VRPC then clock speed is probably more important than L2 cache size. As such the E4500 is also a good bet (plus it can be easily overclocked to 3Ghz) and it's very cheap.
Currently Quad Core CPUs offer little real world advantage over dual core ones.
As a final word don't buy any AMD processor. The Intel Core 2 series is far superior (in my opinion).

We have a couple of machines each running an E6600 Core2Duo (2.4GHz) and are delighted with them in all respects.
If you have access to Archive mag, you might like to have a look at the article in Vol 20 No. 8 (p9) which includes performance data directly comparing the E6600 with a couple of Pentium 4 machines (2.66 and 3.06GHz), plus Iyonix and various RiscPCs.
Or I can send you a copy of the article in PDF format. (That goes for anyone else; please email us on toms@ndirect.co.uk if you want a copy.)
Since the article was written, we've installed 1920x1200 pixel monitors which can be run under VirtualRPC in 16M colours by using the ARM7500 processor option of either VirtualRPC-SA or VirtualRPC-AdjustSA (which supports up to 16MB screen memory). Unlike the earlier P4 processors, there is no noticeable video performance hit when running these high-res monitors.
HTH
Jim Nottingham
T.O.M.S.

Just to report back.
E6600 CoreDuo now installed and running VirtualRPC-Adjust ok.
Thanks for all the help.
JV