Hardware

See the following sites
www.tomshardware.com/cpu
www.cpuscorecard.com
www.hardwarecentral.com
www.cmputerbazar.com

Keep in mind that the sofware you run has to be multi processor aware for both processors to be used. The motherboard will not turn a non-SMP aware program into an SMP aware program. None of the WIN9x OS's will utilize multiiple processors. Win2k and XP pro will both utilize two processors, but again unless your software is specifically written to take advantage of SMP you will not see very much benefit from a dual processor configuration. So the biger question to ask is what SMP software am I going to run. That will then answer the question of which OS you need.

I've had great luck with SuperMicro products - even the beta version of Windows 2000 was happy with my obsolete dual-PentiumPro motherboard. Both Win2K and WinXP support dual cpus, and SMP will provide greater processing capability even if applications are not specifically designed for it, as the OS will assign processes to whichever cpu is available. For best results, though, get lots of RAM (I'm currently specifying 512MB) while it's dirt cheap.

For purchasing I've used MotherboardExpress (www.motherboardexpress.com) and Multi-Wave (www.mwave.com) with satisfactory results. They both have a good selection and competitive pricing, shipping is quick. I can't rate their tech support, since I've never had to call, but I'd expect similar quality there.

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