Hi i need some help as i'm lost with all the new processors i need something for my work PC where i will be doing alot of applications open as well as 3 or 4 RDP connections at the same time so what would be the proccesspr for me to go for  
 
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850
Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4)
Xeon Quad (2.4)
or the equiverlent Phenom  
 
I'm thinking the E6850 as the machine needs to last about 5 years
 
any advice would be great
 
Cheers
 
Raj

It depends what sort of applications you tend to have up at any one time. RDP connections will hardly put any strain on the CPU as they are just controlling other machines that will be doing any work. If you work with the sort of applications where you start them running then leave them in the background, or use a lot of multithreaded applications, you may find the quad will help speed things along.
 
Sounds like the E6850 is a good choice from what you've said, although the new E8x00 are definitely worth looking at.

Applications wise it would be Expression Web, IE7, Backup Exec, Office , Vista,secure shell,adobe are usually all running at hte same times along with several RDPs

Adobe what?

Sounds like you need more memory than anything else.  the e6xxx would do fine for what you need.  However, at the price for the e8xxx and the performance, you cant really go wrong there.  
 
I, myself, would opt for the quad just cause I like knowing I have the power when I need it.  Thinking about 5 years down the road, multi-thread apps will be the mainstream.  So you really cant go wrong there either.

Cheers guys  
 
Adobe photoshop / writer
 

OK, well photoshop is multithreaded so you would definitely see an improvement by going with the quad core and, like chicken said, a lot of memory.

Cheers mi1ez

Q6600 and lots of RAM, I agree.  That probably means a 64bit OS.  Vista only if you know all your stuff runs on it, otherwise XP64 until the next Windows comes out to sweep Vista into the grabbage.

Definitely go quad if you want this workstation to last for 5 years.

hey~~ if me,i'll choose Q6600, why?  hehe  are you would say why 6850,it's faster than Q66,and someting you know,the percentage of the frequency increase not make so obviously in the actually application,the amazing difference just in the standard test. and in the real life you could make a little OC to  reach the 3GHZ(but remember,Q66 is Quad core), and why not choose Phenom? becuase Q6600  at 2.66G  will defeat Phenom's 9900 in every side. And Xeon is too expensive

Q6600 and 4GB of RAM along with Vista x64. Overclock to 3.4 or more and you're golden. If you have the extra cash, 8800GT 512 too would be sweet.