6 core vs 4 core

Alot of RAM should help more for the multiple browser windows open, the adobe stuff may use more cores I am not sure. And as far as I no you can't dedivcate specific cores to specific tasks.

I couldn't find anything in your setup that is (ground breaking) And I think any decent x3 core CPU can handle these tasks pretty easily!
And the only thing that might hold you back is the memory (as Simon said) so make sure to have 4GB at least.
And yes you can set a software to use a specific core but not the otherwise. and I would not recommend it unless your software has problems with multicore.

Don't forget a good hard drive, or a fast SSD if you can afford one. The storage device is usually overlooked when talking about performance, and can easily make the biggest difference. That said a fast quad with 4gb of ram or more will do what you need it to.

In the scenario you painted out, you will still be doing one thing at a time. One window (unless you have two heads), working on one spreadsheet etc. The exception is when your virus scan starts scanning, and even then your bottle neck will be your hard drive. If you have some applications designed for multicore chips like Photoshop, sound/video production, or cad work, then the 6 core chip would make sense. But that is only if your going to use those apps all the time, if not a faster clocked quadcore will be faster in most of what your going to be doing.

Well, considering (most) browsers treat each tab as a seperate thread, and considering how (most) AV programs are decently threaded, more cores will certainly help. RAM is far more important in such a context though...

Each tab isn't it's own independent thread. If you could open 20 at a time maybe, but once their just sitting there, they use little cpu resources. Mainly because you can only access a page or two at a time. That is more of a memory thing, and that isn't that big of a hog either, opening new pages takes a lot more memory than tabs. I loaded 25 tabs just to test that in Firefox, and found that it really doesn't use a lot more memory.

I just looked into some cpu benches, and it appears that unless you plan on using 3dMax the i5 quads beat the 6 core AMD offerings. Of coarse the 6 core i7 would be the fastest, but that comes at too high of a cost.

I have a Jetway A210GDMS MOBO, its a socket 939 with:
1. AMD Athlon 64 3500+ processor (2.2Ghz)
2. I only have 1.75 GB PC3200 DDR400 RAM
2.1. (which is the fastest RAM) with the best latency I could put on this MOBO.
2.2. and (I know More would help A LOT)
3. Dual Head Video Card with 512 Onboard RAM (in the PCI 16x)
4. Seagate SATA 7200 RPM 1Mcache 500GB HD
5. DVD Burner
6. Software mostly used is :
6.1. Windows 7
6.2. Kaspersky
6.3. MS Office 2007
6.4. Mozilla Firefox
7. Ive included a snapshot of my Task Manager Window, but honestly, sometimes it just feels like someone is INSIDE of my machine! – the minute I unplug my LAN Cable, My Hard-drive goes NUTS crunching, and crunching away, and finally my cpu usage goes WAY down, my memory frees up and my machine runs better!
8. Im behind a Hardware Firewall, plus I have Kaspersky internet Suite FULLY active, scanning things in real time, (which I realize can and Does use some CPU and RAM overhead )
8.1. Id really like to find a software (For the DUMMY!) that can tell me WHAT exactly is going on via my Ethernet Cable! Who, Where and WHAT is accessing my machine! And why!
8.2. I Pay for all these extra software packages to protect me, and yet I get adware, spyware, etc …

Thank You for your help and interest!
Merry Christmas to you ALL!

Oops! ... I took the snapshot of my Task Manager so you could see what pgms use what .. but I dont know how to attach it to this file... sorry.

Yes ... but dont forget about the pages that have rolling ads on them that change all the time ... Ive noticed every once in a while, that I come across a page that is a HOG! As soon as I close that TAB down, I suddenly recoop a LOT of overhead that it was Hogging!

again .. Thank You so very much for the input! <smile>