The hot debate used to be about how much RAM was too much and how much was just right.  Not too long ago 2GB of system RAM was something to brag about, now no one cares unless you are talking about that much RAM on your graphics subsystem.  Now that 64-bit OSes are common as are home rigs with over 6GB of RAM the tech community needs something new to argue about and turned to the obvious target ... multi core CPUS.  With dual, quad and hexa cores on the market and 16 core CPUs on the horizon; at what point do diminishing returns kick in?  ExtremeTech has an opinion, check it out here.

"Ever since the first dual- and quad-core CPUs were released several years ago, the procedure for buying

processors has involved counting the number of cores in the CPU, counting the number of dollars in your

wallet, and then doing your best to match up the values. After all, chips that haven't been overclocked

haven't gotten much faster than 3.3 GHz or 3.4 GHz, so despite a bit of variance here and there, you've

generally been able to feel secure that the more cores your CPU contained, the faster it would perform

overall."

Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:

  Processors

• All Core i3

  Models @ Hardware Secrets

• All Core i7

  Models @ Hardware Secrets

• ASRock X58 Extreme6 and Intel Core i7-970 Review @

  HardwareHeaven

• CPU Performance Comparison

  Guide Rev. 3.1 @ TechARP

• Workstation & Server CPU

  Comparison Guide Rev. 4.0 @ Tech ARP

• AMD’s New Offers: Phenom II X6 1075T, Phenom II X4 970, and Phenom II X2 560 @ X-bit Labs
• AMD Athlon X2

  II 265 Processor/CPU @ TechwareLabs

• AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition: Unlocked and Overclocked @ Hi Tech Legion
• AMD

  Phenom II X2 560 BE @ Overclockers.com