I have an old Celeron 2.4 single core lying about somewhere and a very very old laptop with a P3 700mhz chip (Christ it's painful!)(But good for downloading things to fix my main PC when I prang it.)
Currently on a Q8200 (2.3 quad core) - Overclocked to 3ghz (so far! Saving up for a heatsink the size of a small planet.)
Not sure how much of a difference hyperthreading makes in the real world, I guess it may have just been a sales gimmick when they launched the processor.
I've tried it without (change in the BIOS), and it does make a significant difference. Sure, there might have been hype (sorry), but I wouldn't call it a gimmick.
Oh, and I also have a P3 1GHz laptop that's occasionally used (Debian Squeeze on that one till I upgrade it in a few weeks). That one, naturally, is single core.
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Currently on a Q8200 (2.3 quad core) - Overclocked to 3ghz (so far! Saving up for a heatsink the size of a small planet.)
I've tried it without (change in the BIOS), and it does make a significant difference. Sure, there might have been hype (sorry), but I wouldn't call it a gimmick.
Oh, and I also have a P3 1GHz laptop that's occasionally used (Debian Squeeze on that one till I upgrade it in a few weeks). That one, naturally, is single core.
I saw it displayed in a shop in town and it felt like something I'd be into.
I remember buying magazines for the 'programs' and spending half a day typing them in.
I also purchased some cassettes from the local camera shop that started stocking the games.
I didn't use it long and I'm amazed I used it much at all.
My lasting impression of it was making a pixel move from one side of the screen to the other side.
Spectrum afterwards. At least I did some proper gaming with that.