CPU/Mobo Multiple core utilization

[Aces170]

Lately at work, the workstation has been crammed with applications (I cannot do anything here). Plus the way our systems work, is all the softwares which are required by the company are installed remotely through some central repository.

The issue is not with the bloatware installed, but the background updations/installation the machine keeps doing, which brings my desktop to a crawl. I do have a couple of very large spreadsheets, word docs and couple of browser window open all the time too. What really makes work frustratingly slow is stoopid McAfee doing a background scan almost every second day (no way of halting this as I dont have the admin rights).

The hardware is an ancient P4 single core 3ghz, with 2gb RAM. Now would a dual core CPU help here, as RAM is certainly not an issue. As I see the CPU usage spike regularly to 50-70% especially when background installations/scans are taking place.

 

[Shripad]

It would. And not only because of the core but the architectural and cache design changes in modern chips. Windows itself does good job at utilising available cores for different applications even if programs themselves are not multithreaded. So yes, it would definitely help.

A cheap PII X2 or base model of clarkdale or SB Core i3 would make a life lot easier.

 

[asingh]

^^

Something which you can do for MS-Excel with a lot of formula.

1. Disable the auto-safe.

2. Make formula calculation method as MANUAL.

 

[dovakhiin]

Yes..Even if the dual core's clock speed is lower it will give considerable performance gains in the form of lower response times and higher throughput even though turnaround times may not improve.In other words,CPU hogging tasks may take the same amount of time as before but the system will be snappier and more responsive.
Other factors which may favour the dual core are more execution optimizations and higher caches.
Here's a page on how to improve performance in Excel(haven't gone through it but it came up on google when I searching for something else so I thought I'd post the link):-
Improving performance in Excel 2007
Can't you tell the Admin to reduce the frequency of virus scans?That sounds like the main cause of trouble.It will probably consume all your I/O bandwidth and make it hard to even open a document.