Need major geek help
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macdawg
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xp supports dual cores and hyper-threading, but not multiple cpu's.
"While Windows XP Home does not support more than one physical processor, there's a lot of confusion about whether or not it supports multiple processor cores in a single physical processor. This is implemented in several ways, of which the most widely used is Intel's Hyper-Threading technology. Also, AMD is currently rolling out a series of 64-bit processors called the X2 dual core series, which features two processor cores per die.
How much of this is supported? The answer is all of it -- in XP Professional, and, surprisingly enough, in XP Home as well. If you install XP Home on a system that has a single processor with dual cores or hyper-threading (what is referred to as two logical processors—XP Home will recognize both of them, and will install the appropriate Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) to work with it.
However, if you have more than one physical processor (such as two dual-core or Hyper-Threading processors), XP Home will only recognize the first one."
Does XP support multiple processor cores?
xp pro can support 2 processors, so which do you have home or pro?
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp
Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 supports 2 physical processors. These processors can be single-core, multi-core, or hyper threaded.
Please note that just because your operating system supports multiple processors it does not mean that your applications will fully utilize them. The application must be designed to support multiple processors. For more information on a specific application please contact that application's vendor.
"Microsoft Excel is not designed to be a multiprocessor-aware program; it runs on only one processor."
XL: Excel Does Not Run on Multiple Processors
These versions of vista can support 2 cpu's, the others support multi-cpu cpu's but not multiple processors. The versions are Bus N Bus Ent Ult as indicated here.
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_editions_final.asp
so it appears that your OS, xp 32 bit, will only support the first processor, and you should upgrade to business server OS or vista, and even then only certain app's will make use of both processors, excel unfortunately appears unable to support both according to my search, you may wish to search further....
"While Windows XP Home does not support more than one physical processor, there's a lot of confusion about whether or not it supports multiple processor cores in a single physical processor. This is implemented in several ways, of which the most widely used is Intel's Hyper-Threading technology. Also, AMD is currently rolling out a series of 64-bit processors called the X2 dual core series, which features two processor cores per die.
How much of this is supported? The answer is all of it -- in XP Professional, and, surprisingly enough, in XP Home as well. If you install XP Home on a system that has a single processor with dual cores or hyper-threading (what is referred to as two logical processors—XP Home will recognize both of them, and will install the appropriate Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) to work with it.
However, if you have more than one physical processor (such as two dual-core or Hyper-Threading processors), XP Home will only recognize the first one."
Does XP support multiple processor cores?
xp pro can support 2 processors, so which do you have home or pro?
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp
Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 supports 2 physical processors. These processors can be single-core, multi-core, or hyper threaded.
Please note that just because your operating system supports multiple processors it does not mean that your applications will fully utilize them. The application must be designed to support multiple processors. For more information on a specific application please contact that application's vendor.
"Microsoft Excel is not designed to be a multiprocessor-aware program; it runs on only one processor."
XL: Excel Does Not Run on Multiple Processors
These versions of vista can support 2 cpu's, the others support multi-cpu cpu's but not multiple processors. The versions are Bus N Bus Ent Ult as indicated here.
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_editions_final.asp
so it appears that your OS, xp 32 bit, will only support the first processor, and you should upgrade to business server OS or vista, and even then only certain app's will make use of both processors, excel unfortunately appears unable to support both according to my search, you may wish to search further....
Macdawg suggested upgrading to Vista or a business server OS. Just a little fact for you. XP x64 is based on Server 2003 OS, and NOT XP. If you want to take more advantage of your processor, I would suggest XP x64 edition over Vista x64. BUT beware, you have to make sure you have the right drivers for the system. 64-bit require different drivers.
Try disabling HyperThreading in the BIOS. HT is nice in some situations, but not always. Disabling it should give you more raw power in excel since it is single threaded.
Try disabling HyperThreading in the BIOS. HT is nice in some situations, but not always. Disabling it should give you more raw power in excel since it is single threaded.
Well any x64 system has the driver problem. It's gotten better over the years, but I don't know if your system would have the right ones. Look it up on Dell.com
As for XP vs. Vista. I can't really help you. I personally prefer XP over Vista, but I've barely used Vista. Another thing to consider is not only are there 64-bit drivers to find, you are going to have to find Vista 64 drivers. XP and Vista drivers are different (from what I know, could be wrong.)
macdawg
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I don't believe that disabling HT would provide benefit, you might want to do a couple google searches or try for yourself briefly to see if it helps.
I have went into the bios screen on a couple dells before with P4's, and indeed did see an option to disable HT.
About the OS of your choice, if you have XP PRO then it will make use of your dual processor setup.
XP home will not.
Some server OS's and XP 64 bit, and the Vista versions I listed in my other post will make use of the dual processors. It really sucks that excel will not make use of the dual processors but at least make sure your OS does.
Many high end machine users say that Vista gives them the best performance, and it makes sense on a very high end machine because the support for dual processors and dual core processors is better, the memory management is better and Vista has a feature called superfetch which has many calling it a resource hog, but what it really does is learn what apps you use most and preloads them into memory so when you open/close them it is very snappy, nice feature for a system with 4 gigs ram....
I have went into the bios screen on a couple dells before with P4's, and indeed did see an option to disable HT.
About the OS of your choice, if you have XP PRO then it will make use of your dual processor setup.
XP home will not.
Some server OS's and XP 64 bit, and the Vista versions I listed in my other post will make use of the dual processors. It really sucks that excel will not make use of the dual processors but at least make sure your OS does.
Many high end machine users say that Vista gives them the best performance, and it makes sense on a very high end machine because the support for dual processors and dual core processors is better, the memory management is better and Vista has a feature called superfetch which has many calling it a resource hog, but what it really does is learn what apps you use most and preloads them into memory so when you open/close them it is very snappy, nice feature for a system with 4 gigs ram....
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