In a very basic sense, having a dual core processors is the equivalent of having dual processors in your system. However with dual core processors, you get the advantage of both “processors” being able to fit on a single chip and fit into a single socket. There are disadvantages to this as well, like having to share a FSB and the problem of having nearly two times the heat coming off of the same processor.

Because of those reasons and more, the Pentium Extreme Edition 840 processor runs at 3.2 GHz, well below the 3.8 GHz models on the Pentium 4 line that are available now. Here is a quick run down on the specs of this processor:

• 3.2 GHz dual cores
• HyperThreading capable on each core
• 2MB total L2 cache
• 800 MHz FSB
• 64-bit support

Now, if that doesn’t mean anything to you at all, don’t worry, we have some benchmarks to show you how it all turns out in the full review.
The DivX encoding application does however improve the performance, and because of that we see a good performance gain over even the much faster 3.73 GHz P4 processor.

The multitasking test you see above is based on a new benchmarking methodology created specifically with dual core test setups in mind. You can read all about it here, in the full review.