For a home user with no special programs and no gaming, am I better off with a single core processor or a dual core processor. I play no games. I simply have a few usual things (word processor, registry cleaners, anti-spy and security stuff & etc) but I need a new PC. This one is over 10 years old and only has 256 MB RAM and 10 gig HDD. It is SLOW even after cleaning the registry, defragging, optimizing and everything else. It is still slow and always runs low on virtual memory thereby forcing the paging file to be increased from the HDD. I think I need at least 1 gig RAM and 80 Gb of HDD. Would I be better off with a dual core or a single core processor?

most pcs nowadays are usually dual core. its really common for computers to have dual core processors. and since you dont run any special programs such as photoshop and play no games i highly recommend just getting a dual core pc.

btw single core is an obvious no-no. :]