Just how many brains does a PC need?

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Just how many brains does your personal computer need, anyway? Not that buying a PC was ever as easy as, say, buying a toaster or an electric toothbrush, but the companies that make the electronic brains, or microprocessors, for PCs today have managed to make it even more complicated It used to be Intel Corp, the biggest maker of chips . Rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc would sell to PC makers versions of the same chip that run at faster speeds.

As far as consumers were concerned, Intel made Pentium chips and AMD made Athlon chips. Yet that hasn’t been the case for a while now, and in the last few years, the choices facing consumers when they go to buy a PC have mushroomed. With computer games becoming more mainstream and more people making and editing digital pictures and home movies, PCs can now boast microprocessors with two brains, four brains, and soon, even more. But does the average Joe really need such souped-up chips?

It’s an interesting question, said Tim Bajarin, a long-time technology analyst and consultant with Creative Strategies. If the basic issue is productivity like Web browsing, word processing and e-mail, you don’t need all that much. A dual-core processor is good enough.

If only I had two brains...

Duel-core processors have two brains instead of one. Intel sells dual-core Pentium and Core processors, as well as quad-core chips for more demanding PC uses such as editing high-definition video of a family vacation or intensive games. When you actually break it down, the base processors like 1.3 to 1.6 gigahertz are more than enough, Bajarin said, noting the basics are fine if you’re watching a YouTube video or a network TV show online, though the video quality won’t be anything like a regular TV, let alone high-definition TV.

AMD’s website invites visitors to compare its different microprocessor offerings: The AMD Phenom, Athlon and Turion chips. All of those come in varying clockspeeds, or how fast a chip will perform the instructions or tasks it’s given. On Intel’s website, once you navigate past seemingly simple introductory pages, you find 11 different basic products from which to choose, including the Core 2