Will I notice BIG difference between Core 2 Duo processors 2.16 GHz and 2.00 GHz for trading and crunching numbers for backtesting? Please explain why. Also I'm planning to connect 3 more monitors to my laptop. Not sure if processor speed has anything to do with it...
The difference between 2 and 2.16 will not be noticeable. You're probably talking about the e6300 vs the e6400. You might as well save the money and go with the lower clock speed. But if you are comparing the e6400 vs e6600, you have more level 2 cache which does make a difference. The 6400 and 6300 havwe 2mb level2, the e6600 has 4mb. So in conclusion, the e6300 and e6400 are basically the same animal. Go with the cheaper one. And choosing between the two won't make much difference for more monitors. That is mainly affected by the video card.
Do the math, the theoritical maximum gain is (2.16-2.0)/(2.0). The actual performance gain will be less, no way I would call that "big". The only time you should consider such a small incremental jump is if there are other differences between the two processors (such as front bus speed/memory clocking speed) No, it doesn't