That is the question IT-Director.com attempts to help answer in their analysis article.

Do you need it?  Do you want it?  With the multi-core processor hoopla going around as of late, and the constant buzz about virtualization, is it time to upgrade your desktop machine? 

The article digs into:

Running applications in dedicated environments - does virtualization do a better job isolating applications than what the operating system currently does? 

Disaster tolerance - Like setting RAID on a local disk drive, fault tolerance is needed and can possibly be provided at the right cost.

Process offloading - Offloading management functions, system services, and other processes sucking up CPU cycles can help performance.

Grid on a desk - Some what further out, but allowing multi-core systems to be rapidly deployed and deprovisioned and bringing the desktop client into corporate grid networking.


Read the entire article, here.