At the end of the day this is what counts. Is it fast or not. What else are more cores for if not for more speed and performance.

I don't like that attitude calling someone not hacker-like because he doesn't cares about cores! It's all about creating something better and that has nothing to do with counting cores.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(hobbyist)

Actually it IS very hacker-like.

Hackers care about using the machine to DO (as in "hack") stuff. Faster, ok, better. Most top notch programmers could not care less if they have a state of the art CPU or not.

What it is not, is very tinkerer-like.

Tinkerers use the machine just to use the machine, and they eat precise specs for breakfast.