Once SQL Server is installed and all windows are closed, the CPU usage never drops below 20% in VMM. I was puzzled by this for some time, probably longer than I should have been.

Intel's Hyperthreading Technology (HT) is being blamed for server performance problems. With both SQL Server and Citrix Terminal Server installations, HT-enabled motherboards show markedly ...

SQL Server is very thread-intensive, but it suffers. In fact, I've never seen performance improvement on server software with hyperthreading enabled.