Do you use Excel for playing?

Overkill?  Perhaps; perhaps not.  Depending on what one is looking for, some ideas take seconds to run while others might require 4 days.  In my particular case, 4 days is what the data I wanted to see required.

As a side note, the data turned out to be less than expected (which is usually the case).  I have abandoned the idea.

The faster the processor, the better for you.

The solution will always be more computer power.

I've been using an AMD Athlon 7850 for three years. Compared to the CPUs these days it falls behind.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+7850+Dual-Core

Intel's i7-3770 costs only $300 and gives a 6.6X performance.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-3770+%40+3.40GHz

I will probably upgrade to i7-3770 with 32GB memory before new year. It will almost be like upgrading to a super computer.

I'll have to change not only CPU, but also motherboard and memory, because it use another kind of CPU slot, but it will be future proof.

Perhaps it will be fast enough to run neural networks. I've used neural networks in Excel, but it takes forever if the columns becomes to long.

A standalone program is probably faster than Excel for a lot of tasks. Only Excel offers the possibility to work on the results. You can save some paper and markers with it.

I am using Excel - in my work, in my personal affairs and in almost everything.  I just didn't know that excel has another use and that is...lottery.

You can use XML with Excel too.

Who says that it cannot be done?

I replaced the function for games out by the right one. ;)

I use a two step process.

I write the programs in QB64, output the data as a CV, and take that into Excel.