DoctorWAW,
I thought - mistakenly it seems - that my CPU resource issues were AC related. Since your post, I started running AC4.x alongside Task Manager to determine when the usage spikes up to 100%. It happens on these occasions invariably on all 6 computers: Pressing "Save to Chart" when saving an inbox message, pressing the square button "Messages" in the top-left corner, and when logging in.
A transient spike should not be a problem but when I'm running MSWord concomitantly there's a momentary 'freeze', even in my better computer with 5200GHZ, 4GB ram.
I thought it was from - what someone in another forum labeled as - inefficient database caching with SQL. But if you're not having it, it must be my msconfig startup & services.