To get the current max degree of parallelism for a specific instance of SQL Server:
SELECT value_in_use
FROM sys.configurations
WHERE name = 'max degree of parallelism'
"I cant stress enough the importance of switching from a sequential files mindset to set-based thinking. After you make the switch, you can spend your time tuning and optimizing your queries instead of maintaining lengthy, poor-performing code."-- Itzik Ben-Gan 2001