Advice on upgrading

[Everged]

Hi there. Over the next couple of weeks I am looking to upgrade my rather out of date desktop up to standard that will run intensive wii titles a bit more comfortably on dolphin.
At the moment I'm rocking a e8600 duo (lol) which is what I'm hoping to upgrade. I'm looking to play The Last Story and Xenoblade primarily and after much reading, accept that I'll never get the most out of the games. Running them without any drops in fps on native resolution with minor anti aliasing is good enough for me though. I've actually got TLS tweaked to a playable state, but it's still a little unpredictable.

I'm considering buying from the below link. Can I have some advice on which package, up to, but no more than £200 will be the most suitable?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=2384&sortby=priceAsc

Many Thanks.

[admin89]

Quote:Running them without any drops in fps on native resolution with minor anti aliasing is good enough for me though.

Not possible with The Last Story . Even i5 3570k @ 4.2 GHz still notice FPS drops in Ruli/Lazulis city
You should wait for next gen Haswell (June , 2013) i5 4670K and have it overclocked to 4.2GHz (Note: i5 4670k @ 4.2 > i5 3570K @ 4.2GHz )
But even so , £200 is no where near enough . For the time being , you could buy a aftermarket cooler (Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo) to overclock your current CPU to 4.0GHz . Make sure your mobo support overclocking (not crappy OEM mobo from DELL, ACER , HP , ASUS , Lenovo ....)

[Everged]

Thanks for the response, I understand from reading around that I'll still get stutters in the city, as even the wii does that. Of that list though which is the most suitable? Overclocking the current one isn't really an option as it is seriously on its last legs haha. This is just a stop gap until I can get a new PC, until then I like to be able to play The Last Story, even on native resolution.

Many Thanks.

[LordVador]

(02-18-2013, 12:35 AM)Everged Wrote: Of that list though which is the most suitable?

3570k is definitively the good choice. But 2500k is still an excellent alternative

[Everged]

Cheers for the reply, £200 limit though, if you could advise with that in mind.

Many Thanks.

(02-18-2013, 12:42 AM)LordVador Wrote:

(02-18-2013, 12:35 AM)Everged Wrote: Of that list though which is the most suitable?

3570k is definitively the good choice. But 2500k is still an excellent alternative

[LordVador]

(02-18-2013, 12:52 AM)Everged Wrote: Cheers for the reply, £200 limit though, if you could advise with that in mind.

I guess you'll have to exceed this

[Everged]

Hahah, don't say that
It really is my limit though. I don't expect wonders. TBH The Last Story is perfectably playable on my current set up. I would like it to be a little smoother though. So with that in mind, what can be recommended on that list for £200 or under?
My gut instinct is the i3, but I remember reading somewhere that clock speed is very important for Dolphin, so would one of the high clock speed AMDs be more suitable? Or is the cpu architecture the king in the end?

Cheers guys.

(02-18-2013, 12:59 AM)LordVador Wrote:

(02-18-2013, 12:52 AM)Everged Wrote: Cheers for the reply, £200 limit though, if you could advise with that in mind.

I guess you'll have to exceed this

[LordVador]

(02-18-2013, 01:05 AM)Everged Wrote: My gut instinct is the i3, but I remember reading somewhere that clock speed is very important for Dolphin

This one? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-204-OK&groupid=43&catid=2384&subcat=
Not sure it will be better than yours though.

(02-18-2013, 01:05 AM)Everged Wrote: TBH The Last Story is perfectably playable on my current set up. I would like it to be a little smoother though

What speed do you get?

(02-18-2013, 01:05 AM)Everged Wrote: would one of the high clock speed AMDs be more suitable?

Forget AMD

[Garteal]

You should look at the CPU architecture first and then at the clock speeds.
I'd strongly recommend you to save up more cash as £200 is too little for a worthwhile upgrade.
Actually you should wait until the Haswell CPU's to get released as that'll definitely give the current CPU's a price drop.

[Everged]

That's the one. CPUbenchmark lists it as at least twice as good as what I'm using now, which is about what I'd expect for the price. I'll forget the AMDs haha.
FPS wise I'm getting between 25 and 31 on most standard missions, with the ocassional drop during intensive sections.

When are the new CPUs due?

I mentioned before, but this is just a temporary upgrade to make dolphin a little more playable. I'll be getting a new PC in July when/if I get my bonus. So I don't want to spend too much at this stage.