Building a PC specifically for Dolphin

[Kooper]

Hey guys,

I want to build a PC in a small form factor specifically for Dolphin. Now, I'd like to try and get some input on this idea as to be honest, I'm not sure what hardware would be best optimized for specifically trying to run Dolphin. For example I could've swore that a higher clocked dual core could outperform a lower clocked quad core because Dolphin doesn't utilize the multiple cores... These are the things I am trying to figure out what is true and what would be the best course to take.

My ideal result would be a smaller form factor desktop that I'd go HDMI out to my HDTV in my living room. I'd want to run games at a HD resolution (as high as possible really, max out all graphical capabilities and stay at the highest FPS possible), so I am trying to look for a power house, so money is not really a concern, just want to get what would be smartest for a focus on running Dolphin, and try to get it into a nice form factor if possible.

Would appreciate input on how you guys feel I should go about this, and thanks for the input.

[admin89]

Budget ?

[Kooper]

Whatever it takes to get the best performance possible is the budget. I figure there are dependencies, could easily buy two GTX 590s and sli them sure... But is that really necessary is the question.... And more importantly, what card(s) would perform best for Dolphin in mind. That is what I am trying to discover.

Only real limit I have is trying to keep that small form factor.

[admin89]

Dolphin only use 1 GPU , SLI and Crossfire are out of the question
Give me 5 mins

[Kooper]

Dolphin only use 1 GPU , SLI and Crossfire are out of the question
Give me 5 mins

Exactly you get where I am going with this then, those are the type of dependencies I am trying to discover with this thread, and thanks.

[admin89]

Here
You can choose BitFenix Prodigy Arctic White case if you don't like black

[Kooper]

Here
You can choose BitFenix Prodigy Arctic White case if you don't like black

A great PC I'm sure, but do you have any explanation why these particular components are good for Dolphin? CPU is great, but why a quad core? Is the video card there overkill or does every little bit help? Will Dolphin utilize 8GB of RAM?

Then there are other questions like should I go windows or linux? Where does Dolphin run better? That would actually impact the hardware as well.

[Starscream]

You'll need an extra core for the LLE audio back-end, it uses a core. The video card is a bit overkill, but since you're not worried about the money, having a great video card will be good for Dolphin and for anything else that you might do on the PC (PC gaming). Dolphin will not use 8GB of RAM, but with a PC like that, it just make sense to have at least 8GB (in my opinion). As far as the Windows over Linux question, Windows runs Dolphin generally better (debatable I guess) than Linux and you will be able to use DX9, DX11 and OpenGL whereas Linux will only be able to use OpenGL.

[admin89]

why a quad core?

Like Starcream said , Dolphin uses 3 cores with "DSP LLE on thread"
i5 3570k @ 4.2 is fast enough for most games (include the most demanding game - The Last Story)
Dolphin : i5 3570k = i7 3770k . i7 has Hyper Threading which is useless for Dolphin but it's a better CPU for multithreaded apps and video encoding
Having an extra core for background processing can speed up Dolphin

[Kooper]

Cool cool, I appreciate the input guys. I was under the impression that I could go with out of the ordinary hardware that may be more suited for Dolphin- but it seems in the end just building a nice high-end PC would be the best route haha.

Thanks again for the help.