Building a system - Opinions welcome

[Macewindu]

Really new on the scene, so ive got a lot of questions, but i will try to keep them as advanced as my current knowledge will allow (will try to avoid noob questions).

Current Build: HP TX2000 Laptop
-- 2.2ghz amd turion x2 core duo
-- Nvid Geforce 6150, integrated..watyagonnado
-- M$ Windows 7100 RC
-- Temp: Damn near as hot as the sun

Results:
Mario Kart Wii: 1.3fps operating at ~20-30% of actual game speed (sometimes it just gives up the ghost and pulls a KO)
Mario Party 8: Cant get past the start button without bringing the house down.



Projected Build:
-- E8400 (plan to oc to ~4.1, since apparently it can be done on stock air, voltage etc. with little consequences to the noob)
-- gtx 260 (may pull for +2 monitors, we'll see how much the wallet screams later on)

Mindset: At the same time im trying to decide if this is worth it or if i should just softmod a wii for a buck fifty, which incidentally wont even get me the e8400 alone.

Expectations: >90% smooth playing on most wii games (mario party 8, mario kart wii...mainly), but with limits on $$$ cost. im not rich, yet.

Wallet: money is quite limited, however i am willing to fork out enough for an e8400 if i can ensure the games will perform smooth.



Not entirely sold on the e8400. while its pretty much the top, i cant help but eye up the quad cores. e8xxx series seems to have a current advantage (if for no other reason than low cost), i cant help but think that the quad will just pwn all if/when dolphin can take advantage of additional cores. and then theres the Phenom II 550 with its virtual quad. right now it doesnt compare with the e8xxx series, but what if the quad was utilized?

And another thing. seeing as Vista was hog, i can only deduce that SEVEN is no different even if it is fast(er). hasnt anyone come up with some chopped up version of linux to boot express from the bios? my guess is that less OS = less BS. The theory is that if you can get something, anything (isolinux for example) to boot and load the emulator, all-everything can be devoted to what we treasure most (and its not micro$$$hhh!!!!TTTT)



Nutshell:
-- 1. Quad core support is coming. Is the e8xxx series really the best choice for the next 3-5 years?

-- 2. Once we have quad, how will the PhenII 550 (quad-sim) vs the e8xxx (dual) stack up?

-- 3. Again, with quad support, i assume any i7 will blow an e8xxx out of the water.

-- 4. Why dont we have some stripped verion of something that can boot straight from bios?

-- 5. If OS is a must, any preferences? XP? (mac supported?, better?)

[Asylum]

1. I'd say AMD Phenom 2 @ 3.2 (955) or Intel i5 2.66. I myself am getting the AMD. (cheaper, uses less power, etc)
2. idk
3. Yes
4. idk
5. XP or 7. For a new computer with decent specs or better I would recommend 7.

[boogerlad]

you can reach 4.1 on stock air cooling, but it's recommended that you get an aftermarket cooler like a true, megahelams or the like. I'd rather get an i5 750 though... 5850 ftw.

[Macewindu]

ftw indeed!

and wow!, newegg has the i5 for $200 until 11/30. but i dont know if i can do it. 2.66???!!! that thing wont push to 4 and even if it did, id need some bigass cooler. plus the ddr3 and quad-compatible mommyboard are gonna bite my wallet. such a dilemma!

the vid card is hot, but fricken $300, +100 more than the processor...

[NaturalViolence]

1. No, I7 is the best choice for being "future proof" but it's damn expensive, phenomII offers a nice midground, and I'm an intel fanboy so to hear me say that shows you something.

2. First off don't count on having quad support for a few years if at all. And even so that is difficult to predict because even though you CAN enable the remaining 2 cores on a 550 they may not work, depends on the cpu.

3. An I7 will blow core2 and phenomII out of the water on dual threaded applications. Performance per clock is ridiculous.

4. I don't completely understand what you are asking here.

5. Windows 7 unless you are using an older laptop with little memory or really shitty desktop. Just like vista windows 7 eats a shitload of memory, but other than that it is much faster than xp for various reasons (optimized for hyperthreading, GDI can copy straight into video ram, video ram can be used as ram and vice versa, multithreaded GDI, and about 4 other things that make newer cpu's and gpu's perform much better).

I take it your building this rig for dolphin? Or do you have other goals in mind as well? Because if it's just for dolphin you must take into account that dolphin is extremely cpu heavy. Also do realize that no matter how awesome your rig is you will still lag on a lot of games simple because dolphin is still in the early stages of development, they still have a long way to go to optimize it to the point where all/most games perform very well on normal rigs.

I will add more to this later when I have time so make sure to check back.

I PMed you just so you know!

[shuffle2]

(11-17-2009, 07:04 AM)Macewindu Wrote: And another thing. seeing as Vista was hog, i can only deduce that SEVEN is no different even if it is fast(er). hasnt anyone come up with some chopped up version of linux to boot express from the bios? my guess is that less OS = less BS. The theory is that if you can get something, anything (isolinux for example) to boot and load the emulator, all-everything can be devoted to what we treasure most (and its not micro$$$hhh!!!!TTTT)

Please....noooo....

You want to use windows 7 over anything else, trust me. ESPECIALLY if your goal is to run dolphin well.

[Necorum]

http://www.pricewatch.com/

buy the best you can afford

The AMD II x4's are looking nice @ $100ish

[Macewindu]

NaturalViolence Wrote:I7 is the best choice for being "future proof"

First off, i need to do a little clarification. I am not interested in "future-proofing" a system, i am interested in "Dolphin-future-proofing" a system. Do you get the difference? You can never future proof a system, though, you only delay the coming darkness.

Anyway, back on track. if i wanted to futureproof a system, i would just buy the bestofthebestofthebest. seeing as my wallet would revolt, i need to adjust my expectations so all im interested in is a system that will run dolphin well (great), for the next 5 or so years.

NaturalViolence Wrote:First off don't count on having quad support for a few years if at all.

Fair enough. the e8400 is looking better all the time. maybe i can dump the other money into a better gfx card. Dolphin seems to be harsher on the CPU than the vid card (which is quite the opposite of most modern pc games where the vid card is maxing out), so i may have the best of both worlds.

NaturalViolence Wrote:4. I don't completely understand what you are asking here.

Ok. lets try this again. you push the power button. after the initial scans, CMOS and whathaveyou, the BIOS loads followed by the OS. Once in the OS, a program is run to emulate the Wii system.

I would hope you are familiar with the multi-boot process (dual, triple, in my case, quadruple boot). using a modified bootloader, you can choose which OS you want to load after the bios has loaded.

This is where the fun begins. im not sure if your familiar with linux, but if you know anything about anything, you know that linux has been used for years as a free OS for many applications. One such app would be the whole BackTrack franchise. built around some basic knoppix, this system allows you to do almost anything in the offensive security field, but i digress.


Linux can be recoded to be whatever you want. My first theory would be create an "OS" that would only boot dolphin, or better yet, a wii menu (i say "OS" b/c, while technically it would be an operating system, it would have only one goal in mind and that would be to run dolphin). the result would be a system that could devote all attention to dolphin and not one wasted cycle on M$. i have not doubt it would be fast, perhaps faster than the stock wii, because it would have so many more resources to work with. i dont remember if the wii's specs were ever released, but i believe broadway operated at like an estimated 533mhz.

shuffle2 Wrote:Please....noooo....

You want to use windows 7 over anything else, trust me. ESPECIALLY if your goal is to run dolphin well.

lol...well, forgive me if i dont trust M$ after vista...

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:Ok. lets try this again. you push the power button. after the initial scans, CMOS and whathaveyou, the BIOS loads followed by the OS. Once in the OS, a program is run to emulate the Wii system.

I would hope you are familiar with the multi-boot process (dual, triple, in my case, quadruple boot). using a modified bootloader, you can choose which OS you want to load after the bios has loaded.

This is where the fun begins. im not sure if your familiar with linux, but if you know anything about anything, you know that linux has been used for years as a free OS for many applications. One such app would be the whole BackTrack franchise. built around some basic knoppix, this system allows you to do almost anything in the offensive security field, but i digress.


Linux can be recoded to be whatever you want. My first theory would be create an "OS" that would only boot dolphin, or better yet, a wii menu (i say "OS" b/c, while technically it would be an operating system, it would have only one goal in mind and that would be to run dolphin). the result would be a system that could devote all attention to dolphin and not one wasted cycle on M$. i have not doubt it would be fast, perhaps faster than the stock wii, because it would have so many more resources to work with. i dont remember if the wii's specs were ever released, but i believe broadway operated at like an estimated 533mhz.

Ok, now I understand what you are asking. That would be awesome but I can almost assure you that will never happen, dolphin will stay a program/emulator. The main reason for this is probably because it's much harder and less reliable, the devs would do a much better job answering this one than me though, any thoughts shuffle?

[shuffle2]

for some reason, pcsx2 gets asked this all the time. So here: http://forums.pcsx2.net/thread-10940-post-82626.html
In short, NO, the idea makes no sense.