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!
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!
"Normally if given a choice between doing something and nothing, I’d choose to do nothing. But I would do something if it helps someone else do nothing. I’d work all night if it meant nothing got done."
-Ron Swanson
"I shall be a good politician, even if it kills me. Or if it kills anyone else for that matter. "
-Mark Antony
-Ron Swanson
"I shall be a good politician, even if it kills me. Or if it kills anyone else for that matter. "
-Mark Antony