Can this PC run dolphin?

[Dark tornado]

So I'm building a PC mainly for dolphin and would like to know if these specs are good enough to run games like galaxy and skyward sword in 1080p. Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card
NZXT S340 (Black/Blue) ATX Mid Tower Case
Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)

[ENAI]

(01-03-2016, 01:44 PM)Dark tornado Wrote: So I'm building a PC mainly for dolphin and would like to know if these specs are good enough to run games like galaxy and skyward sword in 1080p. Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card
NZXT S340 (Black/Blue) ATX Mid Tower Case
Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)

Yes, this will run Dolphin well but you're overbuilding if your main goal is indeed Dolphin. First of all, I'd change the i7 for an i5 4690(K) or 6600 (if you get this you'll have to get a Skylake-compatible mobo (LGA 1151) and DDR4 memory too). The only real advantage of an i7 compared to an i5 is Hyper-Threading, which is only useful in intensive multi-threaded tasks, like streaming or video editing. For gaming (both pc games and Dolphin) an i5 is just as good and usually half the price. For a mainly Dolphin-oriented machine it's also worth considering the dirt cheap Pentium G3258, which can tie the i5s and i7s in Dolphin performance once overclocked (link). The Pentium goes for roughly 60$, so if you're willing to overclock (and don't play demanding pc games), this would be the best and cheapest choice.

If you still end up getting the 4790K, do get it from Microcenter who have a really nice sale at the moment.

Note: If you get any unlocked processor (K-marked), get a Z-series motherboard that supports oveclocking. The H97M PRO4 does not, so the premium price of a K-series processor will be wasted. The only exception is the great Pentium G3258 which can OC on pretty much anything.


Other components are fine, but if you don't play pc games, GTX 970 is also overkill and you should rather consider something like a GTX 750 Ti (nVidia) or R9 270X (AMD) for 1080p gameplay. 8GB (even 4GB) memory would also be sufficient for Dolphin but for anything else 8-16GB is better.

[leolam]

Definitely. Don't forget to use the latest development builds.

edit: missed the part where you said it was going to be "mainly" for Dolphin. Yes, as ENAI said, this build will be a little overkill if you're mainly going to run Dolphin. For memory though, if the price difference isn't too large, I suggest getting 16GB in case you want to use HD texture packs.

[Dark tornado]

Ahh, gotcha. And are there any good CPU coolers or is that not really needed for dolphin?

[leolam]

It doesn't really depend on Dolphin. You should use a good CPU cooler if you plan to overclock, or if you don't want to hear the noisy CPU fans every time the system is heavily loaded.

[Helios]

Yep, it's fine for Dolphin.


/thread