Dolphin PC buying guide

[THELUKESTIR]

(08-07-2009, 02:44 PM)Phenomenal Flea Wrote:

(08-04-2009, 03:38 AM)CacoFFF Wrote: Oh gawd what i'm laughing here at some comments.

Seriously, nobody is denying the i7's power, but, as buying anything from Intel's ultra high-end, it's just overpriced.
What is wrong with being patient for 1 or 2 months? Say, the i5 is coming soon, the i9 is coming (not that) soon...
Prices will fall a lot by then.

What happens here, is that there has not been a clear transition from Socket 775 to the iX, i7 now means high-end, s775 is now budget and mainstream.
This mainstream we're seeing here is getting no support anytime soon, and the new mainstream (i5) isn't even out yet.
Now, you want to upgrade your dual-core cpu today, for a new dual-core (In my case and many others it's perfectly known that more than 2 cores are not needed) and what's the problem? There isn't one, not to mention that s1366 doesn't support these either.
We're stuck with budget and a mainstream that will cease to exist soon (what's gonna happen once your old ram or cpu die?, get a second hand one?) and an incredibly overpriced high-end platform.

I know that we can't sit and wait forever for obvious reasons, but this is one of those those special cases.

Hmm... I suppose that makes sense. Are you suggesting that prices will be dropping around October, because I'm impulsive and am really urged to buy it.

well it will go down ove rtime even if new cpus dont come out, but they are so the price should drop unless intel wants to be evil bastards

[G2K]

I'm going to be buying a laptop soon, my first one. The one I am looking at has hese specs:

Processor AMD Turion™ X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor RM-77 (2.3GHz, 1MB L2 Cache)
Memory FREE Upgrade to 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) from 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
Hard drive 500GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Graphics card ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 Graphics with 64MB Display Cache Memory

Will this sufficiently run Dolphin? The main reason I'm getting this laptop is for the RAM and it's touch screen capabilities... is there something with a better processor and / or graphics card that can still have a touchscreen hat somebody could recommend? For reffernce, I'm looking at a customized HP tx2z tablet.

[Iulius]

nice laptop.
i was going to buy a one like this too before i decided to get a thinkpad(because of robustness and the very short time the hp tablet runs on battery)

but for dolphin, ehm, no.

you can play some basic old games like smash brothers melee or mario sunshine.

but dont exspect any fancy newer games to run good, especially no wii games.


also : there is NO other tablet you could buy for gaming, because there is no other tablet with ati/nvidia graphics, except some old ones that are even slower.

[G2K]

So what exactly is it that the laptop would need to improve on? Processor? To what amount?

I've also found this tablet, with a bit higher specs. I think it might have a chipset though.

http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/2009/Viper/C-143XL/C-143XLsp2.shtml

[Iulius]

processor, which is not possible as there are no fast mobile AMD cpus at the moment

Quote:I've also found this tablet, with a bit higher specs

its with x2300 which is a x1300 with other name and therefore a very old crappy card, maybe about 1/4 the speed of the hd 3200.


you can trust me when is say :

Quote:there is NO other tablet you could buy for gaming

i allready tried to find one myself for many years and finally decided that its not worth waiting for that to come.

The HP-AMD book is nice but :
- the cpu is slow
- its not robust at all
- bad support : HP consumer line instead of business line
- its very thick which makes it hard to write on it -> you cant lay your hand on a table and write, you have to hold the hand in the air all the time
- very dark glossy display -> not useable in bright rooms/outdoors
- short runtime on battery

thats the reasons why i didn't bought it.


oh, and to make things clear : there is no laptop at all that i could recommend for dolphin.

Maybe those 17" monsters with 2,9ghz c2d but even those have a hard time with many wii games.


so what to do :

- either you buy the hp book and only play few games, which still can be ok. (there are many good games that can be played, but maybe not your favorite)
- or you buy a fast desktop pc

[G2K]

(08-09-2009, 06:55 PM)Iulius Wrote: processor, which is not possible as there are no fast mobile AMD cpus at the moment

Quote:I've also found this tablet, with a bit higher specs

its with x2300 which is a x1300 with other name and therefore a very old crappy card, maybe about 1/4 the speed of the hd 3200.


you can trust me when is say :

Quote:there is NO other tablet you could buy for gaming

i allready tried to find one myself for many years and finally decided that its not worth waiting for that to come.

The HP-AMD book is nice but :
- the cpu is slow
- its not robust at all
- bad support : HP consumer line instead of business line
- its very thick which makes it hard to write on it -> you cant lay your hand on a table and write, you have to hold the hand in the air all the time
- very dark glossy display -> not useable in bright rooms/outdoors
- short runtime on battery

thats the reasons why i didn't bought it.


oh, and to make things clear : there is no laptop at all that i could recommend for dolphin.

Maybe those 17" monsters with 2,9ghz c2d but even those have a hard time with many wii games.


so what to do :

- either you buy the hp book and only play few games, which still can be ok. (there are many good games that can be played, but maybe not your favorite)
- or you buy a fast desktop pc

OK, I was worried about that. I could always buy a desktop tablet PC (HP's got one in the TouchSmart series too) and use that.The only problem is that the reason I wanted a PORTABLE tablet was for an Elite Beat Agents Clone that would be amazingly fun to play on a touch screen and on the go (EBA is basically a rhythm game where you tap circles, drag sliders and spin spinners to the beat of music, the clone I'm alking about lets you create songs and play online in a big community I got to know well and everything... oh well).

So you said I either buy the HP book or get a desktop. What about a different, more powerful laptop? I haven't really picked one yet, but maybe something with 2.8 - 3.1 GHz of processing power? What's a normal amount of processing power on a desktop?

Oh, and stupid question. When I'm looking, I look for Dual Core. But I keep seeing laptops with Core 2 Duo. Is this the same thing?

[Iulius]

dualcore = 2 cores.

the intel core 2 duo is a dual core just like the turion x2 in the hp tablet.

Quote:What about a different, more powerful laptop?

-->

Quote:there is no laptop at all that i could recommend for dolphin

those with good cpu cost a fortune and you would get a MUCH fast desktop for that money.

also mobil graphics cards are bad compared to even cheap desktop cards.


example : if you build yourself a desktop for ~500$ and do some slightly overclocking, it will beat those 5000$ laptops easy


i really cannot recommend buying a gaming-laptop for dolphin. It would be very expensive and still by far not be able to play all the games.

[G2K]

(08-09-2009, 08:52 PM)Iulius Wrote: dualcore = 2 cores.

the intel core 2 duo is a dual core just like the turion x2 in the hp tablet.

Quote:What about a different, more powerful laptop?

-->

Quote:there is no laptop at all that i could recommend for dolphin

those with good cpu cost a fortune and you would get a MUCH fast desktop for that money.

also mobil graphics cards are bad compared to even cheap desktop cards.


example : if you build yourself a desktop for ~500$ and do some slightly overclocking, it will beat those 5000$ laptops easy


i really cannot recommend buying a gaming-laptop for dolphin. It would be very expensive and still by far not be able to play all the games.

Oh... Hmmm...

I've never really seen the point in using Dolphin on a desktop. If I'm at home, why not play the games directly on the Wii? And what exactly would be slower anyways? Would I not be able to play Brawl full speed (Err, it does run full speed normally, right?)? What about Galaxy, or Luigi's Mansion?

And yet another question; on the first page, the budget build has a processer with a higher GHz than the Mainstream build.What else should I be looking for in a processer?

(BTW, I found a laptop w/ Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T9900 (3.06 GHz, 6 MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB), sounds pretty powerful to me.)

[G2K]

Sorry for the DP, but I just need to know this stuff...

First off, I know what you're talking about, and I'm not denying the it would work way better on a desktop. But I need a laptop. I don't have a laptop.I don't wan't to have to buy a laptop, and then a desktop ON TOP of that, just for dolphin. That's why I was looking for a laptop to play dolphin on. So what would I need to play SSBB at a playable speed? What about WarioWare Smooth Moves? Pikmin? Or Luigi's Mansion? That's basically the extent of it for me... and maybe a few extra GC games.

When I get a ne desktop eventually, I'll make sure it can run Dolphin. But the point of this for me isn't just a PoC "Hey, I can run Dolphin on a laptop!", it's a "Hey, me and my friends could play some Brawl on lunch break if I bring my laptop" kind of thing. I need help. I don't know what's what and what I will need for what I staed - I thought the number of GHz a pCPU had determined it's quality, but I've got a desktop with 3.06 GHz and it's on a Pentium 4 processer, and runs bad. What laptop could I get, while not going into the multiple thousands of dollars range.

Oh, and for bonus points, tell me where I can find a site I can buy laptop parts and cases in Canada. NewEgg is really only good for desktops.

Thanks much for help, good or bad!

[jasong]

I think iulius is overstretching the case a little. An MSI GT627 will give you a very playable experience on Dolphin with turbo mode and a 9800m card - retails for $1,500 (Ca) here: http://www.shopbot.ca/pp-msi-gt627-217ca-msi-price-174281.html