Dolphin PC buying guide

[Phenomenal Flea]

Hi again, guys.

I've had a long think about it. At some stage I will upgrade to the i7 920, mainly for future-proofing purposes. Because I'm making a PC for not only Dolphin, but for modern PC games as well, I don't want to buy a reasonable dual core which I will end up having to replace to keep up with current gaming trends in less than a years time.

However, because my Phenom II 940 suits me just fine for everything apart from Dolphin and PCSX2, I don't feel any urgent need to upgrade any time soon (I tried the variable benchmark for Resident Evil 5 again and I was getting a very pleasing 50-60fps with everything at max. I don't know what changed but I'm anticipating RE5 now!), besides the fact that rene said that the 920 would be discontinued for the mainstream i5 model.

The thing is replacing the motherboard, the RAM and the CPU is a lot of money. So, I was thinking of just buying the CPU and then waiting on the RAM and Motherboard to come down in price or when I get more money. Am I right to believe that compatible motherboards and DDR3 x 3 sticks of RAM will stay in the market long after the i7 920 gets discontinued? Because I heard they are changing the slot (ugh!) for the i5 from the i7.

Cheers in advance. I know I ask a lot of questions .
-Flea

[CacoFFF]

(08-02-2009, 07:54 AM)abfab126 Wrote: Rene , I aint no Veeight , but Im the guy with him in your mama 's bed banging her real hard! Please stop blaspheming , jesus has nothing to do with you being arrogant or you having no argument but writing Blah Blah Blah .(+ enthusiast pc have at least i7 975 + geforce 295 or 3 or 4 radeon 4890 + SSD drives ( better than blah blah blah !!)

THELUKESTIR , 448 bits with gddr3 gives aproximately the same bandwith than 256 bits with ddr5 , but the 4890 has 1ghz core clock , so even if the price is the same ,wether you like to buy expensive stuff for the same result or worse , or maybe you just love crap that they sell you at an high price !

Oh and I dont care to get banned Daco or nosound ,(cauz Im really with his mom) cauz the forum has just became a junkhole with people with an enormous Ego and nothing to share but the amount of money they spend and split at your faces.

400 times , thanks Rene and his wonderful parrot THELUKESTIR !

Dolphin Powa

Dude, there is some truth in your post, i've been seeing all kind of noob suggestions about hardware that made me facepalm a lot.
But, I'm nobody to fight that noobness, let the poor swines that follow their advise rage alone after spending shitloads of money.

[THELUKESTIR]

(08-02-2009, 10:12 AM)Phenomenal Flea Wrote: Hi again, guys.

I've had a long think about it. At some stage I will upgrade to the i7 920, mainly for future-proofing purposes. Because I'm making a PC for not only Dolphin, but for modern PC games as well, I don't want to buy a reasonable dual core which I will end up having to replace to keep up with current gaming trends in less than a years time.

However, because my Phenom II 940 suits me just fine for everything apart from Dolphin and PCSX2, I don't feel any urgent need to upgrade any time soon (I tried the variable benchmark for Resident Evil 5 again and I was getting a very pleasing 50-60fps with everything at max. I don't know what changed but I'm anticipating RE5 now!), besides the fact that rene said that the 920 would be discontinued for the mainstream i5 model.

The thing is replacing the motherboard, the RAM and the CPU is a lot of money. So, I was thinking of just buying the CPU and then waiting on the RAM and Motherboard to come down in price or when I get more money. Am I right to believe that compatible motherboards and DDR3 x 3 sticks of RAM will stay in the market long after the i7 920 gets discontinued? Because I heard they are changing the slot (ugh!) for the i5 from the i7.

Cheers in advance. I know I ask a lot of questions .
-Flea

First off, i wouldn't complain about a new slot, I'm sure it adds a lot of bandwidth... but i agree it is an annoyance to have to upgrade and im not sure if the i7 is getting discontinued?? i mean the quads havent gotten discontinued after the i7 came out.. not sure about that... but ddr3 hasnt hit mainstream yet so it will probably be around for at LEAST another year... these are my thoughts and i hope nobody will flame me -.-

[abfab126]

(08-02-2009, 10:12 AM)Phenomenal Flea Wrote: Hi again, guys.

I've had a long think about it. At some stage I will upgrade to the i7 920, mainly for future-proofing purposes. Because I'm making a PC for not only Dolphin, but for modern PC games as well, I don't want to buy a reasonable dual core which I will end up having to replace to keep up with current gaming trends in less than a years time.

However, because my Phenom II 940 suits me just fine for everything apart from Dolphin and PCSX2, I don't feel any urgent need to upgrade any time soon (I tried the variable benchmark for Resident Evil 5 again and I was getting a very pleasing 50-60fps with everything at max. I don't know what changed but I'm anticipating RE5 now!), besides the fact that rene said that the 920 would be discontinued for the mainstream i5 model.

The thing is replacing the motherboard, the RAM and the CPU is a lot of money. So, I was thinking of just buying the CPU and then waiting on the RAM and Motherboard to come down in price or when I get more money. Am I right to believe that compatible motherboards and DDR3 x 3 sticks of RAM will stay in the market long after the i7 920 gets discontinued? Because I heard they are changing the slot (ugh!) for the i5 from the i7.

Cheers in advance. I know I ask a lot of questions .
-Flea

i9 (Gulftown) with 6 cores and 32nm will follow i7 in a few month (same socket LGA 1366) , every x58 motherboards are going to be i9 compatible ( only a BIOS update will be needed) for i5, it's different it uses another socket (LGA 1156) , you will find it on the new intel p55 chipset motherboards , and it will also support tri SLI , crossfireX (3 pci express 2.0 slots) ddr3 , but only double channel !

[Phenomenal Flea]

(08-02-2009, 11:08 AM)abfab126 Wrote: i9 (Gulftown) with 6 cores and 32nm will follow i7 in a few month (same socket LGA 1366) , every x58 motherboards are going to be i9 compatible ( only a BIOS update will be needed) for i5, it's different it uses another socket (LGA 1156) , you will find it on the new intel p55 chipset motherboards , and it will also support tri SLI , crossfireX (3 pci express 2.0 slots) ddr3 , but only double channel !

Ah, I see. So, while this is well out of my price range, at least I know now that compatible motherboards will still be around, even if the i7 920 gets discontinued. Cheers, abfab126.

So, I supposed now's the time for an i7, or should I wait for this i9? It looks a bit overkill and way more expensive... but, then again, that's what people are saying about the i7 in the first place. Haha!

Cheers!

[Iulius]

(08-02-2009, 05:34 AM)rene mauricio Wrote: If you want the absolute best PC to play Dolphin with then the i7 will get you there.

this is the point i was speaking about : its not, at least not the 920.

with the higher ones and better oc-ability, i second that.

but 920 gets beaten easy in dolphin by E8600, with OC and without.

The i7 is just not that much faster per clock in dolphin.

Look at the benches against Q9450. If there is no memory driven benchmarks or SSE5 use, its around 10% faster at max.

and E8600 overclocks to more then 10% higher clock then 920(4,5 on air average vs 4ghz max on air if you are lucky) and has 25% higher clock on stock.


to make things clear : i have none of these cpus and i i would buy one(i would not) my choise would be i7.

i was just speaking about power in dolphin and E8600 beats i7 920 here, thats all.

[THELUKESTIR]

(08-02-2009, 05:16 PM)Iulius Wrote:

(08-02-2009, 05:34 AM)rene mauricio Wrote: If you want the absolute best PC to play Dolphin with then the i7 will get you there.

this is the point i was speaking about : its not, at least not the 920.

with the higher ones and better oc-ability, i second that.

but 920 gets beaten easy in dolphin by E8600, with OC and without.

The i7 is just not that much faster per clock in dolphin.

Look at the benches against Q9450. If there is no memory driven benchmarks or SSE5 use, its around 10% faster at max.

and E8600 overclocks to more then 10% higher clock then 920(4,5 on air average vs 4ghz max on air if you are lucky) and has 25% higher clock on stock.


to make things clear : i have none of these cpus and i i would buy one(i would not) my choise would be i7.

i was just speaking about power in dolphin and E8600 beats i7 920 here, thats all.

Dude, your talking benchmarks, rene is talking experience. He knows how much better and how much worse each of the cpus are... I dont understand how you can hide behind benchmarks instead of trusting someone who has actually tried the program with the cpus...

[Iulius]

he got a E8400 not E8600.

its about 10% slower without OC and around 500mhz lower clocked when overclocked (around 4ghz on average)

yes, i7 beats this cpu which costs around the half, i never doubted that.


again : im neither recommending an E8600 nor do i say i7 920 is crap.

my only point is that i7 920 is not the best choise for this money if you want it for dolphin only, which rene said.

but its probably the cpu you should buy if you want to spend this amount of money.

2 different things.

[THELUKESTIR]

(08-03-2009, 11:15 PM)Iulius Wrote: he got a E8400 not E8600.

its about 10% slower without OC and around 500mhz lower clocked when overclocked (around 4ghz on average)

yes, i7 beats this cpu which costs around the half, i never doubted that.


again : im neither recommending an E8600 nor do i say i7 920 is crap.

my only point is that i7 920 is not the best choise for this money if you want it for dolphin only, which rene said.

but its probably the cpu you should buy if you want to spend this amount of money.

2 different things.

He didnt say best for the money he said BEST

[abfab126]

Well i7 920 is NOT the best anyways , and stop talking for Rene ! You , Parot!