Emulator Dedicated Machine

[Sky93]

Hey everyone, i am building a computer PURLEY for running emulators, and from what i can tell Dolphin is the most strenuous emulator out at the moment, so i want to build the system around running Dolphin at the best possible performance.

I have a spare AM3 socket mobo, and a spare 4870, so i would preferr to take advantage of these two peices of hardware, so at the moment my build is as follows:

CPU: AMD PhenomII X4 965 Black Ed
MOBO: GA-MA790X-UD4P
GPU: ATI 4870 1GB
RAM: 2gig DDR2

Now, any further advice would be great (my computer is running an AMD dual core 4800 so i cant do too much testing D: hah)

[Sky93]

(09-16-2010, 08:48 PM)Sky93 Wrote: Hey everyone, i am building a computer PURLEY for running emulators, and from what i can tell Dolphin is the most strenuous emulator out at the moment, so i want to build the system around running Dolphin at the best possible performance.

I have a spare AM3 socket mobo, and a spare 4870, so i would preferr to take advantage of these two peices of hardware, so at the moment my build is as follows:

CPU: AMD PhenomII X4 965 Black Ed
MOBO: GA-MA790X-UD4P
GPU: ATI 4870 1GB
RAM: 2gig DDR2

Now, any further advice would be great (my computer is running an AMD dual core 4800 so i cant do too much testing D: hah)

Pleeassee, i am really new with emulators and any advice would be soo good!

[Ocean]

There's not much really to say, your will probably run all games at either high speeds (mario galaxy, zelda) or full speed (about all other games).
Maybe it will struggle with highly scaled resolutions (like 1080p scaled to x4-x6) on pcsx2 emu but you can emulate anything on that rig

I'd get 3 or 4gb of RAM just in case though. Optional, since dolphin & windows 7 itself wont consume much, but just in case.

If money is not an issue go even further and buy a 5870 if you really want to max out all emulators and games

[NaturalViolence]

I agree with ocean. If you want to run ALL games at 1920 x 1080 with 4xSSAA you may need a 5870 but most games (probably about 98%) should be fine with a 4870 even at 1920 x 1080 with 4xSSAA. Otherwise it's perfect already.

[zurginator]

If you are ONLY going to be doing emulation, get a Phenom II x2. It'll be cheaper, and perform exactly the same, Dolphin (and every other emulator I currently know of) only uses 2 threads.

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:If you are ONLY going to be doing emulation, get a Phenom II x2. It'll be cheaper, and perform exactly the same, Dolphin (and every other emulator I currently know of) only uses 2 threads.

Well having a third core for background services nets a considerable increase in dolphin so if he has the money......

[Sky93]

Cheers for the replys everyone, its good to know

I only chose the 4x because that was pretty much the only Phenom that my local stores are still selling hah.

Will i need an overclock do you think? or will i be able to run on stock cooling.

[NaturalViolence]

You won't NEED to overclock, but you still should, every little bit helps. Most games should run fine even at stock clock rates but some games will benefit substantially from overclocking.