GameCube min

[Theredbaron]

I have no doubt this has been asked before, but when I searched I got 36 pages. I did look through them, but I guess I missed it, so I have to ask again of you guys.

I am on a vary limited budget. Till last week, my only computer was a little 900mhz one. But I have started building one now, don't even have a case yet, it is just sitting on my tvstand.
So far I have
AMD Athlon II X2 2.8GHz
Nvidia gForce 5500 OCed to 333mhz (old used one from last comp that died)
1gb Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600

What do I need for GC emulation? I don't really care about Wii, they look cool enough, but I only have/had a GC, and have lots of games laying around. What do I need to get to play GC games. I really miss my Cubivore's.

I know, from the last time I had a comp that the 5500 is just no where near enough, so what is the cheapest card I can get that will let me play my collection of GC games? Do I need more ram right now?

Also, is there any recommended sound cards? I have a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live 5.1 PCI, but I only got that cause the game port. Got'sa have my Gravis pads working

[Anti-Ultimate]

At first we'd like to know your motherboard.

[Ocean]

Since your mobo runs ddr3 memory @1600mhz, I'd assume it's fairly advanced.

The best 'budget' card for you would probably be a radeon 5570 if you insist on cheap price (under $100 or so)
It will cost about $70 to $80 and will run GC games at decent speeds

nvidia is ok too but can't say there's anything in their low-range selection I'd recommend at all.
ATI has that section of the market covered pretty well (as well as the ultra-high end)

[Theredbaron]

Sorry, I completely forgot about that.
I have an el'cheapo ASRock M3A770DE.

The cheapest mobo I could find that used AM3, and DDR3. That way no matter what I upgrade, I can still use the old, whatever.

[FloW3184]

looks like you are using only 1 ram slot with 1GB ddr3-ram...
this is not good for dolphin...
you should use at least 2x1GB
first: because you will need more than 1GB to run it
and
second: you will have a greater speedup because dolphin needs alot of ram bandwith
(2x 1GB ram = dualchannel interface = 2x the bandwith of 1 ram module)

better use 2x1GB 1333Mhz instead of 1x1GB 1600Mhz

ah... and btw:
geforce FX (5xxx) is not supported by dolphin
better use a motherboard with onboard HD3200 or HD3300.

search for this mobo: ASRock M3A790GMH/128M (only 5 Euro more expensive than the one you chose... in germany at least... ^^)

this onboard would be faster than that geforce 5500 anyway ^^

[Theredbaron]

Dang, I wish I had seen that mobo before. I would have liked that much better.

So I need to go with at least a 5570, but a 5770 would be much better. I guess what one I get will depend on how much I get paid this week, the more the company makes, the more I do (family business).
Then get at least another slot of Kingston HyperX 1GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600, to get the dualchannel interface.

With this, added to what I already have, I should be able to play Cubivores again?