Greetings!
I have been rummaging through a bunch of old hardware that i've been replacing from my family's computers over the years and my workplace's e-waste and i came across some decent stuff that i could use to build an htpc/emulation machine for literally almost free, my main concern is which one of these processors would yield the best performance mainly in gamecube games, i already have one that has an AMD phenom II 955 that performs great but if i have the chance to use something that will draw less power, perform better and run cooler i'll definitely take it (will use a very old revision r7559):
AMD Phenom II 955 BE (The processor i'm currently using, works great at full speed in what i tested so far)
Core 2 Quad q8400 (According to cpu-world this one should have 6% better single threaded performance than the Phenom 955)
Core 2 Quad q9550 (15% better single thread performance)
Core 2 Duo e8600 (I do't have this one but i can buy one for very cheap from a hardware recycling company near me. Supposedly this one should have 35% better single thread performance than the q8400 but it seems a bit exaggerated, i expected better ipc but not THAT much, if that's the case i'm definitely picking it up)
I'm concerned that windows 10 might run a little crappy on the core 2 duo, in that case i'd just instal linux but i definitely prefer to have windows on it since i won't be the only one who's gonna use it and i'd rather not install windows 7 which is old and unsupported at this point although i could go for windows 8.1 and install some start menu mod)
I happen to also own a backwards compatible WII which looks pretty good through component but a higher resolution on pc hooked up through HDMI looks better (4k displays have nothing but disadvantages for retro junkies like me) and i appreciate having to manage less cables. This computer is going to be in the living room, i have my main workstation in my room and i'm not always going to play on it, plus i built it mostly for work.
Of course the best idea would be to use the q9550 since it would be free but that core 2 duo's performance on paper really surprised me, of course there's more to performance than just these estimate numbers but in the end i might probably buy it later on, test all three processors and upload the results somewhere.
Thank you in advance for reading!
I have been rummaging through a bunch of old hardware that i've been replacing from my family's computers over the years and my workplace's e-waste and i came across some decent stuff that i could use to build an htpc/emulation machine for literally almost free, my main concern is which one of these processors would yield the best performance mainly in gamecube games, i already have one that has an AMD phenom II 955 that performs great but if i have the chance to use something that will draw less power, perform better and run cooler i'll definitely take it (will use a very old revision r7559):
AMD Phenom II 955 BE (The processor i'm currently using, works great at full speed in what i tested so far)
Core 2 Quad q8400 (According to cpu-world this one should have 6% better single threaded performance than the Phenom 955)
Core 2 Quad q9550 (15% better single thread performance)
Core 2 Duo e8600 (I do't have this one but i can buy one for very cheap from a hardware recycling company near me. Supposedly this one should have 35% better single thread performance than the q8400 but it seems a bit exaggerated, i expected better ipc but not THAT much, if that's the case i'm definitely picking it up)
I'm concerned that windows 10 might run a little crappy on the core 2 duo, in that case i'd just instal linux but i definitely prefer to have windows on it since i won't be the only one who's gonna use it and i'd rather not install windows 7 which is old and unsupported at this point although i could go for windows 8.1 and install some start menu mod)
I happen to also own a backwards compatible WII which looks pretty good through component but a higher resolution on pc hooked up through HDMI looks better (4k displays have nothing but disadvantages for retro junkies like me) and i appreciate having to manage less cables. This computer is going to be in the living room, i have my main workstation in my room and i'm not always going to play on it, plus i built it mostly for work.
Of course the best idea would be to use the q9550 since it would be free but that core 2 duo's performance on paper really surprised me, of course there's more to performance than just these estimate numbers but in the end i might probably buy it later on, test all three processors and upload the results somewhere.
Thank you in advance for reading!