Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

This is my first post. I know this question has probably been answered THOUSANDS of times, but its hard to get a correct answer with people arguing all the time about which system would actually work. I really want to start using dolphin, and this friday I am planning on ordering parts to build a new system. Now, it is a budget system.

The parts I am interested in ordering are:

CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core E5400 (intending to overclock to at least 3.6ghz)
Motherboard: ASRock P43DE3 LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard
Graphics: GIGABYTE GV-R485ZL-512H Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX

I already have memory. 2 gigs of 667mhz ram.

Mainly the processor and graphics card are what I need opinions for.

If anyone could put in their 2 cents.... that would be great. Thanks!

The card could be overpowered for a pentium processor (though the e5200-400 does clock pretty good and could probably handle it without a bottleneck)

If I were you and on that similar budget, I'd buy:
a phenom II x4 quad core for the same money (6 dollars more)[1]
AM2 compliant mobo $49, cheaper than ASRock P43DE3 [2]

Then just overclock the processor, maybe the gpu if necessary. It's much better value for the money, will probably perform better and costs slightly less overall (plus you'd get 4 cores).
The gpu is fine though

Thanks for the quick response Ocean.

You dont think that the video card would go well with the e5400 at all?

I still have a lot of learning about all the new technologies that are out, I havnt built, or even messed around with computer hardware for a few years. Im sure the developers would be proud to hear that Dolphin is the reason I am building a new pc after 5+ years.

Anyway... Would you recommend a gpu that would go well with this processor, and also give me the ability to play wii/ngc games?

Thanks again, very much.

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Well... actually....

After reading your post a second time and some consideration, you seem to have the right idea for value. Looks like the x4 is more value. Its just.... I was browsing for benchmarks around the web, and the intel processors trumped almost all of the athlon processors ive seen.... on all tests.

Oh well.... ill take your word for it.

Thanks again for the help.