I am wanting to buy this motherboard/CPU Combo:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...u=B69-4184
The CPU is a AMD Athlon II X4 630 Quad Core
I have 2 gigs of DDR2 ram and a geforce 8400 gs to go with it, would this setup be sufficient for near perfect wii emulation, and if not, what upgrade option should take priority? Ram, GFX, or Processor?
No. Under normal circumstances the cpu takes priority but in your case the gpu is the most in need of an upgrade. An 8400GS is a long way away from enough for most games. The CPU is DECENT, not great but not crap either. 2GB of ram is enough for running dolphin in vista/7 but just barely. If you have a lot of background processes running or you have any background services/applications running that use a decent amount of memory than you will need more, otherwise 2GB is enough. Depending on your resolution you will probably want a 9800GT if you're going with nvidia or a 5670 if your going with ati.
(09-16-2010, 04:01 PM)NaturalViolence Wrote: [ -> ]No. Under normal circumstances the cpu takes priority but in your case the gpu is the most in need of an upgrade. An 8400GS is a long way away from enough for most games. The CPU is DECENT, not great but not crap either. 2GB of ram is enough for running dolphin in vista/7 but just barely. If you have a lot of background processes running or you have any background services/applications running that use a decent amount of memory than you will need more, otherwise 2GB is enough. Depending on your resolution you will probably want a 9800GT if you're going with nvidia or a 5670 if your going with ati.
Oh I will be using XP or Ubuntu, not vista/7, so my processor and ram should play everything perfectly for the most part with a 9800 gt? or should I consider uping the processor to a Athlon II X4 645 Quad Core Processor - 3.10GHz?
Quote:Oh I will be using XP or Ubuntu, not vista/7, so my processor and ram should play everything perfectly for the most part with a 9800 gt? or should I consider uping the processor to a Athlon II X4 645 Quad Core Processor - 3.10GHz?
Let me make this perfectly clear. Nothing runs everything fullspeed, no matter how good your hardware is you will never get fullspeed on ALL of your games ALL the time. That cpu should get decent speed with most games but I would strongly advise you get a 720 or higher if you have the money, the extra cache will help a little bit. As for the gpu, yes, a 9800GT should be more than enough for nearly every game (although this depends on what your screen resolution is).
(09-17-2010, 01:38 AM)CorySpaceCowboy Wrote: [ -> ]Oh I will be using XP or Ubuntu, not vista/7, so my processor and ram should play everything perfectly for the most part with a 9800 gt? or should I consider uping the processor to a Athlon II X4 645 Quad Core Processor - 3.10GHz?
Overclock.
Also, under XP, things will be slow: it's 32-bit. DO NOT touch XP x64. I went from that to Vista 64, and because of it thought Vista was the best, most stable OS ever..... and it was in comparison.
Sorry to keep posting random questions, I almost have about $300 saved up though, and I'm wanting to no regret the purchase. Plus, I just found out dolphin only supports dual core, so would something cheaper like the AMD Phenom II X2 555 Dual Core Processor - 3.20GHz and 6MB Cache actually be alot wiser of a decission? Or would someone just go ahead and tell the best processor for this for around <$150 off tiger direct.
Depends if your using just dolphin and only dolphin (absolutely nothing else). I would still recommend a triple core so that background processes can run on a separate core (it will give you a small speedup).