Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hi all,
I know there are a lot of threads on this topic, but have narrowed my P.C choice down to the following 3 systems for a gaming rig and Dolphin emu machine. I am going pre/custom built - rather than self-built, due to inexperience. I'm obviously aiming for maximum Dolphin performace.

The choices I have are:

System 1:From Palicomp - apologies for caps - taken straight fom site.

Processor (CPU): INTEL SANDYBRIDGE Core I5 2500K SKT1155 OVERCLOCKED SPEED = 4.5Ghz Per Core
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 PRO-B3 With P67 Chipset (NEW B3 VERSION)
3xPCI-E (16x), 2xPCI(1x) & 2xPCI & 32GB RAM Support BlueTooth
Memory: 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit
Hard Drive: SEAGATE/HITACHI 1TB SATA2, 7200 RPM
Optical Drive: SONY 24XDVD+/-RW Lightscribe & Dual Layer
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD5770 1GB OVERCLOCKED
Direct X11 & Pixel Shader 5 With VGA, DVI & HDMI OutputsCase: COOLERMASTER Elite330 Case & 750W PSU
PSU: 750W

System 2:Chillblast Fusion Mirage - Comes with best warranty!
CPU: 3.3 i5 2500k overclocked to 4.5ghz
Memory: 8gb, 1066mhz DDR3
GPU: Radeon Sapphire HD 6870 1gb
1tb hard disk

System 3: Cyber Power - Compact unit
CPU: Intel Core i5 760 2.8GHZ 8MB Cache LGA1156 - Overclocked to 3.5ghz
MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 Intel H55 Chipset DDR3 Mini-ITX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Audio,MEMORY: 4GB (2x2GB) PC12800 DDR3/1600mhz Dual Channel Memory
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX460 1GB 16X PCI Express
Hard Drive: 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16M Cache

System 4: Palincomp again
CPU: 3.3 i5 2500k overclocked to 4.8ghz
Memory: 4gb, 1066mhz DDR3
GPU: Radeon HD 6950 2gb
1tb hard disk


I'm leaning towards the Sandybridge powered machines, but wondered if anyone might add their 2 cents into the mix.
Cheers for your time.

Hard answering the question when we don't know the res your gaming at. Prices would be nice to list also. System 4 wins just by numbers, ram aside. Who knows if you'll ever need to use efb to ram, or high end card if your res is low. No point in wasting money. I hope System 4 doesn't have the old p67 board either.

Hi thanks for the reply.
System 2 m/board: Asus P8P67
System 4 m/board: gigabyte-gd-p67apud4 (so, the newer one essentially)

I'd be looking at knocking it up to the highest res: essentially 1080p, but 720p would be fine if not.

Budget wise I'm on around £800-900.

System 2 also comes with an amazing waaranty!

System 2 and 4 are all inclusive, monitor, windows etc. for £959 - they're the same price, but can knock £100 as I don't need a monitor - so essential £859 for either system 2 or 4.

System 1 is around £700

and 3 is around £850 due to to it being a mini-pc . So mainly listed this one for aesthetics really

I'm in the u.k fairly obviously so pices in pounds.

To be honest, Systems 2 and 4 have pretty slow RAM (1066mhz), whereas system 3 has the fastest RAM out there. I'd probably lean towards System 3, as that's something that I have/want to have. I think they'd all play Dolphin extremely well, so I don't think which one you choose would be bad.

2 or 4.

2 has a better warranty and more memory. 4 has a better video card. It's up to you to decide which one you would prefer.

The 4.8GHz overclock on 4 concerns me. Even on sandy bridge 4.8GHz can't be stable without a large increase in voltage. That makes me think it's a non-trustworthy brand.

2 and 4 are pretty evenly balanced price to performance.. so I'd go with 2 because of the warranty. Warranty can be worth something, provided that the shop is around to service it in the future.

#4 mainly because of the HD 6950 =]

(03-15-2011, 05:18 AM)LordBarker Wrote: [ -> ]Hi all,
I know there are a lot of threads on this topic, but have narrowed my P.C choice down to the following 3 systems for a gaming rig and Dolphin emu machine. I am going pre/custom built - rather than self-built, due to inexperience. I'm obviously aiming for maximum Dolphin performace.

The choices I have are:

System 1:From Palicomp - apologies for caps - taken straight fom site.

Processor (CPU): INTEL SANDYBRIDGE Core I5 2500K SKT1155 OVERCLOCKED SPEED = 4.5Ghz Per Core
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 PRO-B3 With P67 Chipset (NEW B3 VERSION)
3xPCI-E (16x), 2xPCI(1x) & 2xPCI & 32GB RAM Support BlueTooth
Memory: 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit
Hard Drive: SEAGATE/HITACHI 1TB SATA2, 7200 RPM
Optical Drive: SONY 24XDVD+/-RW Lightscribe & Dual Layer
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD5770 1GB OVERCLOCKED
Direct X11 & Pixel Shader 5 With VGA, DVI & HDMI OutputsCase: COOLERMASTER Elite330 Case & 750W PSU
PSU: 750W

System 2:Chillblast Fusion Mirage - Comes with best warranty!
CPU: 3.3 i5 2500k overclocked to 4.5ghz
Memory: 8gb, 1066mhz DDR3
GPU: Radeon Sapphire HD 6870 1gb
1tb hard disk

System 3: Cyber Power - Compact unit
CPU: Intel Core i5 760 2.8GHZ 8MB Cache LGA1156 - Overclocked to 3.5ghz
MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 Intel H55 Chipset DDR3 Mini-ITX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Audio,MEMORY: 4GB (2x2GB) PC12800 DDR3/1600mhz Dual Channel Memory
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX460 1GB 16X PCI Express
Hard Drive: 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16M Cache

System 4: Palincomp again
CPU: 3.3 i5 2500k overclocked to 4.8ghz
Memory: 4gb, 1066mhz DDR3
GPU: Radeon HD 6950 2gb
1tb hard disk


I'm leaning towards the Sandybridge powered machines, but wondered if anyone might add their 2 cents into the mix.
Cheers for your time.

(03-15-2011, 06:29 AM)Clusta Wrote: [ -> ]Hard answering the question when we don't know the res your gaming at. Prices would be nice to list also. System 4 wins just by numbers, ram aside. Who knows if you'll ever need to use efb to ram, or high end card if your res is low. No point in wasting money. I hope System 4 doesn't have the old p67 board either.

For the Dolphin emulator it isn't needed overclocking a Sandy Bridge, Core i7 2500k. The stock speed of a processor like this it's enough for full speed. For this and for the 2600k.

(07-04-2011, 12:14 AM)lacp Wrote: [ -> ]For the Dolphin emulator it isn't needed overclocking a Sandy Bridge, Core i7 2500k. The stock speed of a processor like this it's enough for full speed. For this and for the 2600k.

More or less YES, even with LLE.

When I bought my Sandybridge i7 2600K a while ago I overclocked it to 4.9GHz for shit's and giggles.
Then I discovered that the stock speed was more then enough for playing my games with Dolphin.

OC isn't everything, but it could be useful for weaker CPU's getting some extra juice from them yielding some extra FPS.

I vote for the sandybridge too