Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

In the near future i'll be basically constructing a "new" PC. By "new" I mean a new motherboard, CPU, memory, and anything else i'd need with a completely new motherboard. I could use some advice about certain parts as I have some questions.

I'm currently using a stock Dell Inspiron 546 with its original motherboard (microATX). I hope to be able to use the current Dell case and just swap out the current motherboard (an AM3 one) for a MicroATX Intel motherboard. I want to use at least an Ivy Bridge or perhaps Haswell in the future if that CPU turns out to be a good one for Dolphin. From what i've read it should be possible to swap out the motherboard for a new one, i've not seen anything to really contradict this being possible anyways. Though if anyone would like to weigh in and offer any advice i'd appreciate it. I'd rather use this current case if possible though, I don't have a lot of money to spend and would like to reuse as many components as I can.

For reference, here is a diagram of the current MicroATX AM3 motherboard inside the Inspiron 546-
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/sy...780_c9.jpg


As i'm looking to use my new components in Dolphin, i'll be overclocking. And to do that i'll need a decent heatsink. Though I'm unsure whether i'm going to have any trouble actually fitting the cooler inside the case i've got. It's not the slim design of 546 but it's also smaller than a standard ATX case. I couldn't find any dimensions of the case online so I measured by hand, the width is almost exactly 6.75 inches (which translates roughly to 171.45mm). I don't know exactly how much more thickness a motherboard plus a CPU would add to that though so I might not have much clearance.

Many of the coolers that people seem to recommend are around 160mm or taller. One specifically i've heard people mention is the Thermalright HR-02 Macho, which is said specifically to be 162mm tall. Would that cooler be able to fit in my case? There are smaller ones like the Cooler Master Hyper N520 (which I know nothing about). I'm not really sure whether I can find a decent cooler within my size restrictions. Any advice for smaller heatsinks that would provide good cooling for overclocked i5 models would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

If you want Ivy Bridge CPU , you should choose Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 or Pro 4. They're cheap and overclock just fine (i5 3570k @ 4.4GHz)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813157294
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813157306
Make sure you have decent PSU for it (For example : Antec 500W 80 Plus)
If you need a slim cooler , these ones will do the job :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6835103177
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6835103046
Noctua is very good cooler but it's abit pricey
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6835608019

Quote:memory

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820231314

Quote:Sapphire Radeon 7750

Stick to Direct3D9 backend and you'll be fine

Quote:perhaps Haswell in the future

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2241164

Thanks for the advice. I'm assuming those coolers are capable of getting an i5 3570k up to speeds enough for Dolphin and the more intensive games (like Mario Galaxy and such)? Enough to get it up to about 4.2 or a bit more anyways?

And yeah I knew Haswell would be another socket. I was just asking questions to determine whether i'd be able to fit in certain sizes of components. I wasn't aware any of those types of heatsinks would be able to do the job I would need them to. The only worry I have about Haswell is that I actually heard from several sources that old PCI slots may be done away with in its motherboards. If that happens i'll have to spend extra money on a new wireless card, i'm using an internal PCI one (not to mention the CPU itself might be considerably more expensive than Ivy)...

Power supply I will of course be getting too, i'm not going to get anywhere with the shitty dell 300watt one i've got now. I don't believe i should run into any issues getting a new PSU to install in my case.

D3D will be fine for now. I'll be using this same GPU until I can afford something better. I'm already using it for Dolphin and it can play every game i've thrown at it with 3x internal resolution fine. Just need to get a better CPU now. An even better gpu can come later if I need the extra power for PC games.

By the way (and I hate to be a noob but i've never really replaced a mobo before), what would be the consequences of instead of getting the motherboards you recommended, I went with an even cheaper model like this?-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813157325

Quote:Enough to get it up to about 4.2

up to 4.4GHz if you install the cooler correctly . 4.2GHz will be a piece of cake
Don't forget aftermarket thermal compound (Arctic MX-4)
If you're in US , you can get i5 3570k for only 190$ (at Microcenter.com) -> Save money for a better mobo

There aren't any Microcenter stores in my state or close to where I live unfortunately.

Regardless of what I end up getting, i'm probably at least going to wait until Haswell arrives to see how well it performs in Dolphin compared to Ivy. But I did want to get some of the other question I had answered well in advance.

Good to know about those heatsinks, I wasn't aware those varieties could cool adequately for getting Ivy up to 4.2 and greater.

(11-12-2012, 10:04 PM)admin89 Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote:Enough to get it up to about 4.2

up to 4.4GHz if you install the cooler correctly . 4.2GHz will be a piece of cake
Don't forget aftermarket thermal compound (Arctic MX-4)
If you're in US , you can get i5 3570k for only 190$ (at Microcenter.com) -> Save money for a better mobo

$190? The Micro Center near me sells that CPU for $170.

While you may have enough room, many dell cases are ridiculously poorly ventilated, so require some modification/extra case fans to keep good hardware cool. I't very possible that it may turn out easier to buy a new case as well, especially if you intend to overclock.

I will say that while I'm certainly no expert on PC cases, this case seems like it's much better ventilated than other Dells i've had in the past. Not to mention the build quality is better than any other Dell i've ever had. I've had experience with multiple Dells in the past, and I wouldn't have felt comfortable reusing them for new hardware. This is the first one i've felt might actually be sufficient. And despite feeling very sturdy, at the same time it's light weight and made of metal (only the front panel is plastic).

Ventilation wise there are air holes on one of the sides. There is also a rear case fan that came with it, below the top mounted PSU and pulling air out and away from the heatsink area.

Here's a picture of the side with the air holes-
http://www7.pcmag.com/media/images/21529...k-side.jpg

Back of the case (the fan is directly under the PSU)-
http://www8.pcmag.com/media/images/21529...k-back.jpg

Picture of the fan itself from the inside of the case-
http://www.redplanettrading.com/ebay/cas...an-800.jpg

I'd still probably at least try this case out at first and see whether it will do ok. If I get all the hardware installed and it proves insufficient for keeping an overclocked i5 properly cooled, then i'll look towards getting a different case.