Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hm, do you think it's a good idea to buy a second-hand computer off craigslist? Because my local listings have some people selling older gaming computers as well, and they seem to be in the same price range and some even have better processors. I'm just worried about scams and that "no-warranty" thing, and dropping $400 on something that might not work and I get ripped off (since Craigslist sales are always final). There are so many things to consider but I would have to miss a good, legitimate deal.

Like admin89 said, I'm having serious doubts about buying ANY secondhand computer. No warranty = not safe, it makes me think that I might be paying $400 for a piece of junk, and then I'll have to spend even more money to fix/replace it...

Tomorrow I will write the response, I swear.

Thank you for your patience. I'm still pissed that the PM didn't go through.

turtlefu Wrote:My friend offered to sell me his old gaming computer (he recently build a new one from scratch). The specs (according to him):
CPU: Phenom II X6 1100T
Cooler: Corsair H60 (he says there is also an arctic liquid GPU cooler, but I don't know what that means)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FX-UD3 (one USB and one e-sata port doesn't work)
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6970 2GB
RAM: 8GB Corsair Dominator GT 2133 MHz
PSU: Corsair GS800 800W Bronze
Storage: Corsair GT 120GB, 3 x 500 GB 7200 rpm HDD (he didn't say the brand)

He says he'd sell it to me for $450 since we're friends... do you think this is a good idea?

I know the 1100T is rather weak for Dolphin, but I figured even if I add a Haswell processor and motherboard it would still cost less than if I built it myself. Would the 1100T be able to play any games at full speed, such as the less demanding ones?

The less demanding ones sure. Even if you replace the motherboard and cpu at $450 that build is a steal just for other other stuff. Definitely keep the SSD, HDDs, PSU, ram, gpu, and AIO LCS (cooler). You didn't list which chassis he is providing though, that's important.

You then have three options the way I see it:
1. Keep the 1100T. This is the cheapest but slowest option. You could also wait for steamroller to be released in fall, though it looks like they may end up delaying it to spring 2014. With a bios update your motherboard would be able to use it.
2. Keep the motherboard, update the bios and buy an FX 8350 for $200. This is the medium price option. Faster than an 1100T but slower than an Intel cpu. This could be upgraded to steamroller down the road as well.
3. For $350 you could buy an Asus H87 motherboard and haswell i5 4670K. This is the fastest and priciest option. Steamroller will not be as fast as haswell for dolphin/pcsx2 I can promise you that.

It was recently announced that Asus H87 and B85 motherboards will have unlocked overclocking options for haswell K series cpus: http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/asus_haswell_processor_overclocking_for_h87_and_b85.html

Making that option cheaper and more attractive than before.

With the money saved from buying a used build from your friend you might also consider buying this audio card for your headphones for $110: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102048

turtlefu Wrote:Yeah, the lack of warranty is what makes me worry.

In 7+ years of building PCs I have never even had to use a warranty. As long as you pick quality parts they usually don't die for a very long time.

turtlefu Wrote:The parts most likely to break would be the PSU, GPU, CPU, whereas the RAM and storage should be OK.

The chances of your cpu dying are literally one in a million if you don't OC. Maybe 1 in ten thousand if you overclock properly. Broken cpus are virtually unheard of in the 21st century.

The number 1 cause of "defective" AMD cpus are bent pins. So just make sure that when you get it from him there aren't any bent pins.

turtlefu Wrote:The way I see it, I spend $450 and everything works great, or some things break that I have to replace (new CPU, motherboard, GPU, psu = $500, depending on which GPU I get), which is how much it would have costed me to build it from scratch anyways.

Even if half that stuff breaks somehow it will still be cheaper.

turtlefu Wrote:But from my understanding rarely does every component in a computer system break, it's usually only one or two things at a time.

It's usually 0. Sometimes 1. Very rarely 2.

turtlefu Wrote:Hm, do you think it's a good idea to buy a second-hand computer off craigslist? Because my local listings have some people selling older gaming computers as well, and they seem to be in the same price range and some even have better processors. I'm just worried about scams and that "no-warranty" thing, and dropping $400 on something that might not work and I get ripped off (since Craigslist sales are always final). There are so many things to consider but I would have to miss a good, legitimate deal.

Why not just buy from your friend? That seems a lot more reliable since you know him in person.

turtlefu Wrote:Like admin89 said, I'm having serious doubts about buying ANY secondhand computer. No warranty = not safe, it makes me think that I might be paying $400 for a piece of junk, and then I'll have to spend even more money to fix/replace it...

See above. You should always be extremely careful when buying from ebay or craigslist. But through a friend locally it should be fine.

What you should worry more about in Dolphin is the CPU, take a look at the benchmarks and get a good CPU http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html there are some very good ones that are not that expensive, if you need to cheap out on something get a mid-range graphics card like the gtx 550 ti, it's not very expensive and you will be able to play your games..as for the case that's really just eye candy..and you can always try to build one yourself there are tons of guides on how to build pc cases. I suggest getting a PSU of atleast 450w and 8GB of DDR3 RAM at 1600mhz which isn't really that expensive. A way you can also save money is to not buy a monitor but instead hook it up straight to your TV, get a decent mouse and keyboard but don't get the gaming ones like razer brand, mainly only pro gamers who participate in tournaments and stuff use those

That benchmark is useless since Dolphin is a dual core application , not a heavy multi-threaded application where those multi-core CPUs can shine
An old Xeon performs no where near an i3 in Dolphin...
With that said , An i7 4770k or i5 4670k will storm all CPUs in that list (especially when overclock)
There is Dolphin Benchmark here

Oh sorry didn't know there was a Dolphin benchmark, either way I dare to suppose that future Dolphin builds WILL support 4 cores?

(07-21-2013, 02:03 AM)linker357 Wrote: [ -> ]I dare to suppose that future Dolphin builds WILL support 4 cores?

AFAIK the answer is no

linker357 Wrote:either way I dare to suppose that future Dolphin builds WILL support 4 cores?

The developers have repeatedly explained why any further increase to multithreading would result in performance going down, not up. Thus they will not implement it as there is no point. It's never going to happen. You can search the forums for more thorough explanations.

I will, thank you either way Dolphin runs just fine as it is now, I dare say it's the best emulator out there

Because my friend isn't local (he's across the state) and he's selling the computer on Craiglist anyways. I wouldn't get any support either way and I'm not sure if I entirely trust him... (he's more like a friend of a friend. He's friends with the guy that gave me the older computer, I don't know him that well)
And the deals on Craiglist are better anyways, I saw a PC with a 3570K and 7770 Ghz for $50 cheaper.

I could get a Z87 and 4670K for $300. Getting an H87 doesn't seem worth it.