Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Thanks for all your answers, but I ordered the parts some days ago so now they are basically set on stone

I feel like I should answer the reason behind some of these parts:

* Firstly, the goal for this PC build is mainly running up as nice as possible current highest emulation, which is PCSX2 and Dolphin. I´m not the kind of gamer who needs to play the latest games, but I really want to be able to keep playing the games I love, without needing to keep all the consoles, pads, etc. I specially like being able to play all my games on one hardware and with the same controller. For example, I currently have 26 GC games, which I would like to be able to play as nice as possible from the PC, where they are not only running miles better than on original hardware, they also can be played easily with the rest of the emulated games, which can go as far as back to MSX, my first gaming machine. In other words, I won´t need to play on highest settings PC games from 2020, as long as I can actually play nearly all PC games from 2015-2020 at a decent speed, even if it´s at lower settings on things like shadows etc. Emulators basically need raw power, so I wanted good motherboard+CPU+RAM. Most of the other parts are for not being a bottleneck to them or being able to play PC games too good enough.

* That means I could get a better GPU, but it´s not really needed on this build and it´s one of the parts where I can spend less money. It´s one of the easiest parts to upgrade later, so if I really feel like I need something better on the future, I could always upgrade on later years, but I think I will keep using it for the next 5 years anyway.

* About HDD VS SSD, I was on the edge all the time, but I ended up getting HDD because:
- I feel current SSD are expensive for the low space they have.
- As far as I know, HDD are more stable and if SSD fail I could lose all the content on it. I truly hate having to reinstall everything if that happens.
- All my games run from a NAS, so I think the HDD and the network will already be a bottleneck for gaming and getting higher speeds with a SSD won´t help much on them.
- It´s a part I could upgrade easily if I want on the next years, when the price for the space is actually better, and clone whatever I have on HDD on that moment.
- Lastly, I didn´t know rpm was important and I just wanted to upgrade from SATA2 to SATA3. I would have gotten better if I knew, but it should be an improvement over my current build anyway and if it ends up being slower I will surely buy a SSD on the future.

Anyway, thanks again for all the comments, as thanks to them I know which are the worst parts of the build if I feel the need to upgrade better. Really thanks!!

SSDs are just as stable as HDDs now a days. If not more due to no moving parts. Yes, several years ago SSDs had stability problems due to OEMs being dumb, but they've stopped being dumb and risky with the firmware.

Just get small ssd 120-250 GB for operating system and programs that you want to load fast and hdd for games/roms/media.
You want an ssd for your operating system to run fast and boot fast.
If you only want it for older games and emulators than I don't see the reason to buy i7-4790K

Quote:HDD are more stable and if SSD fail I could lose all the content on it

Doesn't look like you ever own a SSD
I have several SSDs , the first Intel drive from 2009 is still working and not just that , its lifespan is 98% via Intel Toolbox (almost as new) . I only buy SSD from reliable brands like Intel and Toshiba (Toshiba is only good at SSD , their laptops are shit)
HDD is not reliable at all . I lost countless drive even though i was not even using them much (Yes , i was really mad ) . For the new era , SSD is getting cheaper and cheaper , soon it will replace HDD
I will replace all my 10TB HDD to 10TB SSD if SSD price drops by half

Nope, I haven´t gotten any SSD in the past... Crap, I was misinformed on them, I read in some places that they were still failing, and when they fail you lose everything on it. Is that still true at all?

I´ll probably get one soon, once they get just a little cheaper for GB, and get something like a 500GB one, as I don´t think I will ever need more for OS+programs.

(09-18-2015, 09:09 PM)z10m Wrote: [ -> ]If you only want it for older games and emulators than I don't see the reason to buy i7-4790K

I´ll play PC games too, just not necessarily the most recent ones, most demanding ones, or at highest settings (I mean: I will do it if I can, but if I can´t play at highest but I can play at 1080p 60fps, it´s ok for me). They are just not the priority, but I wanted the build to be high enough to run them for many years.

Quote: I read in some places that they were still failing, and when they fail you lose everything on it. Is that still true at all?

Yes , it would be true if you bought unreliable cheap SSD like OCZ . Their failing rates are so high that lead the company to Bankruptcy
Worst : OCZ
Average : Corsair , Adata , Kingston
Fair : Plextor , Samsung , Toshiba
Best : Intel
Latest Samsung SSD may be on par with Intel . However , all of my death HDD were made by Samsung . I hate them to the core
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/173887-ssd-stress-testing-finds-intel-might-be-the-only-reliable-drive-manufacturer
An Intel SSD can withstand 20GB of writes per day for 5 years . Ofcourse , if you do less than that , the lifespan will be longer , a decade or even longer .
Both read and write can affect HDD's lifespan . Actually , the moment you power up the HDD , you're starting to kill it slowly . However , for a SSD , only write can affect SSD's lifespan
There are two types of SSDs : SLC (single-layer cell) and MLC (multi-layer cell) . SLC is very expensive , it can withstand 10x times more than MLC . SLC can live longer than human life . Most SSD nowaday are MLC . If somehow people can produce cheap SLC SSD ....